Immigration case pending, teen in Little Rock detained; new Trump policy sowing confusion over arrest

Federal immigration officials in Little Rock on Friday morning detained an 18-year-old woman whose court case as an unaccompanied alien child is pending, indicating a shift in immigration-law enforcement under President Donald Trump's new policy directive, attorneys said.

A public affairs officer for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in New Orleans did not confirm the arrest but earlier said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has rescinded a memo from President Barack Obama's administration that shielded nonthreatening illegal aliens from immediate deportation and detention.

Immigration attorneys on Friday expressed confusion about the Homeland Security Department's current immigration-law enforcement policies as the federal department works on a specific directive to comply with an executive order Trump signed Wednesday. But they said the arrest of someone with a pending court case of the unaccompanied-minor type is rare, if not unprecedented.

"This has never, ever happened before," the teen's attorney, Eric Henton of Memphis, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "She has done everything she was supposed to do in the right time. ... It's inconceivable that this would even happen."

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Trump's order made it federal policy to "detain individuals apprehended on suspicion of violating Federal or State law, including Federal immigration law, pending further proceedings regarding those violations."

The Homeland Security Department is in the process of interpreting that directive into specific policy, said Thomas Byrd, public affairs officer for the New Orleans immigration enforcement office whose jurisdiction includes Arkansas.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency that enforces U.S. immigration laws, most recently operated under a November 2014 memo that said illegal aliens should not be removed unless they were a threat to national security or to "the integrity of the immigration system."

"Due to limited resources, DHS and its Components cannot respond to all immigration violations or remove all persons illegally in the United States," the 2014 directive said. "As is true of virtually every other law enforcement agency, DHS must exercise prosecutorial discretion in the enforcement of the law."

The memo placed the lowest removal priority on people who arrived to the United States before January 2014, who did not pose a threat to national security and were not convicted of gang-related activity, a felony or three or more misdemeanors.

Byrd said he's not sure whether the rescinded 2014 memo means that current policy reverts to a similar directive issued in 2012.

"The memo of 2014 has been rescinded, but nothing has been put into its place yet," Byrd said. "We don't have clear guidance yet."

The Homeland Security Department's media office declined to respond to an email seeking to confirm that the 2014 memo was rescinded, which has not been reported elsewhere but which attorneys expected in the wake of Trump's executive order.

The emailed questions also sought to clarify whether rescinding the memo would eliminate all priority-level immigration enforcement, which would expose more people to immediate deportation or detention.

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Roughly 11.1 million illegal aliens lived in the United States -- 70,000 in Arkansas -- in 2014, according to the latest Pew Research Center estimates.

"It's sweeping and incredibly broad," Little Rock immigration attorney Cristina Monterrey said of Trump's order.

Tatiano Jaco, the woman detained Friday in Little Rock, arrived in the United States from El Salvador before her 18th birthday and was classified as an unaccompanied minor, Henton said. She has not missed a court appearance or been charged with a crime, Henton said.

Jaco has not formally applied for asylum, common in cases of unaccompanied minors, but informed her immigration judge at a Dec. 17 hearing of her intent to do so, Henton said.

Jaco's case was continued until March 2018 because of a backlog of similar cases, he said.

Jaco reported Friday morning to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Little Rock for a "routine" check-in with the agency before she was detained, Henton said.

"She was told the reason she was being detained is she was over 18 and is a priority alien," Henton said.

Henton said the priority designation relevant to Jaco related to how quickly her case was supposed to progress through the legal system.

"When they say she's a priority alien, I guess we just don't know what that means anymore," Henton said.

"I guess it means everyone is a priority. If everyone is a priority, no one is a priority."

Henton said Friday night that he was not sure where his client was being held. Jaco was informed she would be transferred eventually to one of two detention centers in Louisiana, Henton said.

"Holy hell," Northwest Arkansas immigration attorney Drew Devenport said when told of Henton's account of what happened. "That's honestly shocking. ... This would be a major shift in policy and is quite disturbing."

Devenport, interim director of the immigration-law clinic at the University of Arkansas, handles unaccompanied-minor cases but is not involved with Jaco's case.

Devenport said his understanding of federal policy is that if a person is designated as an unaccompanied migrant child, the person maintains that status even after turning 18 or being reunited with family members.

A U.S. Health and Human Services Department spokesman declined to comment on how Trump's order would affect its program for unaccompanied minors, people who are apprehended in the United States without proper documents or legal guardians.

Currently, the children, predominantly from Central America, are kept at temporary shelters for a month on average before being released to sponsors in the community, where they live while their asylum claims and immigration cases proceed.

It's unclear whether the sponsorship part of the program would be allowed to continue under Trump's directive, said Monterrey, the Little Rock lawyer.

"There's nothing in the order that says children will be treated differently," Monterrey said. "The order specifically focuses on immediately detaining just for illegal entry."

Immigration and Custom Enforcement removed 240,000 people in fiscal 2016, up 2 percent from 2015 but down 41 percent from 2013, according to agency data.

Most of those fiscal 2016 removals -- about 73 percent -- arose from apprehensions at or near the border or ports of entry, according to the agency.

Of the 65,000 so-called interior removals that year, 92 percent were people convicted of crimes.

Widespread media coverage of Trump's executive order focused on its establishment of a wall on the southern U.S. border with Mexico and its directive to hire 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents.

A separate immigration-related executive order threatened to strip federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities, where local officials do not fully cooperate with federal immigration officials.

But the shift in immigration-enforcement policies will have an immediate effect on people already in the United States, many of whom have lived in the country for years and who have children with legal status, Monterrey said.

Monterrey met with siblings Friday who have lawful status -- one is a naturalized citizen and the other a legal permanent resident -- but are "terrified" about what awaits their parents, who do not, she said.

"They're afraid that their parents are going to have to leave," Monterrey said.

"Their parents have been here for 20-something years, but they're here illegally."

A Section on 01/28/2017

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