The federal budget for immigration enforcement agencies has ballooned dramatically in the post-9/11 period, and their practices and priorities have raised a number of concerns. if it does not receive additional funding from Congress.Įven a quick examination reveals that the muscular nature and shielding from accountability that Americans have come to accept as problematic-and increasingly unacceptable-with respect to local law enforcement are equally valid in the case of immigration enforcement. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that administers DACA, is on the cusp of furloughing most of its staff amid a $1.5 billion budget shortfall. Looming over this question is the fact that U.S.
It remains unclear whether DHS will accept new applications or simply allow renewals for current DACA holders. Such a move would almost certainly be legally challenged, and likely enjoined, with a final ruling unlikely to come before the November presidential election. The administration has signaled that it may attempt to terminate DACA once more, offering a new justification to meet the Supreme Court’s concerns. MPI estimates close to 400,000 others could become eligible for DACA if they enroll in a qualifying education program or age into eligibility. The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) estimates that 1.3 million individuals meet all the criteria to apply this number includes those who already have DACA status (see table). While the court did not dispute the administration’s authority to end DACA, it found the termination was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not provide an adequate explanation at the proper time.ĭACA thus remains in effect for the 644,000 young people brought to the United States as children who currently have work authorization and protection from deportation with the court’s ruling, the program should be reopened to all applicants who meet the original requirements. On June 18, the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled that the Trump administration’s termination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in September 2017 was unlawful. Immigrant communities have echoed with grievances of their own-encapsulated over the last year or so in the campaign broadly labeled “Abolish ICE.” It was built on decades of organizing and activism by Black communities against not just individual rogue officers but institutional racism.
Yet the new moment, however different it feels, did not happen overnight. The movement has found an audience-and even changes in law enforcement operational policy that were largely seen as unattainable in the past. The overwhelming role that agencies’ budgets play in law enforcement operations and priorities has taken center stage, as emphasized by the calls to “defund the police.” Protesters have called for examining use and proportionality of force, accountability and oversight of officers, and the nature of incarceration. The nationwide outcry and protests following the May killing of George Floyd by local police officers in Minneapolis have sparked calls for fundamental reform of the criminal justice system. Worse, Hunter’s indictment comes amidst a wave of corruption charges and convictions for Republican politicians and operatives, a circumstance so dire that one GOP insider reportedly told Axios that, going into a crucial election, “the Republican Party looks like a criminal enterprise.Para leer este informe en español, haga clic aquí. Unfortunately for Republicans, as the New York Times reports, California’s recently-revised election procedures provide no clear route for the state Republican party to replace even a candidate as severely tarnished as Hunter. But the dysfunctional, even pathetic portrait they paint could push what had been a safely Republican district further into play for Democrats. The allegations would be damaging even if they were simply sleazy. Now Hunter is facing a midterm election against a young, relatively unknown former Obama staffer, Ammar Campa-Najjar. The senior Hunter reportedly maneuvered intensely to keep other Republicans from running in the district’s recent primary, even as evidence mounted against his offspring. That’s despite the fact that that department is headed by Republican Jeff Sessions, himself appointed by Republican Donald Trump-who Hunter was the first congressman to endorse early in the 2016 Presidential campaign. Following the indictment, Congressman Hunter renewed claims that the charges were driven by the “political agenda” of the Department of Justice. Both Hunters have argued, over the course of an investigation spanning many months, that the charges against the son are politically motivated. One of those generous benefactors was Hunter’s father, Duncan Lee Hunter, who formerly held the House seat won by his profligate son in 2008.