How Trump's policies are changing immigration enforcement in the US

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ABC News(WASHINGTON) —  Just after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that called for a huge shift in enforcement priorities and the hiring of thousands of federal immigration officers — striking fear among many immigrants that the administration had begun to amass a deportation force.

On Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued two memorandums detailing how DHS, which will have primary authority over implementation, will execute the president’s executive order. Critics said these were just another step toward mass deportation.

Kelly’s memos begin to solidify the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement goals, but there are still many questions left unanswered — questions of funding, staffing and operational tactics, among others.

Most of the policies and programs being implemented are now under thorough review, according to sources with the department. However, there are some key differences between the Obama administration immigration policies and the new plans under Trump.

Here’s some of what’s changed and what has stayed the same:

Enforcement priorities

Under the executive order “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” which was signed on Jan. 25, ICE will “not exempt classes or categories of removal aliens from potential enforcement.”

Kelly’s memos make it clear that anyone who is in violation of immigration laws may be subject to arrest, detention and deportation from the U.S.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that the message from the White House is that those who “pose a threat to our public safety or have committed a crime will be the first to go,” adding the administration will aggressively make sure this happens.

When asked if mass deportation is a goal of the Trump administration, Spicer, said, “No. What we have to get back to is understanding a couple of things. There is a law in place that says if you are in this country illegally that we have an obligation to make sure the people who are in our country are here legally.”

But critics disagree.

“These memos confirm that the Trump administration is willing to trample on due process, human decency, the well-being of our communities and even protections for vulnerable children, in pursuit of a hyper-aggressive mass deportation policy,” said Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

In 2014, the former DHS secretary under President Barack Obama instructed all of the relevant agencies to exercise prosecutorial discretion — deciding whom to stop, arrest, detain, grant parole, etc. — while enforcing the nation’s immigration laws.

Then-Secretary Jeh Johnson wrote that “due to limited resources,” law enforcement officers and federal attorneys should prioritize illegal aliens who pose a threat to national security, border security and public safety.

The second priority was aliens with misdemeanor convictions and recent border crossers. All other immigration violators, even those with final orders of removal, were the last priority.

Resources were dedicated to deporting people by priority.

Under the new order, all removable immigrants are eligible for deportation. However, ICE has been instructed to continue to “prioritize several categories of removable aliens who have committed crimes, beginning with those convicted of a criminal offense.”

“If these laws are not good laws then I would highly encourage the legislators in our country to change the law. Until they are changed, people like me and ICE and other private citizens can’t pick and choose the laws they are gonna obey,” Kelly told ABC News during a tour of the southern border earlier this month.

In practice, ICE will continue to carry out targeted operations of criminals and national security threats, but if other undocumented immigrants come into contact with ICE, they too could be deported or put into deportation proceedings, according to sources familiar with operations under the Trump administration.

Sanctuary cities

President Trump has made no secret of his disdain for so-called “sanctuary cities,” which vary on a city-by-city basis, but in most cases provide some protections to undocumented immigrants by not fully cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

Trump has repeatedly called for cutting federal funding to these cities. They include major cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Seattle and Boston.

In summer 2015, ICE implemented a new program — the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) — to try to establish a better working relationship with local law enforcement, by agreeing to focus on individuals who pose a danger to public safety.

“With the implementation of [PEP] in July 2015, many law enforcement agencies, including some large jurisdictions, are now once again cooperating with ICE,” said an ICE spokesperson in November of last year.

PEP was tailored to “bring back on board those state and local jurisdictions that had concerns with, or legal obstacles to assisting us in implementing Secure Communities,” said then-ICE Director Sarah Saldana during 2015 testimony to Congress.

The Trump administration has abolished that program and restored Secure Communities, directing its personnel to take enforcement action consistent with the priorities set forth in the executive orders.

The first iteration of Secure Communities, which was highly controversial, used fingerprints taken when someone is arrested to automatically check the person’s immigration status. Critics accused the program of being unconstitutional and counterproductive.

Some cities that disagreed with the policy responded by refusing to honor detainers, a tool that ICE uses to keep undocumented immigrants who are arrested in custody longer.

It’s unclear what the outcome of the policy shift will be, but many sanctuary cities have already affirmed their opposition to Trump’s policies.

Dreamers

As of now, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains intact.

Obama instituted the policy to allow undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to come out of the shadows and pay a fee to receive a temporary work authorization and protection from deportation.

To qualify for DACA, immigrants have to prove they were under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012, came to the United States before age 16, lived here for at least five years continuously, attend or graduated from high school or college and have no criminal convictions.

Roughly 750,000 people were issued temporary protected status and, separately, work authorizations.

The only two Obama-era memos that were left untouched by the president’s executive order were those that pertain to DACA recipients and the parents of U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

When asked about DACA, Spicer said Tuesday that is not “what is being dealt with now.”

Resources

The Trump administration has called for vastly expanding resources on immigration enforcement.

ICE is currently working on implementing a hiring plan to bring on an additional 10,000 agents and officers, as well as additional operational and mission support and legal staff. This will likely take years to implement.

Federal law enforcement agencies, and police agencies more broadly, are having a difficult time keeping staff levels up at current levels, let alone expanding those levels.

Following the issue of this order, ICE increased its detention capacity by approximately 1,100 beds.

The agency is also defining contracting requirements to support what it says is, “the further need for increased detention capacity, particularly along the southwest border.”

A list of potential detention locations is under review, according to ICE.

Funding for these increases is yet to be determined.

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