Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly’s two memos to the heads of various agencies sets into motion sweeping new guidelines that affect undocumented immigrants in the US.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos, signed by Secretary John Kelly, lay out that any immigrant living in the United States illegally who has been charged or convicted of any crime – and even those suspected of a crime – will now be an enforcement priority.
The White House will hire 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers as part of a strict new implementation to target criminal illegal immigrants across the United States.
Mexican officials repeatedly have said they will not pay for a border barrier.
In a series of executive orders last month, the president expanded the power of immigration officers and announced plans to fulfill his campaign promises by building a wall along the southern U.S. border.
The guidance instructs asylum officers to “elicit all relevant information” in determining whether an applicant has “credible fear” of persecution if returned home, the first obstacle faced by migrants on the U.S. -Mexico border requesting asylum. Homeland Security will also expand the list of immigrants who are subject to speedy removal from the US when caught crossing the border illegally.
The plan leaves protections in place for immigrants who entered the country illegally as children, known as “dreamers”. The new criteria would apply to anyone who arrived in the last two years.
Approximately 750,000 undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States at a young age – known as “dreamers” – depend on the program to live and work in the USA without fear of deportation. “These memos amount to an instruction manual for the coast-to-coast, fast-track deportation of everyone in the United States without papers, no matter how long they’ve been here, how strong their family ties, and how much they contribute”.
Apparently not subject to the new rules are undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, who receives deportation protections from then-president Barack Obama in 2012.
Kelly additionally authorized the expansion of an Immigration and Nationality Act section to any willing and qualified state or local law enforcement jurisdiction.
Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, told the Washington Post on Saturday he had not seen the memos.
Mark Silverman, senior staff attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a pro-immigrant rights group based in San Francisco, said the guidelines outlined in the memo were “very disturbing” and “draconian”, particularly the section about prosecuting parents trying to bring their children to the USA.
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– Requires transparent, public reporting of border apprehensions data, including: the number of convicted criminals and the nature of their offenses; the prevalence of gang members and prior immigration violators; the custody status of aliens and, if released, the reason for release and location of that release; and the number of aliens ordered removed and those aliens physically removed.
