DHS and States Sign SAFE Agreement that Obstructs Immigration Policies : Immigration Law Blog

The Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) has signed agreements with many states that may pose a risk to the Biden administration’s targets. The DHS has signed the Sanctuary for People First Enactment Settlement (SAFE) with Arizona, Louisiana, Indiana, and the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Workplace in North Carolina. This SAFE settlement might significantly hamstring the administration’s targets of pausing deportations, prioritizing immigration arrests to immigrants with severe legal backgrounds, and rising avenues to asylum.

The Sanctuary for People First Enactment Settlement

Underneath the SAFE agreements, the DHS would give discover of immigration coverage modifications and the states would have six months to overview them and submit feedback. Solely after this overview can the DHS transfer ahead with the proposed modifications. The DHS would require the states to signal agreements confirming that the DHS offered the required discover.

“DHS acknowledges that Company, like different state companies and municipalities, is immediately and concretely affected by modifications to DHS guidelines and insurance policies which have the impact of easing, enjoyable, or limiting immigration enforcement,” notes the settlement with Arizona. “Such modifications can negatively influence Company’s regulation enforcement wants and budgets, in addition to its different essential well being, security, and pecuniary pursuits of the State of Arizona.”

The settlement states that the DHS will “prioritize the safety of the USA” by imposing immigration legal guidelines in a method that prioritizes detention and leads to arrests of “detachable aliens.” Additional, the DHS will present “a chance to seek the advice of and touch upon the proposed motion, earlier than taking any such motion listed above.” The settlement supplies injunctive reduction whereby if both of the events refuses to adjust to the settlement, the State can request termination of the settlement with 180 days of discover.

Reactions to the SAFE Settlement

Sarah Pierce, a coverage analyst on the Migration Coverage Institute, advised BuzzFeed Information “In its last days, the Trump administration is staying true to its technique of making an attempt something and every thing to implement its restrictive immigration agenda and provides it endurance after their time in workplace.”

Lt. Kevin Suthard, a spokesperson for the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Workplace signed the settlement final yr. “It’s not political, it’s about public security. Doing all that we will to maintain the residents of Rockingham County that we serve secure,” he mentioned in an electronic mail to BuzzFeed Information. “That it’s at all times our primary precedence.”

Immigration Regulation Professor of Santa Clara College College of Regulation, Pratheepan Gulasekaram, mentioned the settlement is a mechanism for the states to doubtlessly sue the administration over the altering insurance policies in federal courtroom. “That is simply one other last-ditch effort to try to ingrain a reckless hyper enforcement system, however utterly unmoored from authorized, constitutional methods of implementing coverage,” he mentioned.

Senior advocate and coverage counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, Naureen Shah, known as the agreements “a clear try by Trump officers to tie the Biden-Harris administration’s palms and protect Trump’s grotesque immigration enforcement coverage.”

Appearing DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, who resigned within the final week of December, mentioned that “Sadly, this motion is warranted by current occasions, together with the continued and meritless courtroom rulings concerning the validity of my authority as Appearing Secretary.” Many insurance policies that Wolf issued whereas in workplace have been challenged in courtroom, as attorneys argued the legality of his appointment to his function. In lots of instances, the federal judges famous that Wolf was not lawfully appointed, thereby blocking the DHS insurance policies for that motive.

It stays uncertain what results these agreements will have as soon as the Biden administration begins rolling out its immigration reforms.

To be taught extra about this weblog publish or if in case you have another immigration considerations, please be happy to contact me at rglahoud@norris-law.com or (484) 544-0022.