Veteran status will reportedly be considered in deportation cases; ICE agents directed to generally avoid deporting military veterans and their families, and related stories

Photo by HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

Veteran status will reportedly be considered in deportation cases:

When non-citizen veterans are detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, policy dictates that service records are considered when deciding whether to force deportation.

But that policy hasn’t always been followed in recent years. So on Tuesday, the Homeland Security Department announced a new directive to formalize it.

Agency-wide guidance will follow, according to a Tuesday release from DHS, “to ensure service in the U.S. military by a noncitizen or their immediate family members is taken into consideration when deciding whether to take civil immigration enforcement actions against them and what enforcement action to take, if any.”

The formalized policy also requires training on veteran deportation cases, as well as mandatory tracking and reporting.

The move is part of the joint Immigrant Military Members and Veterans Initiative between DHS and VA, according to the release.

A 2019 Government Accountability Office report found that 250 non-citizen veterans were under deportation threat between 2013 and 2018, and 92 of them were ultimately deported. --->READ MORE HERE

HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images 

ICE agents directed to generally avoid deporting military veterans and their families:/b>

The Biden administration has directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to generally refrain from seeking the deportation of U.S. military veterans or service members and their immediate family members, according to a directive published on Tuesday.

In a May 23 memo, interim ICE head Tae Johnson instructed the agency's deportation agents to consider prior U.S. military service as a "significant mitigating factor that weighs against" placing immigrants in deportation proceedings.

If an immigrant veteran is eligible for U.S. citizenship because of his or her service, ICE officials "should generally not take civil enforcement actions against the noncitizen, absent significant aggravating factors," Johnson wrote in his directive.

Johnson said ICE will not seek to deport active-duty U.S. service members, "absent significant aggravating factors being present in the case." Any decision to place veterans or service members in deportation proceedings must be approved by top ICE officials at local offices, Johnson added. --->READ MORE HERE

Follow links below to related stories:

Veteran status will be considered in deportation cases, new ICE directive says

Has The Government Been Deporting Veterans?

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