briefing guide re: ice quota

7/29/2019 Briefing Guide re: ICE Quota

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What Newly Revealed Documents About ICE Deportation QuotasMean for Georgia: A Briefing Guide

On Friday, USA Today published never-before-disclosed communications between theImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Atlanta Field Office, which is in charge of

immigration enforcement throughout Georgia, and ICE national headquarters.1 The

documents are a treasure-trove of information, revealing a sharp divergence between

the Obama Administrations rhetoric on immigration and its action on the ground. This

Briefing Guide highlights some key takeaways.

I. Immigration Enforcement is Quota Driven and Pressure to Make the Numbers

Comes Directly from ICE Headquarters

The documents show that, despite all the recent talk of targeted enforcement, ICEcontinues to be driven by quotas. The Atlanta Field Office felt the heat last year when itsdeportation numbers were down 1,200 from the prior year. Directors were instructed tocome up with a plan to increase deportationsASAP.2 No consideration appears tohave been given to the well-documented relationship between quotas and increases inracial profiling and civil rights violations. Rather, officers were to make the numbers at allcosts.

II. ICE Enlistment of Local Law Enforcement as Force Multipliers has More to do

with Numbers and Less to do with Safety.

When pressed to increase deportations, it is striking how much ICE has come to dependon cooperation with local law enforcement. The documents reveal efforts to expandpartnerships from police and sheriffs to courts, district attorneys, and probation officers.3

1See Brad Heath,Immigration tactics aimed at boosting deportations, USA Today, Feb. 17, 2013.

2See ICE Documents, p. 4, available at http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/603861-ice-

documents.html.3See ICE Documents, p. 11-13, available athttp://www.documentcloud.org/documents/603861-ice-

documents.html.


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ICE never addresses how infusing immigration enforcement into every aspect of thecriminal justice system will impact safety. The focus is on expanding the dragnet. It is asif the agency learned nothing from the disastrous roll out of its Secure Communitiesprogram, which has been widely criticized by local law enforcement officials forthreatening public safety by making crime victims and witnesses reluctant to cooperatewith the police.4

Indeed, many of the Atlanta Field Offices plans to increase deportations take their cuefrom widely criticized sections of Georgias anti-immigrant bill, HB 87, which observersallege encourage racial profiling and threaten public safety. One program in particular,the Local Law Enforcement Taskforce, mirrors HB 87s racial profiling provision byinstructing ICE to work with local police to check the immigration status of anyone withwhom they come into contactfocusing on those who are never taken into custody, butsimply receive a traffic ticket or warning or a field interview.5

III. That DUI Checkpoint? Its Really an Immigration Inspection

Throughout Georgia, checkpointspurportedly set up to check for DUIs, but in realitynetting far more undocumented mothers and fathers than drunk drivershave been aflashpoint for community protest. Residents complain that the checkpoints areconcentrated in Latino neighborhoods and that officers rely on race to determine who willbe subject to extended investigation. The checkpoints convert daily commutes to work orthe store into lengthy ordeals complete with harassment for anyone with brown skin.

The disclosed documents show that a key part of ICEs strategy to boost deportations isto increase these much-hated checkpoints. Although a key part of ICE's deportationstrategy, the checkpoints "would not appear to be an ICE organized checkpoint." But ICE"would be set up there, waiting to interview all individuals that we deem necessary."6

Disturbingly, ICE specifically includes non-driver occupants among those who would beinterviewed.

4See Restoring Community: A National Community Advisory Report on ICEs Failed Secure

Communities Program, available athttp://altopolimigra.com/s-comm-shadow-report/5See ICE Documents, p. 14, available athttp://www.documentcloud.org/documents/603861-ice-

documents.html.6See ICE Documents, p. 11, available athttp://www.documentcloud.org/documents/603861-ice-

documents.html.


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IV. As Bond Decisions Become Politicized, Already High Immigration Bonds May

Become Even Higher

One key strategy for increasing deportations is to increase already high immigrationbonds. Anything less than $10,000 is deemed to be unacceptable.7 This politicization ofbond amounts means even more people will be subject to immigration detention as theyawait a day in court.8

V. ICEs Definition of Criminal is Overly Broad and Has No Relation to Public

Safety

Throughout the documents, ICEs focus is primarily on criminal alien removalsit isthe only performance measure that will count, in the words of a high-level official inWashington.9 But the way ICE uses the term criminal internally is very different from itspublic representations. For quota purposes, anyone who has ever been convicted ofanything is a criminal.10 Whether your crime happened 10 years ago or amounted tonothing more than driving without a license.

In other words, ICE is unconcerned with whether its so-called criminals actually presentany threat to public safety. In fact, because ICE has long been embedded in stateprisons, the only way for it to increase its criminal removals is to focus on individualswho would normally not make it to prison. That includes the mom driving without alicense and the dad fishing in violation of regulations.

7See ICE Documents, p. 3, available athttp://www.documentcloud.org/documents/603861-ice-




documents.html.