After four years of former President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, the Biden administration on Thursday announced new guidelines that are expected to sharply limit arrests and deportations carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Under the guidance, ICE agents and officers have been told to prioritize threats to national security and public safety when deciding whom to arrest, detain and deport.
ICE officials said the guidance is intended to help the agency allocate its limited resources to cases the public cares about most.
"Like every law enforcement agency at the local, state, and federal level, we must prioritize our efforts to achieve the greatest security and safety impact," ICE acting Director Tae Johnson said in a statement.
The guidance to ICE agents is part of a broader effort by President Biden to roll back the previous administration's hard-line immigration policies. Also on Thursday, congressional Democrats unveiled an immigration bill – a plan that President Biden had proposed on his first day in office.
The bill includes a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States and a fast-track process for young "Dreamer" immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. The bill faces steep hurdles in a divided Congress.
Changes at ICE also face pushback – from outside the agency and within. Immigration hawks complain that the new guidance will prevent ICE agents and officers from doing their jobs – in essence, abolishing ICE without actually abolishing it.
"The men and women of ICE, they took an oath to enforce immigration laws," said Thomas Homan, who served as acting ICE director under former President Trump. "It's unfortunate they can't do the job. ... And it's unfortunate that many criminals are going to be walking the streets of America because this administration simply thinks they're not important enough to take off the streets."
ICE is charged with enforcing the nation's immigration laws – including arresting and deporting people living in the country illegally. In many ways, its agents became the public face of Trump's immigration crackdown, spreading fear and confusion in immigrant communities.
The new guidance also was greeted with criticism from some immigrant advocates.