ICE Recalendaring Cases that Were Previously Administratively Closed, Even Non–Criminal Related

Under the Obama Administration, certain undocumented immigrants were permitted to have their immigration cases administratively closed in the exercise of prosecutorial discretion (PD), which in essence was a form of relief from deportation. Often this was granted when an undocumented parent of U.S. citizen children was placed in removal proceedings. The Trump Administration terminated the policy of prosecutorial discretion, and now Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has begun recalendaring cases that were previously administratively closed. While ICE headquarters has indicated that it is recalendaring cases only where there is an arrest or conviction subsequent to the administrative closure and that it is not seeking to recalendar all of the cases that were administratively closed for PD, some local ICE offices are seeking to recalendar PD cases even when there was no intervening arrest or conviction.