The Trump administration reportedly is moving to arrest illegal migrants after instructing judges to dismiss the aliens’ immigration hearings.
According to a memo obtained by NBC News, the Department of Justice is instructing immigration judges, who report to the executive branch, to grant dismissals after allowing Department of Homeland Security lawyers to make oral motions to dismiss.
Migrants typically have had 10 days to respond to the dismissal request.
“Oral decisions must be completed within the same hearing slot on the day testimony and arguments are concluded,” the May 30 memo says, NBC News reported.
The memo adds that “[n]o additional documentation or briefing is required” to grant the dismissals.
After their cases are dismissed, migrants “are subject to mandatory detention” by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and can be deported without a chance to make their cases for asylum.
One source close to the immigration judges’ union told NBC News that members are upset over the instruction but added the administration’s move is legal.
“They [judges] think it makes a mockery of the whole process and that it flies in the face of what [President Donald] Trump ran on. Immigration enforcement means it’s done in a fair manner … and this isn’t fair,” the source said.
The New York Times reported late last month that ICE agents have begun arresting migrants immediately after their hearings if they have been ordered deported, or their cases have been dismissed.
Officials previously had avoided the practice because they believed it would deter people from showing up for hearings.
NBC News reported the May memo misstates the conditions under which the government can move to dismiss a migrant’s case under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The memo says judges may grant motions to dismiss when “circumstances have changed to such an extent that continuation is no longer in the best interest of the government,” but the act says cases can be dismissed when “circumstances of the case have changed …”
“The omission of the words ‘of the case’ is deliberate because DHS is trying to avoid having to speak to the individual case. The law requires them to provide particular reasons for their motion, and they are not doing that. The email is the written policy that contradicts the law,” said Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, NBC News reported.
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