Res. No. 154
Title
Resolution calling upon the 115th Congress to pass, and the President to sign, H.R. 2508, which would provide immigration judges with discretionary authority to determine that an immigrant parent of a United States citizen child should not be ordered removed, deported, or excluded from the United States
Body
By Council Member Dromm
Whereas, New York City is home to two immigration courts which, according to data from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), are among the busiest immigration courts in the nation with nearly 78,000 cases pending as of April 2017;
Whereas, Immigration judges bear primary responsibility for the removal, deportation, and exclusion of individuals in the United States (U.S.); and
Whereas, Immigration judges are currently precluded from considering family unity as a factor in removal proceedings involving an individual who is the parent of a U.S. citizen child; and
Whereas, According to a 2016 fact sheet issued by the Migration Policy Institute, between the years 2009 and 2013, there were 5.1 million U.S. children under age 18 with at least one unauthorized immigrant parent; and
Whereas, Roughly 79% of those children were U.S. citizens; and
Whereas, According to a 2015 report by the Migration Policy Institute and the Urban Institute, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) did not track data regarding the deportation of parents of U.S. citizen children until 2010; and
Whereas, ICE reports that between July 2010 and September 2012 it deported 205,000 parents who claimed to have at least one U.S. citizen child and an additional 72,000 in 2013; and
Whereas, The American Immigration Council reported in a 2017 factsheet that, based on ICE data, experts believe that roughly half a million U.S. citizen children experienced the detention and deportation of at least one parent between 2011 and 2013; and
Whereas, The Migration Policy Institute projects that, in ...
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