WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is temporarily suspending immigration court dockets in four cities while authorities review thousands of cases as part of a plan to indefinitely delay deportation proceedings for many non-criminal illegal immigrants.
The dockets in Detroit, New Orleans, Orlando, and Seattle will be suspended during the review cases involving illegal immigrants not held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, the Department of Homeland Security said Thursday.
ICE previously reviewed 11,682 in Baltimore and Denver. Officials recommended suspending more than 1,600 cases in those two cities. The reviews are part of an Obama administration pledge to focus deportation resources on criminal immigrants and those who pose a national security or public safety threat.
Congressional Republicans have decried the effort as “backdoor amnesty.”
