The Obama administration has ordered agents to begin ignoring many of the illegal immigrants they encounter in local prisons and jails, as the president begins to implement a lesser-known part of his deportation amnesty program — a move that’s not sitting well with either side in the immigration debate. The move is a nod to sanctuary cities, who had begun to refuse to cooperate with federal authorities on immigration enforcement. After having court challenges, Mr. Obama bowed to those cities, counties and states and announced the changes as part of his November 2014 amnesty policy.
Agents will still troll local prisons and jails looking for immigrants, but they will no longer try to deport those with drug possession offenses, theft or fraud if it involved stealing an identity in order to further their unlawful presence in the country, the House Judiciary Committee said Tuesday.
Even some illegal immigrants who have been charged with serious felonies but who are released by the local authorities won’t be picked up by immigration agents until they’re actually convicted, the committee said.
“President Obama is needlessly endangering our communities,” committee Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, Virginia Republican, said in a statement announcing his findings on the new program. “It’s past time for the Obama administration to get its priorities straight and protect the American people instead of their political interests.”
Known as the Priority Enforcement Program or PEP, it replaces a program started in the Bush administration but which Mr. Obama had initially embraced, dubbed Secure Communities, which scoured prisons, jails and local police booking sheets looking for any illegal immigrants.