New ICE policy may affect many in South Florida

By Willard Shepard
NBCMIAMI.com
updated 2 hours 49 minutes ago

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Miami-Dade resident Marco Lesina thought he would be sent back to Peru and separated from his wife and daughter because of his status as an illegal immigrant.

But his attorney says Lesina is one of many people benefiting from a recent directive that came from the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where non-threatening illegal immigrants who are caught could be given a court date and set free instead of being incarcerated. “Its less drama for the family and for the children,” Mayra Joli, Lesina’s immigration attorney said. Last month, Lesina got a speeding ticket and his driver’s license was expired. Instead of being sent to an immigration detention center to be deported after nine years in the United States, he says authorities let him go and gave him a court date to appear before a judge. He is supposed to either show up or voluntarily leave the country. In the new policy, agents are given a page full of factors to evaluate. Some factors taken into account include: Has the now illegal alien been in the military? Do they have family members in the military? Have they served in combat? Are they in the U.S. illegally but pursuing an education? In the directive, ICE Director John Morton writes that the agency "is confronted with more administrative violations that its resources can address , the agency must regularly exercise "prosecutorial discretion' if it is to prioritize its efforts." "When ICE favorably exercises prosecutorial discretion, it essentially decides not to assert the full scope of the enforcement authority available to the agency in any given case," the directive said. It also said that it is preferable to exercise such discretion as early as possible. Joli said that even local police, not under the control of ICE, are getting word from the law enforcement community about the change. Former federal prosecutor Chris Mancini said this is a major change in the immigration history of the U.S. Mancini, now a Fort Lauderdale attorney, says as long as supervisors back field agents, more illegal immigrants will be released. He said the sweeping change is seen as a political move by some agents in an effort to gather primarily Hispanic votes. “Does it look like there are politics involved ? Absolutely, there’s politics. But immigration is a major problem that the Congress is not fixing,” Mancini said. Morton is aware of the criticism over the change and says he will take it head on.

Click on this link to learn more about the policy change.

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hope rednecks get wiped out by hurricanes

I don't wish death upon nobody. But perhaps some people in here that do should be deported

However, you still wish ill upon someone. That's quite interesting.

hmm good catch.

Good news.