The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday released details on how it will prosecute undocumented immigrants and criminal immigrants under President Trump.
The two memos from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly expand immigration raids and the definition of criminal aliens, while diminishing sanctuary areas and enlisting local law enforcement to execute federal immigration policy.
The only Obama-era guidances left in place are those relating to undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
The memos from Kelly provide guidance to federal immigration authorities following Trump’s decision to expand the definition of criminal immigrants who are priorities for deportation.
“The memo contemplates a massive expansion of people being removed from the country without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom,” said Tom Jawetz, the vice president of immigration at the liberal Center for American Progress.
The memos also make parents and other adults who help children enter the U.S. illegally potentially subject to deportation or criminal prosecution.
That policy change is meant to discourage Central American children who make the often-dangerous trek into the country. The number has surged over the past three years, with minors fleeing gang violence in countries such as Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Unaccompanied minors who arrive in the U.S. are treated differently under the law than adults; they must be resettled with parents or other adults in the country as they await their immigration cases.
But the memos from Kelly say the system is being abused. They say 60 percent of unaccompanied minors are placed into the care of one or more parents living illegally in the U.S.
“Regardless of the desires for family reunification, or conditions in other countries, the smuggling or trafficking of alien children is intolerable,” one of the memos says.
The document calls for authorities to “ensure the proper enforcement of our immigration laws against those who directly or indirectly facilitate the smuggling or trafficking of alien children into the United States,” including removal or other prosecution.
The new guidance also suggests some children deemed unaccompanied minors have been wrongly designated and could be subject to faster deportation proceedings.
The memos are meant to serve as a blueprint for federal officials to put Trump’s immigration directives into place.
But the documents still leave some questions unanswered, such as where to house undocumented immigrants swept up in raids.
The memos direct immigration enforcement agencies to use detention when starting removal proceedings against an immigrant, instead of giving them a notice to appear in court.
Agencies are told to “allocate all available resources to expand their detention capabilities and capacities,” but Congress would likely need to appropriate more money to build new detention centers.
President Trump’s January executive orders expanded federal immigration authority, as well as the definition of who could be considered a criminal alien, and cracked down on sanctuary cities.
Immigration raids that followed the orders were criticized for casting too wide a net and targeting both low-level offenders and undocumented immigrants who had otherwise followed the law.
Those actions would also have been counter to Obama-era enforcement regulations, which were rendered void by Tuesday’s memos.
Under the new regulations, federal officers will no longer consider any category of “removable alien” as exempt from removal, except for those protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
The new regulations also restore programs for local law enforcement collaboration with federal authorities that were tabled under the Obama administration because of concerns that they violated due process or were a hindrance to local authorities.
In the memos, Kelly does not direct National Guard troops to begin helping arrest immigrants in states on or near U.S. borders. The proposal has been included in a draft document that leaked last week but was quickly dismissed by White House officials as something that was never seriously considered.
Source: The Hill
