Biden Admin. to Prioritize Removing Illegal Immigrants Who Represent Security Threat - DHS

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US border agents will prioritize arresting and deporting illegal immigrants considered a risk to national security and public safety while exercising more leniency to undocumented migrants who are contributing members in US communities, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a memorandum on Thursday.

"The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them. We will use our discretion and focus our enforcement resources in a more targeted way," Mayorkas said. "By exercising our discretionary authority in a targeted way, we can focus our efforts on those who pose a threat to national security, public safety, and border security and thus threaten America' s well-being."

US immigration enforcement will prioritize removing migrants who are suspected of terrorism or espionage activities, pose threat to public safety because of serious criminal conduct, as well as migrants who recently illegally entered the United States.

The new directive will likely protect from arrest and deportation undocumented immigrants who have lived in the United States for years as long as they do not commit serious crimes.

More than 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the United States, a majority whom have been contributing members in US communities nationwide, Mayorkas said.