According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, about 27 percent of all convicts in the United States are not American citizens. The United States Immigration Bureau is directing their focus toward illegal immigrants with criminal records, and letting off on prosecuting otherwise-innocent illegal immigrant families. As a result of this new focus, the ICE has created a plethora of programs. All of these are under the umbrella of the CAP, or Criminal Alien Program.

Essentially, this is the program that puts high enforcement on combating illegal aliens with criminal records. They especially want to zone in on the felons that are a threat to the public safety. The program allows the ICE to identify these criminals within federal, state, and local prisons. Then, these inmates are investigated and expedited. This means that upon release they will be deported back to their country-of-origin. According to the ICE, completing this process while the convict is incarcerated helps to eliminate the time that that person would otherwise have to spend in ICE custody. As a result of cutting the amount of convicts in ICE facilities, government costs are reduced.

The CAP program works with the help of ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) officers, who are assigned to prisons and jails throughout the nation. These agents screen inmates and place detainers on the criminals who need to be removed from the country before their sentence ends. Once screening and investigations are over, the CAP officers can begin the process of deporting the inmates. Another ICE agency that works towards the CAP agenda is the VCAS, or Violent Criminal Alien Sanction. These officials enforce violations of the criminal immigration law, and prosecute criminal offenders that were identified by the ERO.

Working alongside the VCAS is the JCART, or Joint Criminal Alien Removal Task Forces. These forces investigate and arrest at-large criminal immigrants. Most often, JCART works with aliens convicted of drug trafficking, violent crime, or sex offenses. JCART also identifies and targets aliens that are part of human trafficking or smuggling conspiracies. The JCART is not alone in this mission; they work with probation and parole officers, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Prisons and other law enforcement agencies. Another important ICE acronym is DEPORT, which stands for the Detention Enforcement and Processing Offenders by Remote Technology. The DEPORT center in Chicago is a facility specifically designed for digital interviews. Here, CAP agents are able to video-chat with inmates all over America so that they can best ascertain what sentence is appropriate.

All of these agencies work with the Rapid REPEAT program. This stands for the Rapid Removal of Eligible Parolees Accepted for Transfer. Using Rapid REPEAT, certain illegal aliens are granted early release in exchange for returning to their homeland voluntarily. The criminals must have been sentenced for a non-violent crime, and must promise not to return to the states. Also, they need to waive appeal rights and must receive final removal orders. If they re-enter the states, then the state has the right to revoke all previous release rights and the alien will need to serve the rest of his or her original sentence. Also, aliens can be prosecuted under the federal statutes for up to 20 years in prison because they illegally re-entered the country.

The Rapid REPEAT program began in November 2007, when the ICE began meeting with state governments to talk about the concept. Prior to REPEAT, the ICE was operating on the basis of ACCESS. ACCESS stands for the Agreements of Cooperation in Communities to Enhance Safety and Security. Essentially, the ACCESS program aimed at giving inmates incentives which would push them towards better behavior in and out of confinement. A variant of the REPEAT platform was tested in Georgia and Rhode Island. It was modeled after similar agencies in New York and Arizona. The programs were so successful that they are now national.

The ICE plays a very prominent role in immigration law, so it is very important to be familiar with the programs that it launches. This new focus on criminal immigrants will help to eliminate aliens that are a threat to the country, and may prove a benefit to illegal immigrants who have not committed any crimes. If you would like more information about how the ICE programs affect your immigration case, you should contact an immigration lawyer.