{"id":25304,"date":"2021-12-21T11:16:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T16:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/?p=25304"},"modified":"2021-12-21T11:16:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T16:16:28","slug":"doj-protecting-criminal-aliens-again-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2021\/12\/21\/doj-protecting-criminal-aliens-again-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"Mental Disorders: Criminal Aliens\u2019 Next Deportation Dodge?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is seeking to block removals of criminal aliens<\/a> on mental health grounds \u2013 a dodgy move that circumvents the Administrative Procedure Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deportations of criminal aliens have tumbled to historic lows<\/a> as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, evidently on the same page as Garland, issued a memo<\/a> directing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to consider any \u201cmental condition [as]mitigating factors that militate in favor of declining enforcement action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mayorkas\u2019 memo and Garland\u2019s maneuver fly in the face of a 2014 case decided by the Board of Immigration Appeals<\/a> (BIA). There, the panel categorically ruled, \u201cMental health is not a factor to be considered in assessing whether [the alien]has been convicted of a particularly serious crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angling to overturn the BIA, which operates under his Justice Department, Garland is attempting an end-run around the Administrative Procedure Act<\/a> (APA). By referring the matter to himself through a process called \u201ccertification,\u201d the attorney general intends to dispense with the legal requirements for publishing proposed changes in the Federal Register and inviting public comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump administration suffered several legal smackdowns<\/a> when it tried to execute orders outside the parameters of the APA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If Garland\u2019s shortcut is questionable on procedural grounds, it\nis even more problematic for public safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n