Washington Examiner–Group: Memo shows Obama team obstructed deportation cases

IRLI In The News

October 9, 2017

By Paul Bedard

A newly obtained memo shows that a top Obama legal office interfered with key immigration investigators in deportation cases, bolstering a congressional charge that the government was losing half of those legal cases on purpose, according to an immigration reform group.

The 2013 memo from former Immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy legal adviser Riah Ramlogan required that prosecutors get permission from her office before putting ICE agents on the stand in courtrooms.

“As soon as an Office of the Principal Legal Adviser attorney determines that an ICE officer’s or agent’s testimony is essential to advancing the DHS position, the attorney must submit a written request outlining the proposed testimony and explaining its significance to the case to the immediate supervisor,” the memo said.

According to the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which obtained the memo in a lawsuit and provided it to Secrets, it substantiates congressional fears at the time that the administration was interfering with deportation cases when thousands of illegal immigrants were crossing the border. … Read the full story by Paul Bedard.

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