Latest news with #ImmigrationandNationalityAct
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Lawrence, Limestone sheriffs seek authority to enforce federal immigration laws
May 31—The sheriff's offices in Lawrence and Limestone counties applied this month to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to have the power to make arrests for suspected violations of federal immigration laws, a step that some fear will lead immigrants to stop reporting crime. "It basically means immigrant community members are at risk any time they want to report a crime, ask for help, or call 911," said Allison Hamilton, executive director of the Alabama Coalition for Immigrant Justice. "They are very unlikely to do so because of the risk that law enforcement would then target them for their immigration status." Lawrence County Chief Deputy Brian Covington said Thursday his department is awaiting guidance from ICE officials on how to proceed with what ICE refers to as the task force model, which authorizes deputies to enforce federal immigration laws. The task force model is one of three levels of authority under the 287(g) program — named after a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act — implemented in 1996 to allow local and state law enforcement to help identify and remove undocumented immigrants from the U.S. The other models are the jail enforcement model, which allows corrections officers to begin immigration proceedings for people already in their custody, and the warrant service officer model, which allows deputies to execute civil immigration warrants. Both the Limestone and Lawrence sheriff's offices joined the warrant service officer program this month, and Lawrence also obtained authority under the jail enforcement model. Hoss Mack, executive director of the Alabama Sheriffs Association, said the 287(g) program's jail enforcement model has been used in some parts of Alabama for at least 14 years. He said there are eight sheriff's offices in Alabama that have applied for the program so far this year. "It gave authority for a county jailer to be trained to ask specific questions to determine if someone might be in the country illegally, and then refer that to an ICE officer," Mack said. Mack became the association's executive director Sept. 1 after retiring from a 39-year law enforcement career that included 17 years as Baldwin County sheriff. The task force model was discontinued by ICE during the Obama administration after several controversial arrests, particularly by then-Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona, and findings by the Justice Department that local law enforcement were engaged in racial profiling. ICE resurrected the task force model this year. Covington said undocumented immigrants rarely commit crimes in Lawrence County, but his department requested the task force authority to increase participation in law enforcement partnerships. "We're in the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency narcotics task force and have three deputies assigned to it," Covington said. "This would expand our capabilities in areas like human trafficking, gang activity and drug smuggling. We're not planning to put task force officers on the street to seek out undocumented immigrants." He emphasized that deputies are not actively patrolling for immigration violations. "Our deputies just go from call to call," he said. The Limestone County Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for comment and the Morgan County Sheriff's Office said it is not requesting authority to act as an ICE task force at this time. "The Morgan County Jail already notifies ICE about anyone whose immigration status is in question when they get to jail," said Sheriff's Office spokesman Mike Swafford. "Additionally, we recently executed a funding (memorandum of understanding) with ICE, but that pertains to narcotics related investigation and allows for reimbursement for time spent on those cases." — Task force authority Unlike the jail enforcement model, the task force model allows officers to enforce federal immigration laws during routine policing — with ICE oversight — including making arrests without a warrant in some cases. ICE refers to it as a "force multiplier." Under the program, trained officers have the power: —To interrogate any person believed to be an undocumented immigrant as to their right to be in the United States and to process for immigration violations those who have been arrested for state or federal criminal offenses. —To arrest without a warrant any undocumented immigrant if the officer has reason to believe the person is in the United States in violation of a law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. —To arrest without warrant if felonies have been committed which are cognizable under any law regulating the removal of undocumented immigrants, if the officer has reason to believe the immigrant is in violation of law and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained. Although the model allows arrests without warrants, Mack stressed that probable cause is still required. "Just saying I see someone walking down the street and he has got a different skin color or different hair color, that is not enough," Mack said. "You have to have a reason. If a law enforcement officer makes contact with them and they have no identification, that would be probable cause. If they go to an employer, and they try to get a job and they present false documentation, that's probable cause. If they try to file for certain benefits and are unable to produce (identification), that's probable cause." Mack also cited "cluster living," or multiple individuals residing in one home, as another indicator that could trigger an immigration status check. Before the task force model was adopted, patrol officers were barred from questioning people about their immigration status or country of origin, Mack said. "I go all the way back to when ICE was U.S. Customs," Mack said. "As a state officer, you could not enforce any federal law unless there was a designation. So, what 287(g) does is it gives the state officer the official designation to do that. Used to, if we believed someone was illegal, we would just have to hold them there and get an ICE agent on the phone and ask them to come to where we were at, because we did not have any authority to enforce a federal law." Mack said immigrants who are victims of crime have no reason to fear local law enforcement. "If a person is a victim of a crime and they are an illegal and they don't have a criminal record, then they cannot be