Last week the Obama administration announced that it would expand prosecutorial discretion guidelines that will allow immigration officials to target enforcement efforts on those undocumented people who are the most dangerous. This was announced late in the week after activists across the country collected signatures for petitions to end the controversial Secure Communities program during last Tueday’s National Day of Action.

The changes that the Department of Homeland Security announced include the review of some 300,000 immigration cases currently in removal proceedings to determine whether the cases can be closed. In essence, the administration will exercise discretion in determining who will have to leave for those 300,000 currently in deportation proceedings. But for those some 11 million undocumented people who aren’t in deportation proceedings, things aren’t as clear. In a memo by ICE Director John Morton that was released back in June, the low priority cases include undocumented people who:

• “are not criminals and have been in the country since childhood (DREAM Act students)
• have strong community ties
• are veterans or relatives of persons in the armed services
• are caregivers
• have serious health issues
• are victims of crime
• or otherwise have a strong basis for remaining in the United States.”

“…Latino voters are no longer apt to forget President Obama’s failure to fundamentally alter or abolish devastating immigration policies like the SCOMM program, which was the impetus for our recent National Day of Action. In this sense, the Obama Administration’s announcement represents a (Less Than) 3% Solution to the crisis that his administration has caused in the lives of the more than 1 million immigrants he has already deported, the majority of whom have committed no crime other than seeking a better life for them and their families.”