Biden's DHS Is Abolishing ICE Without Abolishing ICE
Officers 'now being told to enforce nothing'
By Andrew R. Arthur on February 10, 2021
The Washington Post ran an article this week captioned "New Biden rules for ICE point to fewer arrests and deportations, and a more restrained agency". That is one way of putting it. I prefer the following quote in the article, from one unnamed "distraught official": "They've abolished ICE without abolishing ICE."
I have already reported on the DHS memorandum of January 20 limiting ICE arrests to three specified "priorities": spies and terrorists; aliens who entered illegally on or after November 1; and aliens released from incarceration on or after the date of that memorandum who have been convicted of "aggravated felonies", as defined in section 101(a)(43) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA).
As a fig leaf, that memorandum notes that "nothing in this memorandum prohibits the apprehension or detention of individuals unlawfully in the United States who are not identified as priorities herein." Note, however, aliens lawfully admitted who are removable, for say, sexual abuse of a minor (an aggravated felony) are not "unlawfully in the United States" until they have been ordered removed.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Bidens-DHS-Abolishing-ICE-Without-Abolishing-ICE