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Officials are reportedly weighing a proposal that would give more freedom to expedite deportations. Video provided by Newsy Newslook

In this Feb. 9, 2017, photo provided U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE agents at a home in Atlanta, during a targeted enforcement operation aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens.(Photo: Bryan Cox, AP)

Arrests of undocumented immigrants by federal agents increased in June, but deportations fell to their lowest point this year as the nation's court system sees bigger backlogs, according to data released Monday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

ICE agents arrested 13,914 people last month, following a trend since President Trump took office in January and his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration.

In the final three months of the Obama administration, ICE averaged 9,134 arrests per month. That number has steadily increased under Trump, with the agency averaging 13,085 each month from February through June.

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The Trump administration has not turned those arrests into more deportations, however, as those numbers keep falling.

In the final three months of the Obama administration, the agency averaged 22,705 deportations per month. That number has consistently fallen under Trump, with the agency averaging 16,895 from February through June, reaching its lowest point in June.

ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan recently said the drop in deportations is because of the backlog in federal immigration courts and the lengthy time to process each case. The number of cases waiting to be completed has surpassed 610,000 through June, according to the TRAC research project at Syracuse University.

Immigration courts have long been overburdened, with regular deportation cases taking up to two years to complete because of the volume of cases. The Trump administration has added to that backlog by arresting more people and cutting back on the Obama administration policy of allowing undocumented immigrants to be free on bond as they await their court hearings.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has dispatched 25 more immigration judges to detention centers along the southwest border with Mexico and wants to addmore. The Justice Department's goal is to hire 50 immigration judges this year and 75 in the following year.

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Immigration arrests up 38% nationwide under Trump

Trump's immigration stance fuels opposition with millions in donations and volunteers

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Immigration arrests up, deportations down under Trump - USA TODAY

AUSTIN, Texas Several Texas counties have found a way to profit from working with federal immigration officials in tracking and detaining immigrants who are living in the country illegally.

Eight counties have joined a federal program that allows sheriff's deputies to become certified immigration officers. Four of those counties along with six others not in the certification program allow federal agents to stash detained immigrants in their jails, the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday.

At least 16 counties nationwide participate in both programs. Lubbock County recently started having deputies certified as immigration officers under a program named 287(g) for the law that created it. It also collects $65 daily per immigrant it houses after detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

With federal pressure on illegal immigration growing, immigrant advocates worry that more counties will act to participate in both programs. The setup is a "perverse financial incentive," said Mary Small, policy director of the Washington-based Detention Watch Network.

Walker County, where Huntsville is located, responded to an embarrassing jail escape by issuing $20 million in bonds in 2012 to build a new jail. The county's sheriff department vowed to find new revenue sources to help defray the cost of the new lockup and locked onto working with ICE.

"It allows them to control the pipeline of people into the detention facility where they're then paid per day to detain people," Small said.

As far as ICE is concerned, though, the programs provide "an invaluable force multiplier" for immigration agents, said ICE spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez.

"The two processes are distinct and governed separately," Rodriguez said.

The Texas counties participating in both are Lubbock, Walker, Montgomery and Smith counties. Participants in the intergovernmental service agreement under which ICE detainees are placed on ice in county jails are Randall, Johnson, Polk, Burnet, Maverick and Hidalgo counties.

At least one sheriff, Ed Gonzalez of Harris County, ended his office's 287(g) participation because of cost, noting that the 10 deputies who worked on the program had salaries totaling $675,000.

But Lubbock County Sheriff Kelly Rowe rejects the notion that his county's participation in both programs is a money grab.

"These conversations get a little frustrating with 287(g) having something to do with doing work site raids or plucking family members out of their homes," he said. "We ultimately catch a lot of guys in that net (of checking county jail inmates' immigration status), but that's not because we're out there looking for immigration. We're out there looking for the hundreds of pounds of narcotics that's entering our community weekly."

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Information from: Austin American-Statesman, http://www.statesman.com

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Federal government pays Texas counties to track immigrants - Fox News

Ever since Donald Trump was elected, Melody Klingenfuss has known her time in the United States could be limited.

The 23-year-old has temporary immigration relief under President Obamas landmark Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which seemed imperiled amid Trumps vowed crackdown on illegal immigration.

