Under new guidelines that the Obama administration announced last week, Homeland Security said ICE “is focused on smart, effective immigration enforcement that prioritizes the removal of criminal aliens, recent border crossers and egregious immigration law violators, such as those who have been previously removed from the U.S. The agency exercises prosecutorial discretion, on a case-by-case basis, as necessary to focus resources on these priorities.”

Following the new guidelines, Homeland Security Department officials confirmed that Pedro Morales, 19, of Dalton and Luis “Ricky” Hernandez, 18, of Calhoun had been let out of the Stewart Detention Center in South Georgia and their cases dismissed yesterday. 

While critics of the new guidelines say the Obama administration is ignoring federal immigration laws by freeing illegal immigrants, Charles Kuck, the teens’ attorney, and the past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (and whom I had the pleasure to learn from as my Professor in law school and for whom I have a great respect), said ICE’s decision to free his clients indicates “there is a return of some semblance of sanity to our [immigration] system.”

Please call us at 678-615-8529 for assistance with your immigration needs. 

There was an article published in the Atlanta Journal Constitution on August 23, 2011 regarding this.