DHS drafts guidelines aimed at immigrants

The Department of Homeland Security is starting to roll out President Trump’s plans to crackdown on illegal immigration.

Those immigrants who have been arrested for serious or minor crimes will be the first to be in danger of deportation, according to memos released to White House staff. It was later scaled back by the Obama administration.

But, as VOX notes, “the massive immigration-enforcement “machine” the United States now will have almost free rein to arrest, detain and deport unauthorized immigrants wherever it finds them”.

The DHS directives expand expedited deportations to those who have been here two years or less who are arrested anywhere in the country. This provision has historically been reserved only for people apprehended within 100 miles of the border, or those who had arrived only 1-2 weeks previous to their apprehension.

Houses of worship offer no legal protection for undocumented immigrants, but immigration officials have generally followed a “sensitive locations” policy and have not taken people into custody in houses of worship, schools or hospital. Last year, more than 350,000 undocumented immigrants were detained by the ICE.

The memo said the only exception will be those 750,000 or so young people brought to the U.S.as children who registered under the Obama administration’s Deferred Action of Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.

The guidance reportedly calls for the hiring of 10,000 extra US Immigration and Customs agents and 5,000 more US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents.

The DHS wants to recruit local police to assist with federal deportation efforts. The guidelines did not adopt a draft plan to enlist National Guard troops to help apprehend undocumented immigrants in almost a dozen states. By the end of his presidency, more than 2.7 million immigrants had been deported, 90 percent reportedly being convicted criminals.

The plan includes an aggressive use of existing laws to process undocumented immigrants living in the USA, including “expedited removal” procedures that deny court proceedings to those here illegally, CNN reported.

Numerous instructions will not be implemented immediately because they depend on US Congress, a public comment period or negotiations with other nations, the officials said.

Yet, as L.A. “That is consistent with every country, not just ours”, Spicer said, reported USA Today.