美国国家公共电台 NPR--A fight over how to enforce immigration laws reaches the Supreme Court

A fight over how to enforce immigration laws reaches the Supreme¹ Court

Transcript²

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments Tuesday in a long-running dispute over how to enforce the nation's immigration laws.

President Biden's administration wants to set guidelines for whom immigration authorities can target for arrest and deportation⁴. But a group of Republican attorneys general sued to block the guidelines, arguing that they were preventing immigration authorities from doing their jobs.

The outcome of the case could have major implications — and not just for immigration enforcement. Former Department of Homeland Security officials and immigrant advocates say the case could hinge on the question of how much discretion⁵ law enforcement agencies have to decide how and when to enforce the law.

"A cop doesn't pull over every speeder on the highway," says Jeremy McKinney, the president of American Immigration Lawyers Association. "So you have to make choices. All that the Biden administration was attempting to do was make choices, just like every administration before it."

It's widely agreed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement does not have the resources to arrest or deport³ all of the roughly 11 million people in the country without authorization⁶. So immigration authorities have to set enforcement priorities — priorities that have swung sharply from one administration to the next.

'Prosecutorial⁸ discretion'

During former President Trump⁹'s administration, ICE agents and officers were empowered to arrest and deport anyone who was living in the U.S. without legal authorization.

"If you're in this country illegally and you committed a crime by entering this country, you should be uncomfortable," acting¹⁰ ICE director Thomas Homan told a congressional subcommittee in 2017. "You should look over your shoulder, and you need to be worried."

When the Biden administration took office, it put on the brakes. Instead of arresting and deporting¹¹ anyone they encountered who was in the country without authorization, immigration authorities were given a very different set of priorities.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas described the new guidance as an exercise of prosecutorial discretion.

"We have guided our workforce¹² to exercise its discretion to focus on individuals who pose a threat to national security, public safety and border security," Mayorkas told NPR in an interview last year.

There had been official immigration enforcement priorities at the Department of Homeland Security before. During former President Obama's administration, ICE officers and agents were also encouraged to use prosecutorial discretion, and focus on threats to public safety.

But the announcement of the Biden administration's enforcement priorities prompted multiple lawsuits¹³ from immigration hardliners, who argue that this policy goes far beyond what any previous administration had done.

"They went way left on this. So it's almost like the Immigration and Nationality Act doesn't exist anymore," said Homan, the former head of ICE, during an interview last year.

Texas and Louisiana win in federal court

Part of what outraged¹⁴ Homan and other hardliners about the new priorities was that under the Biden administration's guidance, simply being present in the U.S. without legal authorization "should not alone be the basis" for immigration authorities to arrest or deport someone.

"Saying that someone cannot be removed just because they're an illegal alien is a drastic change in our immigration law," says Christopher Hajec at the Immigration Reform Law Institute in Washington, which filed a friend of the court brief before the Supreme Court. "It's not within an agency's power to do that. Only Congress could do that."

That's an argument that the states of Texas and Louisiana made in court. A federal judge in Texas agreed, and threw out the administration's enforcement priorities in June.

But former DHS officials of both parties worry about the implications of that ruling.

"Not everyone can be arrested or put in proceedings," said Julie Myers Wood, the head of ICE during the George W. Bush administration, and one of several former DHS officials who filed a brief expressing their concerns to the Supreme Court.

Wood, a former federal prosecutor⁷, says every law enforcement agency exercises discretion about how to deploy¹⁵ its resources — and that those decisions are too important to leave up to individual field offices.

"What you don't want to see is a situation where a particular office is focusing on all noncriminal arrests simply because they are easier or more convenient to the detriment¹⁶ of individuals that have serious criminal histories," she said in an interview.

Wood says she might not have chosen the same priorities as Secretary Mayorkas, but it's his call to make.

If the lower court's ruling is upheld, immigrant advocates worry it could signal a return to the more expansive priorities of the Trump administration.

"There was a lot of fear in the community at that time," says Sarah Owings, an immigration lawyer in Atlanta. "And I did see some really awful things."

Owings says she had a number of clients who had been following the guidance and checking in with ICE for years who suddenly found themselves in detention¹⁷. She remembers one man in particular whose wife was pregnant at the time of his check-in with ICE.

"He had a wife who was a high-risk pregnancy¹⁸ and a few weeks away from delivering, and they were like, well, he used a false name one time 10 years ago, so we're taking you in today," Owings recalls. "I really hope that we don't get back to that era."

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

4 deportation   

n.驱逐，放逐

参考例句：

• The government issued a deportation order against the four men.政府发出了对那4名男子的驱逐令。
• Years ago convicted criminals in England could face deportation to Australia.很多年以前，英国已定罪的犯人可能被驱逐到澳大利亚。

5 discretion   

n.谨慎；随意处理

参考例句：

• You must show discretion in choosing your friend.你择友时必须慎重。
• Please use your best discretion to handle the matter.请慎重处理此事。

6 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。

7 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

8 prosecutorial   

公诉人的，原告的； 起诉的

参考例句：

• If prosecutorial misconduct results in a mistrial, a later prosecution may be barred. 如果检察官的不轨行为导致审判无效，再行起诉可能会被除数禁止。 来自口语例句
• Prosecutorial supervision is required according to public power attribution of civil litigation. 民事诉讼的个性和检察监督是对立统一的关系，并不排斥检察监督。

9 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

10 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

11 deporting   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的现在分词 )；举止

参考例句：

12 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

13 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

14 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

15 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

16 detriment   

n.损害；损害物，造成损害的根源

参考例句：

• Smoking is a detriment to one's health.吸烟危害健康。
• His lack of education is a serious detriment to his career.他的未受教育对他的事业是一种严重的妨碍。

17 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

18 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。