SIREN Statement: Updated Deportation Memo Rebrands Terror, Allows Enforcement Agents Broad Power

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For Immediate Release:

Fri Oct 1, 2021

Contact: Jose Servin, Director of Advocacy and Communication, SIREN

jose@sirenimmigrantrights.org, 714-728-2520

 

Updated Deportation Memo Rebrands Terror, Allows Enforcement Agents Broad Power

 

California – In response to the Department of Homeland Security’s “Guidelines for the Enforcement of Civil Immigration Law” memo on the anniversary of IIRA, SIREN issued the following statement.

The Sept. 30 Mayorkas memo is an underwhelming reiteration of the interim guidelines set into place by the Biden administration back in January. The resulting memo relies on the same tired, criminalizing language that enabled the Trump administration to reign terror on immigrant communities for four years. Unfortunately for the communities we serve, the result of Mayorkas efforts to reset immigration enforcement away from Trumpian levels of targeted, racist persecution did not match the bold proclamations of Democrat leaders on the campaign trail, who, under Biden’s leadership, promised more than they have delivered.  

We have seen the result of handing immigration enforcement officials broad discretion on display through the brutal imagery of Border Patrol agents attacking asylum-seeking Haitian migrants at the southern border. Instead of using this opportunity to fortify immigration enforcement practices with accountability measures to protect against such racist, targeted actions, DHS leader Mayorkas delivered a soft-handed, ambiguous return to Obama era policies, that contributed to historically high levels of detention and deportation.

This is evident already under the Biden administration, as the number of immigrants detained by Immigration, Customs and enforcement has skyrocketed 70 percent since President Biden took office.

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