Department Responsibilities: Enforcing our Immigration Laws

The Department bears responsibility for facilitating legal immigration and welcoming new Americans - as well as providing a range of other immigration services - while cracking down on those who violate our nation's laws. In recent months we issued new guidance to our agents in the field to focus our energies on apprehending criminal illegal aliens and prosecuting employers who knowingly hire illegal workers. At the same time, we are committed to providing employers with the most up-to-date and effective resources to maintain a legal workforce through the expansion of the E-Verify program.

Department Responsibilities
Immigration Activities & Programs

Targeting Criminal Aliens Who Pose a Threat to Public Safety

• The Department is expanding the Secure Communities program to enable the sharing of biometric information across jurisdictions to target criminal aliens in U.S. correctional facilities. This technology has been deployed to 49 locations nationwide, allowing law enforcement to identify criminal aliens in their custody.
• We continue to aggressively pursue criminal alien gang members through Operation Community Shield. Since the program's inception, more than 1,800 gang members have been arrested nationwide.
• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)'s Fugitive Operations Program also has located more than 11,000 fugitive aliens who have been ordered to be removed from the country but have failed to comply.

Worksite Enforcement

• The Department released new field guidance on worksite enforcement, strengthening its efforts to target employers who knowingly violate the law. This guidance formalizes procedures for arrest and removal of illegal workers identified during enforcement actions and increases the use of administrative tools such as Form 1-9 audits, criminal prosecutions, seizure of assets, civil fines, and debarment.
• We continue to help employers maintain a legal workforce by strengthening and expanding the web-based E-Verify program. E-Verify is used by more than 126,000 employers nationwide, with 1,000 new businesses joining each week.

Partnerships with Local Law Enforcement

• Under the 287(g) program, ICE has signed 66 active agreements in 23 states to give specially trained local law enforcement authorization to perform immigration enforcement duties, under the oversight and supervision of ICE.

Facilitating Legal Immigration

• U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cleared the backlog of a year or more for identity checks on people seeking to work and live in the U.S. or become citizens. Now the vast majority of requests for routine checks are answered within 30 days.
• The Department announced that it will grant deferred action for two years to qualified widows of U.S. citizens, and their unmarried children.
• USCIS announced a $1.2 million competitive grant program, providing funding to U.S. community-based organizations that serve immigrant groups.