Tuesday, 02 January 2024 12:17 GMT

US Immigration Agency Halts Arrests of Non-Criminal Migrants


(MENAFN) US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel have reportedly been directed to suspend arrests of immigrants who have neither criminal convictions nor pending criminal charges, according to agency sources.

Under the reported instructions, immigration officers would retain the authority to detain individuals with criminal records or outstanding criminal cases. However, migrants facing final deportation orders without any criminal convictions or pending charges would no longer be targeted for arrest, according to reports.

The policy adjustment would also discontinue so-called “collateral arrests,” a practice that allows officers to detain individuals lacking legal immigration status when they encounter them while pursuing someone suspected of a crime.

The reported directive comes as the Trump administration faces growing scrutiny over its immigration policies and enforcement activities carried out by ICE.

The development has reportedly sparked dissatisfaction among some immigration officers, with one source suggesting that the timing could be connected to the approaching midterm elections.

“We believe it has something to do with the midterms coming up,” said one source. “They’re trying to calm things down before the elections.”

Another source anticipated a decline in enforcement activity, saying: “We’ll see the arrest numbers go down,”

The reported shift follows an incident approximately a week earlier in which an ICE officer shot and injured a Venezuelan man in Texas during an attempted traffic stop.

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