Collateral

 

The new memo was issued by acting ICE director Todd Lyons and submitted to a federal court in Minnesota. Its contents were first reported by The New York Times.

The memo suggests the rules are designed to give ICE greater flexibility to quickly arrest unauthorized immigrants who are not the original targets of an operation but are nonetheless encountered and found to have violated U.S. immigration law. 

Those detentions are known as "collateral arrests," and typically involve immigrants accused of civil immigration violations but who lack serious criminal histories or any at all.

Under U.S. immigration law, immigration officers typically need an administrative warrant before making an arrest. Those warrants are signed by employees of ICE, typically agency supervisors, and not judges, unlike judicial warrants.

But the law allows immigration agents to conduct warrantless arrests if they suspect someone is in the U.S. illegally and determine that person is likely to escape before a warrant can be issued.

Through his memo, Lyons broadened the interpretation of "likely to escape," " That prior interpretation of "likely to escape" was based on a determination that someone was a "flight risk," or unlikely to comply with immigration proceedings, like attending court hearings.

Just a thought.