Trump Administration Details Massive Deportation Expansion
The Trump administration on Tuesday, released the details for its plan to prosecute and deport millions of undocumented American residents.
The Department of Homeland Security issued two memos from Secretary John Kelly that will expand immigration raids and as well as expand the definition of “criminal aliens” to allow for more people to be rounded up and eventually deported.
The New York Times notes that the “Documents released on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security revealed the broad scope of the president’s ambitions: to publicize crimes by immigrants; enlist local police officers as enforcers; strip immigrants of privacy rights; erect new detention facilities; discourage asylum seekers; and, ultimately, speed up deportations.”
The rule changes issued Tuesday, would no longer exempt any category of “removable alien” from deportation, with the exception of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that was started by President Obama.
The New York Times also noted that, “The new enforcement policies put into practice the fearful speech that Mr. Trump offered on the campaign trail, vastly expanding the definition of ‘criminal aliens’ and warning that such unauthorized immigrants ‘routinely victimize Americans,’ disregard the ‘rule of law and pose a threat’ to people in communities across the United States.”
The announcements Tuesday by the Trump administration are a clear and significant expansion of American deportation policy compared to both Barack Obama and George W Bush administrations.
The Department of Homeland Security also directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hire 10,000 additional people to ramp up the deportations.
In a statement, the ACLU’s director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project said, “President Trump does not have the last word here — the courts and the public will not allow this un-American dream to become reality.”
