Rosenblum Testimony on Immigration Enforcement Priorities before the Senate Judiciary Committee

WASHINGTON —Marc Rosenblum, deputy director of the Migration Policy Institute’s U.S. Immigration Policy Program, testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the immigration enforcement priorities of current and prior administrations in the context of debate surrounding the exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

The hearing, titled “Oversight of the Administration’s Criminal Alien Removal Policies,” featured testimony by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Sarah Saldaña. 

Rosenblum’s testimony, which builds on a series of MPI reports he has authored examining the use of prosecutorial discretion in the immigration enforcement system, can be read here: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/senate-judiciary-testimony-immigration-enforcement-priorities-and-use-prosecutorial

The briefer oral statement he is delivering to the committee is here: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/testimony-SJC-RosenblumOralStatement-December2015.pdf

The hearing comes just over a year after the Obama administration announced its executive actions on immigration, which included new Department of Homeland Security guidelines that further refine the groups of unauthorized immigrants considered priorities for deportation, as well as replacement of the controversial Secure Communities program with the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP).

Rosenblum analyzed the potential effects of the November 2014 guidelines on removals in a comprehensive report last July that also examined the new PEP program. MPI also has published several other  reports on immigration enforcement in the United States, including an analysis of trends in current and prior administrations with respect to border and interior apprehensions, deportations and criminal prosecutions as well as a profile of deportees, including past criminal convictions, based on analysis of an ICE enforcement database.