Immigration reform news 2015 - Obama administration scaling back on deportations, ICE told to only target threats

Lost in President Obama's fight to implement stalled executive actions on immigration are a set of new policies aimed at deporting only the most threatening undocumented individuals.

Since a slew of enforcement policies took effect in January, the Department of Homeland Security has begun targeting undocumented immigrants who are either terrorist threats, convicted criminals, or new to the United States. Unlike DAPA and DACA programs which would protect as many as five million eligible immigrants, the new measures have not been challenged in court and don't guarantee permanent residency; only reassuring without malicious intentions that they are not the focus of deportations.

"We are making it clear that we should not expend our limited resources on deporting those who have been here for years, have committed not serious crimes and have, in effect, become integrated members of our society," said Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, as quoted by the Washington Post.

Johnson added, "These people are here, they live among us, and they are not going away."

According to the Washington Post, which broke the report, the DHS is on pace to remove 229,000 people - 27 percent fewer than 2014 - from the country this year. That's about half the amount from a record-high set in 2012.

Part of the reason figures were high three years ago was because of a Bush administration program called Secure Communications. It allowed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcements officials to collude with local police departments to reprimand undocumented immigrants longer than the required 48-hour jail period.

Like Security Communications, a new program set to being this summer allows ICE to ask police when an inmate is slated to be released; only now they can't keep them beyond their schedule release.

The new program, while softening the stance on deportation, still leaves immigrants vulnerable regardless of the veracity of crimes. Low-level offenders will still be targets, even if their conviction was immigration related.

 Johnson outlined the program's intent in a memo release last November.

"Our enforcement and removal policies should continue to priorities threats to national security, public safety, and border security. The intent of this new policy is to provide clearer and more effective guidance in the pursuit of those priorities."