On April 11, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a policy memorandum prioritizing cases involving immigration-related offenses. The memorandum “directs Federal prosecutors to focus on particular offenses that, if aggressively charged and prosecuted, can help prevent and deter illegal immigration.”

The memorandum asks prosecutors to pursue cases against individuals accused of harboring undocumented immigrants, and against undocumented immigrants who have been caught crossing the border multiple times. It also requires prosecutors to seek, as often as possible, deportation orders against defendants in immigration-related cases.

The attorney general announced the new guidelines during a tour of the Arizona–Mexico border, and said the new policy “will drastically reduce the danger posed by criminal aliens, gang members, and cartel henchmen.”

Sessions also announced that the Justice Department would hire an additional 125 judges over the next two years to reduce the backlog in the immigration courts.

These moves are expected to substantially increase the number and seriousness of charges brought against undocumented immigrants, which would then pave the way for more deportations and detentions.

Critics called the new policy anti-immigrant. Gregory Z. Chen, Director of Government Relations for the American Immigrant Lawyers Association said:

“Once again, Attorney General Sessions is scaring the public by linking immigrants to criminals despite studies showing that immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than the native born. He and President Trump are wasting more Federal taxpayer dollars going after illegal border crossers instead of protecting the American public.”

For more on immigration, see the March 2017 issue of Congressional Digest on the “Immigration Travel Ban.”