Washingtontimes.com
Doris Meissner, President Clinton's Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) commissioner, used her last hours in office to issue a directive reminiscent of Mr. Clinton's criminal pardons.
But while Mr. Clinton's pardons targeted a finite group of criminals and sparked national controversy, Miss Meissner's directive targets an open-ended class of criminals and has gone almost unnoticed.
Meissner left INS Nov. 17, 2000. That day, she sent a memorandum to INS field leaders, including the chief agents in the Border Patrol's 22 sectors nationwide. Titled "Exercising Prosecutorial Discretion," the memo provided "guidelines" encouraging field officers to forgo enforcing a 1996 immigration law against some criminal aliens who, under that law, faced mandatory detention during immigration proceedings and almost certain deportation as a result of those proceedings.
Eleven days later, the INS published a "fact sheet" explaining Miss Meissner's guidelines. It denigrated the 1996 law.
Posted by Suzanne at February 1, 2003