non-citizens. It also covers raids on workplaces.
A few months ago, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Mr. Alejandro Mayorkas, the overall boss of all branches of the Immigration Service, USICE, USCIS and USCBP, issued a Memorandum on the subject of “Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law”.
The importance of these guidelines is in the following sentence:
“The fact that an
individual is a removable
non-citizen… should not
alone be the basis for an
enforcement action
against them.”
In plain English, just because somebody is out-of-status is not a sufficient reason to grab them and deport them. They must also fit in one of three PRIORITIES:
First, if they are a threat to National Security by being suspected of terrorism or espionage.
Second, if they are a threat to Public Safety, by serious criminal conduct. In applying this category, there are AGGRAVATING factors and also MITIGATING factors. ICE agents must use judgment in deciding whether to take enforcement action or not.
Third, if they are a threat to Border Security, by being stopped while trying to enter illegally or by having entered the U.S. illegally after November 1, 2020.
Conclusion: most of the out-of-status non-citizens in the U.S. are in no risk of enforcement.
FILING FEES
The Trump administration had a plan to raise the Filing Fees of most applications. The increases were sometimes quite large. For example: the fee for an Application for Naturalization (Form N-400) was scheduled to go from $640 to $1,170, and the fee for a request for hearing (like an appeal of a denial) of an Application for Naturalization (Form N-335) was scheduled to go from $700 to $1,736. All the planned increases were cancelled by the Biden administration.
ETC., ETC., ETC.
There were many more changes for the better in procedures and attitudes at the Immigration Service during the first year of the Biden presidency.
Let’s hope that more are still to come.