But instead of clear policy, Klingenfuss and thousands of other DACA recipients have faced mixed messages, contradictory leaks and a lack of clarity about their future. Inside the administration, there has been talk of deportations, only to have the president himself sound a less dire tone.

Its been very typical of this administration to give really good news and follow it with really bad news, Klingenfuss said. We really dont know if they are going to change their minds the next day.

The sense of dread began to ramp up again last week when Texas attorney general and nine other Republican-led states threatened to sue the Trump administration over DACA.

Then, Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly told lawmakers the federal government might not defend DACA in court.

If the threatened lawsuit goes forward and is successful, Klingenfuss and more than 750,000 other beneficiaries known as Dreamers would be at risk. All were brought to the country at young ages and dont have legal status.

But as he has before, Trump seemed to indicate a softer tone on Thursday, saying he, and not his subordinates, would personally decide the future of the Obama administration program.

"Its a decision that I make, and its a decision thats very very hard to make. I really understand the situation now," Trump said. "I understand the situation very well. What Id like to do is a comprehensive immigration plan. But our country and political forces are not ready yet.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to immediately end DACA. But in recent months, he has said Dreamers "shouldn't be very worried" and described them as these incredible kids.

The lack of clarity has sparked frustration from Dreamers as well as anti-illegal immigration activists, who are demanding Trump make good on his promised deportations, including an end to DACA.

Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

Melody Klingenfuss still believes DACA is under threat like never before.

Melody Klingenfuss still believes DACA is under threat like never before. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

Despite the presidents softening language, Klingenfuss still believes DACA is under threat like never before.

She came legally to the U.S. from Guatemala at age 9 and fell out of legal status when she overstayed her tourist visa. Klingenfuss, who earned a masters degree from USC, now is an immigrant and youth organizer with Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights Los Angeles.

This is a very scary time for people, said Adrian Reyna, director of membership at United We Dream, an immigrant rights organization that advocates for immigrant youth.

Reyna, who lives in Oakland and is a DACA recipient like his two younger sisters, said he had a serious conversation Thursday morning with his mother about the future of the program.

There is a sense of comfort in knowing that your kids are fine and not going to be a target for deportation, Reyna said. So its not just the lives of Dreamers but lives of their parents that are really impacted at this moment.

Karla Estrada, a DACA recipient who runs two Facebook pages devoted to those in her situation, said: Some are even contemplating going back to their country of origin. There is a lot of sadness but anger, also.

A petition in support of DACA she launched on Wednesday garnered more than 6,000 signatures in less than an hour.

The community is usually pretty apathetic, so this sort of thing is very rare, to be honest, she said. But they now see an actual immediate danger.

Estrada said she and others are concerned that the DACA program will meet a similar fate as that of the expansion of the program that Obama created three years ago, which was blocked by the courts.

Those like Klingenfuss DACA recipients who are given a social security number and work permit are arguably the most politically sympathetic in the often vitriolic immigration debate.

We have young people who have developed American identities and American dreams and gone to American schools and live in American communities and breathed our American dream mythology and have become Americans, said Jerry Kammer, a senior research fellow for Center for Immigration Studies.

Kammer believes DACA should be challenged in the courts and questions the programs legality, but nevertheless can see its benefits for the recipients.

DACA is only a temporary reprieve that addresses a small subset of the 11 million who are here without legal status. While immigrant rights advocates argue it did not go far enough, it has been the biggest immigration policy gain in more than a decade.

Roberto Gonzales, Harvard University sociologist who has been studying DACA and its recipients throughout the nation, believes the Trump administration recognizes that ending the program would pose a political risk.

To cut the program and force these young people back into the shadows seems inhumane and counter to what this country stands for, Gonzales said. It could also have the effect of galvanizing a group of young people who proved to be effective in protesting against elected officials.

Many anti-illegal immigration activists have long condemned the program, questioning its constitutionality. They are now voicing discontent with Trumps unwillingness to phase it out.

For me, DACA is one big problem in the administration. [Trump] is actually reneging on a promise, said Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that is fighting illegal immigration and wants more restrictions on legal immigration.

Luis Serrano-Taha, a DACA recipient who lives in Los Angeles, said DACA was always a double-edged sword.

