Report: Administrative steps Obama can take immediately

The Migration Policy Institute released a report detailing six administrative measures that the Obama Administration could take immediately to create a more just immigration law scheme. Donald M. Kerwin, Doris Meisner, and Margie McHugh, Executive Action on Immigration: Six Ways to Make the System Work Better (March 2011). Four of their suggestions directly implicate crimmigration:

·     process unlawful presence waivers (I-601 waiver) from the United States,

·     coordinate prosecutorial priorities across the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice in light of Director John Morton’s recently announced enforcement priorities memorandum,

·     require DHS attorneys to review all Notices to Appear prior to being filed in an Immigration Court to ensure that removal proceedings correlate with DHS’s stated enforcement priorities,

·     and have the Immigration Courts publish guidelines about the appointment of counsel in removal proceedings in light of Aguilera-Enriquez v. INS, 516 F.2d 565, 568 (6th Cir. 1975) in which the Sixth Circuit held that the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause might require the appointment of counsel in immigration proceedings in some circumstances.