deported," Mack said. "They are protected if they have been a victim of a crime until the (completion) of our case." He said Hispanic-on-Hispanic crime is often underreported — likely due to fear of deportation. "Keep in mind everyone that might be questioned or detained is not going to be deported," Mack said. "There are people here who are not criminals. They may have entered illegally, but they're not criminals; they don't have a record. They're documenting a criminal act, and I'm hoping throughout that process where they see not everyone is getting deported, that it might build a little bit of trust that there is a process to go through. It's not just a one-for-all fit." Mack said ICE agents will give a presentation on the 287(g) program at the Alabama Sheriffs Association's annual conference in July for sheriffs who have applied to participate. Covington said there are federal forms that can be filed for crime victims, and those are presented in court. "You know, if someone is the victim or a witness of a crime in the state or the county, then why would you want to deport your victim if you need them in court," Covington said. "We need to seek justice on people, so we need witnesses to be party to that." But Hamilton disagreed, saying such legal protections often aren't upheld in practice. "We have seen many cases (in Alabama) where people are reporting a crime and end up being targeted," Hamilton said. "This is not something that local immigrant communities are counting on and it's not something we see in practice regularly. Communities are not feeling comfortable talking to law enforcement about crimes." Hamilton also warned the program could divert officers from their daily responsibilities and increase racial profiling. "Immigration enforcement is often connected with racial profiling," Hamilton said. "ICE needs very little reason to detain someone they suspect is undocumented and that's why you see them detaining citizens and people with valid paperwork. They may just be relying on how that person looks or how they sound or where they are as a probable cause." Another advocacy group, Purple People Resistance of Alabama, has urged lawmakers and residents to oppose local participation in 287(g) agreements. The group, founded in January, describes itself as a grassroots collective of activists and veterans focused on civil rights and resisting authoritarianism. "These agreements erode the foundational trust between communities and the police," founder Melanie Kolowski said in a statement. "Instead of focusing on their core mission to 'protect and serve,' law enforcement officers are being redirected to act as de facto immigration agents — a role for which they are not properly trained and for which they lack critical access to immigration databases. As a result, individuals who are not in violation of immigration laws are often wrongfully detained, causing unnecessary hardship for them and their families." Kolowski said the program could cause a "ripple effect" in communities, where fear of law enforcement leads to crimes going unreported and victims going unprotected. "When people are too afraid to seek help, it allows perpetrators to continue harming others with impunity — creating more victims and making our communities less safe," Kolowski said. — or 256-340-2442.
Scoop
11 hours ago
- Politics
- Scoop
Announcement Of A Visa Restriction Policy Targeting Foreign Nationals Who Censor Americans
Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Free speech is among the most cherished rights we enjoy as Americans. This right, legally enshrined in our constitution, has set us apart as a beacon of freedom around the world. Even as we take action to reject censorship at home, we see troubling instances of foreign governments and foreign officials picking up the slack. In some instances, foreign officials have taken flagrant censorship actions against U.S. tech companies and U.S. citizens and residents when they have no authority to do so. Today, I am announcing a new visa restriction policy that will apply to foreign nationals who are responsible for censorship of protected expression in the United States. It is unacceptable for foreign officials to issue or threaten arrest warrants on U.S. citizens or U.S. residents for social media posts on American platforms while physically present on U.S. soil. It is similarly unacceptable for foreign officials to demand that American tech platforms adopt global content moderation policies or engage in censorship activity that reaches beyond their authority and into the United States. We will not tolerate encroachments upon American sovereignty, especially when such encroachments undermine the exercise of our fundamental right to free speech. This visa restriction policy is pursuant to Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which authorizes the Secretary of State to render inadmissible any alien whose entry into the Unites States 'would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.' Certain family members may also be covered by these restrictions.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Supreme Court allows Trump to revoke temporary legal status of 500,000 immigrants from 4 countries
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the Trump administration to revoke the temporary legal status of more than 500,000 immigrants that was granted by the Biden administration. The court granted an emergency application filed by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem that ends the Biden program that gave 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela permission to temporarily live and work in the United States. The brief order noted that liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor dissented. Jackson wrote that the court had failed to take into account "the devastating consequences of allowing the government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens while their legal claims are pending." The administration was contesting a ruling by Massachusetts-based U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, who said the administration could not sweep each person's status away without an individualized determination. That decision is now on hold while litigation continues. "The Supreme Court has effectively greenlit deportation orders for an estimated half a million people, the largest such de-legalization in the modern era," said Karen Tumlin, a lawyer at Justice Action Center who represents affected immigrants. "I cannot overstate how devastating this is: The Supreme Court has allowed the Trump Administration to unleash widespread chaos, not just for our clients and class members, but for their families, their workplaces, and their communities," she added. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. Starting in 2022, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas granted what is called parole for two years to people from the affected countries in part to alleviate the surge arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. The policy, known as the CHNV parole programs, allowed people to enter the country and stay if they passed a security check and had a sponsor in the United States who could provide housing. Solicitor General D. John Sauer said in court papers that Talwani did not have authority to rule on the issue, with Noem given authority to make her decision under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act. The same law gave Mayorkas the discretion to allow the affected people to enter and stay in the country. The Department of Homeland Security said in October 2024 that each person's parole would not be extended once their two-year approval period expired. Noem's move to unwind the Biden action was challenged in court by individuals who would be affected, as well as the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an immigrant rights group. Their lawyers wrote in court papers that if the Trump administration action is upheld, all the parolees will immediately "become undocumented, legally unemployable, and subject to mass expulsion." They noted that Talwani's decision did not prevent Noem from ending the program, only that the government could not immediately rescind the status of the people already enrolled via a single sweeping order. The dispute is one of dozens of cases in which the Trump administration has complained about lower court judges blocking its policies even as President Donald Trump has sought to aggressively expand the power of the presidency without the authorization of Congress. This article was originally published on
Axios
a day ago
- Politics
- Axios
Supreme Court allows Trump to end legal protections for 500,000 immigrants
The Trump administration can for now end a program that gave temporary protections to more than 500,000 immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the Supreme Court said Friday."? The big picture: In a strongly worded dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that the high court "plainly botched" its assessment and undervalued the "devastating consequences of allowing the Government to precipitously upend the lives and livelihoods of nearly half a million noncitizens" amid pending legal claims. Catch up quick: A federal judge in April temporarily blocked the Trump administration from revoking the Biden-era protections under the under the CHNV program. The parole programs had granted the immigrants temporary legal protections after they fled violence in their home countries. In a January order, Trump instructed the Department of Homeland Security to "[t]erminate all categorical parole programs" that he said were "contrary to the policies of the United States" established in his orders, including CHNV. Driving the news: The order from the court noted that Jackson and Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from granting the application for a stay on the lower court's order. Jackson argued the government failed to satisfy its burden of demonstrating harm, saying ending the program will have "devastating consequences. " "While it is apparent that the Government seeks a stay to enable it to inflict maximum predecision damage, court-ordered stays exist to minimize—not maximize—harm to litigating parties," she wrote. Friction point: Solicitor general D. John Sauer argued in his request to the Supreme Court that Immigration and Nationality Act grants Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem authority to revoke parole and that District Judge Indira Talwani overstepped in her order. Talwani wrote in her April order that terminating legal status early for noncitizens who complied with DHS programs and lawfully entered the country without any case-by-case justification "undermines the rule of law." Flashback: Under former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the program allowed migrants to fly into the U.S. if they had a sponsor and passed security checks. Those who entered through the program could stay for up to two years.
Hans India
a day ago
- Politics
- Hans India
Supreme Court lets Trump end temporary parole for 500,000 migrants
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to terminate a two-year parole program that had granted temporary residency and work authorization to roughly 532,000 nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The justices, in a brief order, stayed a decision by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani of Massachusetts, who had ruled that the Department of Homeland Security could not strip these individuals of their legal status en masse without individualized reviews. The emergency application, filed by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, was approved over the dissent of Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Jackson warned that allowing the government to move forward 'precipitously' could have 'devastating consequences' for half a million noncitizens whose cases remain pending. Initiated in 2022 by then-Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the CHNV parole initiatives were designed to ease border pressures by admitting applicants who passed security screenings and secured U.S.-based sponsors willing to provide housing. Each parole period was set to expire after two years, and in October 2024 DHS had announced that it would not renew any of the grants beyond their initial terms. Challengers—including individual parolees and the Haitian Bridge Alliance—argued in lower courts that Noem lacked authority to rescind their status without individualized determinations, and that a blanket termination would leave all program participants undocumented, unable to work, and vulnerable to deportation. Judge Talwani agreed, but her ruling is now paused while litigation continues. Solicitor General D. John Sauer contended in filings that Judge Talwani exceeded her jurisdiction, asserting that under the same statute Mayorkas used to create the parole programs, Noem was entitled to end them without judicial interference. The dispute marks yet another clash over executive power as President Trump's administration seeks to roll back policies enacted by its predecessor.