Serrano-Taha was part of a group of activists that participated in sit-ins and protests that ultimately helped push Obama to pass the executive action that created the program.

After the win, Serrano-Taha said some DACA recipients became complacent and stopped fighting for others left behind by the program, despite the growing numbers of deportations during the Obama administration.

People built their lives and careers and did not think about the fragility of DACA, he said. Others forgot about the larger immigration picture.

It created a sense of entitlement, Serrano-Taha said. DACA has always been in danger, ever since it started. This should be a wake-up call. Its a reality check.

cindy.carcamo@latimes.com

Follow Cindy Carcamo on Twitter @thecindycarcamo

Link:
Mixed message from Trump on DACA sparks frustration from Dreamers as well as critics of illegal immigration - Los Angeles Times

As a candidate and then as president, Donald Trump has shown as troubling propensity to vacillate, flummoxing his critics and supporters alike. But on one issue Trump has stood relatively firm: immigration.

Trump has exhibited that resolve by sustaining his rhetoric to build a wall along Americas southern border and with orders to send back those who entered the country illegally, and by fighting for his proposed moratorium, recently upheld in part by the U.S. Supreme Court, on visitors from six majority-Muslim nations prone to support, condone, or harbor terrorists.

Critics have relentlessly lambasted Trump on these ideas, disparaging him as a racist, a nativist, a xenophobe, and a religious bigot, if not an outright hater of foreigners and Muslims.

But in recent days two immigration-related story lines have emerged to demonstrate that Trumps critics have misjudged his policies even if they will never admit it.

On July 5, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency deported a Boston resident named John Cunningham. Cunningham initially came to America in 1999 on a 90-day visa to work for the summer. He never left. By overstaying his temporary visa, Cunningham became an illegal immigrant, although by all reports he was in all other respects a law-abiding and model Boston resident.

Why is this significant? Cunningham is white, and earlier this month was deported back to his native Ireland.

"People are very, very concerned and lying low," Ronnie Millar, Cunninghams friend and the head of the Boston-based Irish International Immigrant Center, told the Associated Press. "The message is that if it can happen to John, it can happen to anyone." And by anyone he presumably meant any of the 50,000 Irish citizens who the Irish embassy estimates are living illegally in the U.S., mostly concentrated in Boston, New York and Chicago.

The AP referenced the Cunningham case in highlighting the Trump administrations hard line on illegal immigrants from Europe.

Between the beginning of this fiscal year on Oct. 1 through June 24, the AP reported on Tuesday, the government has deported more than 1,300 European illegals the bulk of which came from Romania, Britain, Spain, Poland and Russia. While President Barack Obama remained in office for nearly the first four months of that time, this figure suggests Trump has implemented a get-tough policy because ICE deported just 1,450 illegal immigrants from Europe during all of fiscal year 2016.

Its certainly true that the number of Europeans deported is relatively small compared to the number of Latin Americans, including Mexicans, shipped home during that time. Mexicans, for instance, make up 93,000 of the 167,000 people deported over that same time span, the AP reported. But the Europeans share of the overall illegal immigrant population is much smaller. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that Europeans comprise just 440,000 of the 11 million illegals living in the United States.

The second story surfaced on Wednesday.

A federal judge in Michigan temporarily halted the governments planned deportation of roughly 1,400 Iraqis from around the country who reportedly had criminal records, some dating back three decades.

Why is this significant? Well, at least 114 of them, and possibly dozens more, according to news accounts, are Chaldeans, which is a sect of the Catholic Church in the Middle East. In short, they are Christians. And much like those Irish illegal immigrants in Boston, these pockets of Iraqis are fearful of being exposed, caught and deported.

We call attention to these developments to point out that federal agents on the ground have taken Trump at his word about curtailing illegal immigration, and that the presidents policy is being carried out regardless of race or religious persuasion. As Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an immigrant-rights group, told the AP, "It's pretty clear ICE is removing anyone undocumented they come across."

Laws are meaningless unless they are enforced and enforced fairly and across the board without heed to who is being affected by it.

Trumps critics are free to argue that this crackdown is unnecessary, wrongful, or hurtful to individuals and communities. But recent events suggest they should stop promoting the fiction that Trump is out to get one particular race or religion.

