II. Recommendations

To the President of the United States

• Encourage Congress to amend US immigration law to ensure that prior to deportation, all non-citizens have access to a hearing before an impartial adjudicator, weighing the non-citizen's interest in remaining in the United States against the US interest in deporting the individual. At a minimum, ensure that such hearings are available to every legally present non-citizen as well as all refugees and asylum seekers.
• Until US immigration laws are so amended, instruct Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus its enforcement resources on deportations of undocumented non-citizens convicted of serious, violent crimes in the United States.

To the United States Congress

· Amend immigration laws to provide access (as was the case prior to 1997) to a balancing hearing before an impartial adjudicator in which a non-citizen's interest in remaining in the United States is weighed against the US interest in deporting the individual. In the reinstated balancing hearings, ensure that the following are weighed in favor of the non-citizen remaining in the United States:

o Family relationships in the United States,

o Hardship family members will experience as a result of deportation,

o The best interests of any children in the family,

o Legal presence in the United States,

o Length of time in the United States,

o Period of time after the conviction during which the non-citizen has remained conviction-free (evidence of rehabilitation),

o Investment in the community of the United States through business enterprises, military service, property ownership, and/or tax payments, and

o Lack of connection to the country of origin.

·Amend US immigration law to ensure that deportees are protected from return to persecution unless they have been convicted of a particularly serious crime and are dangerous to the community of the United States, within the meaning of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention).

To the Department of Homeland Security

· Publish annual statistics that reveal what criminal convictions form the basis for all removals from the United States on criminal grounds, the immigration status ("lawful permanent resident," "asylee," etc.) of all persons removed on criminal grounds, and whether non-citizens removed have nuclear family relationships with US citizens or lawful permanent residents.