From Fierce Government:
More than a mere 1,500 undocumented immigrants are eligible for prosecutorial discretion at the hands of deportation officials, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency clarified in a March 9 email (.pdf) sent to members of Congress
Read more: ICE: About 8% of cases potentially subject to prosecutorial discretion - FierceHomelandSecurity http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.com/story/ice-about-8-cases-potentially-subject-prosecutorial-discretion/2012-03-15?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1pDzVAyGJ
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ICE: About 8% of cases potentially subject to prosecutorial discretion
More than a mere 1,500 undocumented immigrants are eligible for prosecutorial discretion at the hands of deportation officials, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency clarified in a March 9 email (.pdf) sent to members of CongressThe email, first made public by the American Immigration Council, states that as of March 5, 13,190 immigration cases under review by ICE and other DHS attorneys are "provisionally amenable to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion, pending the results of background checks." That figure is 7.97 percent of the 165,471 cases the email says have undergone review. The percentage of cases ICE says are provisionally amenable to prosecutorial distriction in which an individual is not in jail or prison is 9.26 percent.
ICE Director John Morton told a House Appropriations subcommittee on March 8 that an ICE review of about half of the 300,000 extant illegal immigrations cases has so far resulted in the administrative closure of about 1,500 of them. The vast majority of closed cases concern people who are very long-term residents or who have a American citizen spouse or child, he added.
That low number of case closures--approximately 1,500--led many to worry that prosecutorial discretion would be extended to only a tiny sliver of illegal immigrants. The prosecutorial discretion policy holds that personnel should take into account factors such as educational attainment, criminal history, age and circumstances of arrival in the United States when enforcing immigration law. The Obama administration has said it wants to prioritize the removal of alien criminals and threats to national security.
"Of course, the revised figures still beg the question why deportation proceedings have been formally suspended in only 1,500 cases," notes American Immigration Council staff attorney Ben Winograd in a blog post.
He posits four possible reasons, including the necessity of passing a background check before the provision offer of prosecutorial discretion becomes final, the requirement that prosecutorial discretion receive approval from an immigration judge, the fact that illegal immigrants not represented by attorneys may not receive an offer until they appear in person in court, and the possibility that an undocumented immigrant may reject an offer of prosecutorial discretion in favor of going before a judge, such as in cases of an application for asylum.
Read more: ICE: About 8% of cases potentially subject to prosecutorial discretion - FierceHomelandSecurity http://www.fiercehomelandsecurity.com/story/ice-about-8-cases-potentially-subject-prosecutorial-discretion/2012-03-15?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal#ixzz1pDzVAyGJ
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