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Our Viewpoint: Get-tough immigration stance applied to all - Gainesville Sun

Activist Dolores Huerta claims that California needs to enact the California Values Act, Senate Bill 54 (SB 54), as a counterweight to Texass draconian law banning sanctuary cities in that state and President Donald TrumpDonald TrumpFox News host defends Trump Jr.: I'd meet with the Devil for opposition research Officials clash at FEC over confronting Russian influence in 2018 elections Lewandowski: Great Russian spies wouldnt bring 8 people to a meeting MOREs xenophobic agenda to deport millions of people.

I disagree. While I can understand why Huerta dislikes Texass sanctuary city law, it is an exaggeration to call it draconian. And Trump is just enforcing immigration provisions that were written by Congress and signed into law by previous presidents. If those laws are xenophobic, the solution is to lobby Congress to change them.

Making California a sanctuary state will not stop Trumps enforcement efforts. But it would violate federal law and make California ineligible for certain types of federal grants.

Legislative Counsels Digest of SB 54.

SB 54 would repeal existing law which requires the police to notify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when there is reason to believe that a person arrested for a violation of specified controlled substance provisions may be an alien.

It would, with some exceptions, prohibit state and local law enforcement agencies from using their resources to investigate, detain, or arrest persons for immigration enforcement purposes.

The law would direct the California Attorney General to publish model policies on limiting assistance with immigration enforcement and designated entities, such as state and local police, would be required to follow them.

It would encourage other entities that provide services related to physical or mental health and wellness, education, or access to justice, including the University of California, to adopt the model policies.

And the bill would require the Board of Parole Hearings and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to notify ICE of the scheduled release of persons confined to state prisons for the conviction of a violent or serious felony.

SB 54 would violate federal law.

In 1996, Congress sought to end immigration related information-sharing restrictions with a provision in the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act.

The provision, 8 U.S.C. 1373,does not require state or local government entities to share immigration-related information with federal immigration authorities.

It just provides that no person or agency may prohibit, or in any way restrict, a federal, state, or local government entity from doing any of the following with respect to information regarding the immigration status of any individual:

Effort to ensure that state and local governments comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373.

Trumps Executive Order 13768, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,requires the attorney general and the DHS secretary, to the extent consistent with law, to ensure that jurisdictions which willfully refuse to comply with 8 U.S.C. 1373 do not receive specified types of federal grants.

Attorney General Jeff SessionsJeff SessionsImmigration activists fear for future of Dreamers program AT&T, Time Warner hit bumps on way to merger California's 'sanctuary state' bill is illegal, but also ineffective MORE implemented this provision on May 22, 2017, with a memorandum stating that the Department of Justice will require jurisdictions applying for certain types of department grants to certify their compliance with federal law, including 8 U.S.C. 1373.

SB 54 is not an effective way to help undocumented aliens.

The California bill would just withhold cooperation, and there are so many undocumented aliens living in California that ICE doesnt need help to find them. According to the PEW Research Center, California had 2,350,000 undocumented aliens in 2014. It had more undocumented aliens than any other state, which can be attributed in part to Californias sanctuary policies.

To the extent that sanctuary practices draw undocumented aliens to a city or state, it makes it easier for ICE to find them.

ICE is sure to give priority to California when it implements the expanded expedited removal proceedings Trump authorized in his Executive Order, Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements.

In expedited removal proceedings, undocumented aliens are deported without a hearing before an immigration judge if they cannot establish that they have been in the United States for two years, unless they can establish a credible fear of persecution.

A better way.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel found a better way to help. He established a Legal Protection Fundfor undocumented aliens living in Chicago.

Once undocumented aliens are in expedited removal proceedings, they are subject to mandatory detention and cannot be represented by an attorney; but they can be helped by attorneys before they are in such proceedings.

When appropriate, attorneys can assist them in putting together the evidence they will need to establish that they have been in the United States for more than two years, or that they have a credible fear of persecution, if they find themselves in expedited removal proceedings.

This would help many undocumented aliens without violating any federal law or making California ineligible for needed federal funds.

Nolan Rappaport was detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an executive branch immigration law expert for three years; he subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

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California's 'sanctuary state' bill is illegal, but also ineffective - The Hill (blog)