Immigration lawyer John N. Siskiros, an attorney who has represented thousands of clients in immigration court, said he expects more attorneys to file cases with the government in the next couple of years.
“This is a very important time for immigration lawyers,” said Mr. Sisksiros.
“If we do not get this right now, it will be decades before this has any meaningful impact on the country’s legal system.”
Last year, immigration courts awarded more than 2,000 cases to parents of children who had been removed for immigration violations.
Those cases included many of the cases brought by the ACLU and the Center for Immigration Studies.
But with the Trump administration in power, the number of parents filing immigration court cases has been falling.
Last year alone, the government awarded more immigration court rulings than it did the year before.
In fiscal year 2017, federal courts awarded 4,932 orders to parents, or nearly one every two days.
The drop is even more pronounced for parents who are in the U.S. on a work permit and have no other plans in place for their children.
In those cases, federal judges have granted less than 1,000 orders to U.s. parents in fiscal year 2018, according to the government.
“We are seeing a decrease in the number, because there is a lot more money in the system,” said Siskio.
“So the number is not as high as it was in years past.”
Mr. Siasios said it will take more than an overhaul of immigration law to reverse the decline in cases.
The Trump administration has signaled it wants to prioritize deportation of people with criminal records.
The Trump administration’s policy has already sparked some legal challenges in states like Texas, Michigan, New York and California, which have seen an increase in immigrants arrested for immigration crimes.
In Texas, the ACLU is seeking to overturn a federal district court ruling that blocked the state from removing criminal records for immigrants arrested in the state.
The Obama administration has said the government’s policies to remove immigrants who have been arrested for crimes should be allowed to continue.
The immigration judge in Texas, for instance, said the Trump policy is “essential” to the U-turn.
But the Trump team is pushing back.
In his memo to ICE officers last week, Acting ICE Director Michael P. Taylor said ICE agents will continue to focus on removing criminals and others who pose a threat to public safety, including people who have committed serious crimes or have been convicted of serious crimes, or are considered violent offenders.
The memo says that even if an ICE officer believes an individual is a threat, the officer will not enforce immigration law, but will instead prioritize the removal of a person’s removal papers, “so as to allow ICE agents to focus their enforcement resources on criminal aliens, serious criminals, and other individuals that pose a risk to public health and safety.”ICE is the lead agency in enforcing immigration law and the nation’s immigration policies.
