You have to give credit where it is due & I got to give it to the Obama administration in this instance.It may only be a small step,but it is certainly better than the Bush doctrine of mandatory detention.
Quote:
Some undocumented immigrants swept up on minor charges such as fishing without a license won’t face federal detention. Instead, they’ll be released on their own recognizance under an Obama administration directive to a Nashville, Tenn., sheriff who charged 6,000 people with immigration crimes over the past 2-1/2 years.
The “release on recognizance” order by Immigration and Customs Enforcement – a branch of the US Department of Homeland Security – could affect at least some of the 66 US law enforcement jurisdictions that are part of a controversial program which, in essence, deputizes local police to act as de facto immigration agents.
The directive, made earlier this month, is the result of overcrowding in federal prisons, but also ties into a broader, ongoing review of the program, known as 287(g), and its impact on immigrant communities.
“There hasn’t been a [policy] change: ICE always puts a priority on criminal aliens who pose a national security threat,” says Matt Chandler, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman in Washington. But he acknowledges: “We are taking a deep, hard look at the program.”
The sheriff who received the ICE email earlier this month, Davidson County’s Daron Hall, says that it’s been standard practice over the past three years to detain most undocumented workers apprehended under the 287(g) program until their immigration court hearing.
Releasing nondangerous detainees could take a bite out of the 287(g) program, experts say. Pre-2006 studies showed that about 85 percent of illegal immigrants released on bond did not show up for their court date.
Releasing those who pose little criminal threat is a sign of shifting priorities on immigration policy in Washington, some say.
“There’s definitely a change in focus,” says Michelle Waslin, senior policy analyst at the Immigration Policy Center in Washington. “[The Obama administration] is reasserting federal control over immigration reform.”
President Obama is scheduled to meet Thursday with congressional leaders about immigration reform.
