The Donald Trump administration managed to reopen between March and May more than 1,300 cases of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) who had been closed for not being considered a priority for deportation, reported The Hill. Some cases have been reopened for traffic violations or simply to seek a change of opinion in immigration judges, The Hill added.
DACA, Legal and Illegal Immigrants Are Being Deported by The Hundreds
Between 1 March and 31 May this year, federal authorities were able to reopen more than 1,300 cases that had been closed because DACA recipients were considered to be immigrants who were not a priority to deport them, the media reported, relying on A Reuters agency analysis of the data collected by the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR).
DACA Recipients Are in Higher Risks for Deportation Under Trump
That figure of more than 1,300 reopened cases is more than 300 percent higher than the 430 cases reopened by immigration courts between March and May last year, according to that analysis.
The EOIR data do not specify the reasons for reopening cases. However, The Hill said that this dramatic increase in reopened cases is closely tied to the decree Trump signed five days after sworn in as president to change the policy on deportations that his predecessor had established.
DACA Isn’t Protecting Anyone From Deportation Like it Promised
Faced with the fact that a significant portion of the nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants are law-abiding people, longstanding in the United States, who have ties to their communities and whose children were born in the United States, President Obama signed An executive order so that the priority in the deportation would have foreigners who had been convicted of serious crimes and to help young undocumented immigrants from deportation known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).
That allowed thousands of undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States as their case was seen again in the future.
The Trump decree expanded exponentially the criteria to be taken into account to declare that undocumented immigrant should be a priority for deportation. The list of criteria included not only those convicted of serious crimes but those accused of committing an offense; Those who have committed minor misdemeanors, including traffic offenses; And whom the immigration authorities consider, at its discretion, a risk to the security of the United States.
“This change is the size of the sea,”
said David Leopold, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
“Before, if someone did something after their case was closed and proved that that person was a threat, then the case would reopen. Now they are reopening cases simply because they want to deport people,”
he added.