Donald Trump administration targets illegal immigrants who were given reprieves from deportation by Barack Obama

In September 2014, Gilberto Velasquez, a 38-year-old house painter from El Salvador, received life-changing news: The US government had decided to shelve its deportation action against him.

The move was part of a policy change initiated by then-President Barack Obama in 2011 to pull back from deporting immigrants who had formed deep ties in the United States and whom the government considered no threat to public safety. Instead, the administration would prioritise illegal immigrants who had committed serious crimes.

Last month, things changed again for the painter, who has lived in the United States illegally since 2005 and has a U.S.-born child. He received news that the government wanted to put his deportation case back on the court calendar, citing another shift in priorities, this time by President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration has moved to reopen the cases of hundreds of illegal immigrants who, like Velasquez, had been given a reprieve from deportation, according to government data and court documents reviewed by Reuters and interviews with immigration lawyers.

Trump signalled in January that he planned to dramatically widen the net of illegal immigrants targeted for deportation, but his administration has not publicised its efforts to reopen immigration cases.

It represents one of the first …read more