DOJ Announces New Policies Targeting Undocumented Immigrants

With President Trump back in office, the Department of Justice has wasted no time in implementing new immigration enforcement policies to fulfill his campaign promises regarding illegal immigration. These new policies are part of the Trump administration’s overall immigration policy to aggressively target undocumented individuals and individuals charged with violent crimes and drug trafficking offenses involving imported drugs like heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl.

Effective immediately, the Department of Justice has ordered federal prosecutors to prioritize immigration-related prosecutions—specifically directing prosecutors to charge more defendants with offenses punishable by death or with the largest mandatory minimum sentences. The DOJ is also pressuring state and local law enforcement coordinate with federal prosecutors in pursuing immigration charges and removals, threatening criminal sanctions against any local or state law officials or agencies that do not conform with the federal government’s new policies.

The DOJ has issued a new “policy memorandum” that lists the types of federal criminal charges that prosecutors should pursue, including:

• Unlawful Entry into the U.S.
• Possession of a Firearm by an Unauthorized Immigrant.
• Marriage and Entrepreneurship Fraud, which includes marrying or starting a business with an unauthorized immigrant to help them evade immigration enforcement.
• Employing Undocumented Aliens.
• Failure to Present Certificate of Immigrant Registration, which is an immigration “receipt” that noncitizen visitors have stating their date and place of entry, intended activities while in the U.S., length of stay, and whether they have any criminal record. Visitors receive these upon legal entry.
• Failure to Register, as all noncitizen visitors must register their presence with the federal government as well as provide written notice of all address changes.
• Harboring Unauthorized Aliens, which includes assisting an illegal immigrant with employment, housing, financial aid, or transportation, and which can lead to mandatory prison time and harsher punishments if the defendant harbored aliens for commercial gain or if anyone was harmed by the alien being harbored .
• Document Fraud, which includes forging, altering, or falsifying information on immigration documents or in applications for visas or other immigration benefits.
• We also anticipate seeing an increase in prosecutions involving charges of alien smuggling, visa fraud, and illegal re-entry offenses.

Shortly after publishing this memorandum, the new Attorney General, Pam Bondi, was confirmed. She issued a broad range of orders refocusing the DOJ’s priorities, including several with an emphasis on trafficking and immigration-related cases. In her memo to prosecutors, Attorney General Bondi calls for pursuing the harshest charges and sentences allowed under the law in such cases.

The DOJ’s new immigration enforcement policies come at the same time as passage of the Laken Riley Act, which requires the Department of Homeland Security to detain unauthorized immigrants who have previously been arrested for burglary, theft, larceny, and/or shoplifting. This means the individual must remain incarcerated for such offenses even if they obtained a bond in their previous criminal case.

The DOJ’s new policies will also result in changes to the numerous law enforcement agencies involved in investigating and prosecuting federal criminal offenses. For example, the DOJ has ordered several agencies including the FBI and DEA to review their records for identifying information and biometric data related to illegal immigrants. The agencies have sixty days to turn over this information to the Department of Homeland Security, which will facilitate removals, investigations, and prosecutions.

Federal law enforcement will also shift its post-9/11 terrorist infrastructure towards immigration enforcement and the removal of illegal immigrants. For example, President Trump recently labeled Central and South American cartels like MS-13 as terrorist groups on the same level with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. As such, the DOJ has directed the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces to assist in enforcing President Trump’s immigration-related initiatives.

While border security and regulating immigration are important goals, the federal government’s new immigration enforcement priorities run the risk of infringing on the constitutional rights of U.S. citizens and noncitizens who are here legally. Policies like expedited removal and mandatory detention without a criminal conviction, for example, can limit an immigrant’s ability to challenge their prosecutions or defend themselves, meaning some individuals may get deported after being charged with a crime they did not commit. In such cases, these policies may violate due process and equal protection principles that are enshrined in our Constitution and which apply to everyone in this country regardless of how they got here.

If you or a loved one has been charged with immigration-related offenses, contact our firm. We have years of experience fighting the federal government, and we will fight for you.