The
Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping set
of orders Tuesday that implement
President Trump's plan to increase immigration
enforcement, placing the vast majority of the nation's 11
million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation.
The memos instruct all agents — including Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) and
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — to
identify, capture and quickly deport every undocumented
immigrant they encounter.
The memos require undocumented immigrants caught entering the
country to be placed in detention until their cases are
resolved, increase the ability of local police to help in
immigration enforcement, call for the hiring of 10,000 more
immigration agents and allow planning to begin on an expansion
of the border wall between the United States and Mexico.
The memos make undocumented immigrants who have been
convicted of a crime the highest priority for enforcement
operations. But they make clear that ICE agents should also
arrest and initiate deportation proceedings against any other
undocumented immigrant they encounter.
"Department personnel have full authority to arrest or
apprehend an alien whom an immigration officers has probable
cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws," one
memo said. "They also have full authority to initiate removal
proceedings against any alien who is subject to removal under
any provision of the (Immigration and Nationality Act)."
White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the memos do not
represent a goal of mass deportations.
"Everybody who is here illegally is subject to removal at any
time. That is consistent with every country, not just ours,"
Spicer said. "But the priority that the president has laid
forward (are) the people who have committed a crime or pose a
threat to our public."
The memos fulfill Trump's campaign promises to crack down on
illegal immigration. Dan Stein, president of the Federation for
American Immigration Reform, which advocates for lower levels of
legal and illegal immigration, said the memos capture many
recommendations his group has been making for years.
"It's Christmas in February," Stein said. "What (Homeland
Security Secretary John) Kelly has done is lay out a broad road
map of regaining control of a process that's spun out of
control."
Immigration advocacy groups were crushed. Although Trump
recently said his focus would be to deport undocumented
immigrants with criminal histories or who pose a threat to
national security, the new memos make clear that nearly all
undocumented immigrants are at risk.
"These memos lay out a detailed blueprint for the mass
deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants in America,"
said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America's Voice
Educational Fund, which advocates on behalf of immigrants. "They
fulfill the wish lists of the white nationalist and
anti-immigrant movements and bring to life the worst of Donald
Trump's campaign rhetoric."
One group appears to be spared for now. Homeland Security
spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said Tuesday that deportation
protections granted by
President Obama
in 2012 to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as
children will continue to be honored so long as those
immigrants abide by the rules of the program.
More than 750,000 undocumented immigrants have been granted
deportation protections under that program, known as the
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA).
The orders also detail a broad plan to keep undocumented
immigrants caught crossing the southwest border from making it
to the interior of the U.S. They call for detaining all of them
until their cases are resolved.
Currently, many undocumented immigrants are processed by
immigration agents, released into the country and ordered to
reappear for court hearings. The memos seek to end that
practice, known as “catch and release,” by ordering the
construction of more jails along the southwest border to house
detained immigrants until their cases are resolved.
U.S. Border Patrol agents patrol the Rio Grande river on a
fan boat on the U.S./Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas, on
Feb. 21, 2017. This image is part of an ongoing Agence
France-Presse photo project documenting life on both sides
of the U.S./Mexico border simultaneously by two
photographers traveling for 10 days from California to Texas
between Feb. 13 and 22, 2017.
Jim Watson,
AFP/Getty Images
The new directives also allow Customs agents to send some
people directly back to Mexico, whether they’re Mexican or
not. Under previous administrations, people from Mexico and
Canada could be deported directly back home. But people from
all other countries, such as from
Central America, had to be detained until they
could be flown back to their country of origin.
The memos do not mention the idea of using National Guard
troops along the southwest border, as reported by several
media outlets last week.
On the campaign trail, Trump regularly highlighted crimes
committed by undocumented crimes and embraced the families
of the victims of those crimes. Now, there will be a
permanent office within ICE to carry on that message.
The Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, or
VOICE, establishes a process to keep victims and their
families informed about the status of criminal cases against
the undocumented immigrants and any followup deportation
proceedings. The new orders eliminate protections that had
been granted to undocumented immigrants under the federal
Privacy Act, meaning ICE will now publicly distribute
information about these cases.
"I direct the Director of ICE to immediately reallocate
any and all resources that are currently used to advocate on
behalf of illegal aliens ... to the new VOICE Office," Kelly
wrote in one directive.