Under U.S. immigration law, prosecutorial discretion (PD) refers to the power that ICE has to discontinue working on a deportation case. ICE can exercise its PD in many different ways.
For example, ICE can join you in asking an immigration judge to close your case. Or, ICE might agree to ask an immigration judge to reopen your case so that you can apply for relief from removal.
ICE decides on a case-by-case basis whether or not to exercise PD in a particular case. In some cases, an executive action for a specific case situation will direct ICE. Furthermore, PD may be authorized through a specific program with a separate application process. These include Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), for example.
An important warning before anything else: If you are an undocumented person in the U.S. who is not in removal (deportation) proceedings, you should not contact Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to request prosecutorial discretion without first talking to an attorney. In addition to refusing to exercise prosecutorial discretion, ICE might also try to deport you.
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