President Donald Trump pledged during his campaign to create a deportation force. Now, he’s equipped federal immigration agents with the tools to potentially remove millions of immigrants from the country, politico.com reports.
The Department of Homeland Security issued a pair of guidance memos Tuesday Feb. 21 that gives federal immigration agents wide latitude to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants and legal immigrants with criminal records.
An undocumented immigrant prepares to board a deportation flight to Guatemala in Mesa, Arizona.(PHOTO: cnn.com)
The memos create a blueprint for how to enact two Trump executive orders, one that deals with interior enforcement and another that deals with border security.
Serious criminals will still be a top target for federal immigration officers. But the priorities will be greatly expanded to include undocumented immigrants charged with crimes or those who have committed acts that could constitute a chargeable offense.
The Trump administration’s deportation push will not be limited to undocumented immigrants. The memo stresses that all “removable aliens” could be subject to immigration enforcement under the new guidelines.
The left-leaning Migration Policy Institute found that more than half of an estimated 1.9 million deportable immigrants with criminal records were in the country lawfully, either using green cards or some other type of visa.
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Source: politico.com