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In last June's memo, ICE director John Morton said certain illegal immigrants, including those without a serious criminal history, who had served in the military or had U.S. citizen families, shouldn't be deported. ICE said it was trying to focus resources on deporting dangerous criminals.
In August, Morton followed up by directing the agency to review existing cases in an effort to clear a backlog of deportation proceedings.
“The ongoing case-by-case review is helping to alleviate backlogged immigration courts and enabling ICE to more quickly remove those individuals who pose the greatest threat to public safety,” the agency said in a statement.
The agency said 55 percent of the people deported last year were convicted criminals and 90 percent of all removals were considered priorities.
But according to an analysis from Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, the new guidelines resulted in fewer than 1 percent of the country's backlog of 300,000 immigration cases being closed at the end of March. In San Antonio, the percentage is even lower.
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