The Department of Homeland Security is setting the stage for a major push against illegal immigration and while it doesn’t involve mass deportations, new memos indicate that the Trump administration is planning to ramp up efforts to enforce existing immigration laws, with thousands of new agents, empowered to make big decisions
In a series of memos to DHS leadership, newly minted Secretary John Kelly says that he intends to end the “catch and release”-style programs of the Obama administration, removing exemptions from deportation for “all classes and categories of undocumented immigrants.”
The memos also outline a hiring process, swelling the ranks of Border Patrol and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, with between 5,000 and 15,000 new agents each over the next several years.
The memos immediately sent some anti-Trump activists into a panic, calling the changes the beginning of “mass deportation” efforts Trump promised during his Presidential campaign. Indeed, the memos do seem to indicate that no illegal immigrant is safe from deportation.
Those who have committed serious crimes will be prioritized for return, but even using fake documents to obtain employment—or “abus[ing] any program related to receipt of public benefits”—is considered a “serious crime.”
But while the guidelines do greatly expand individual law enforcement officers’ leeway in determining who might face removal, the memos fall far short of authorizing the round-up of more than 11 million people thought to be in the US illegally.
Immigration officers will now be able to handle, by themselves (and even, possibly deport), any person they believe to be “a risk to public safety or national security and the agency will be empowered to implement expedited deportation procedures for illegal immigrants who have just entered the US. DHS personnel also will be able to arrest anyone they have “probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws.”
Some of the guidelines do raise Constitutional questions—particularly the part about stopping, searching and arresting anyone who looks as though they might have violated an immigration law—but it will be hard to quantify any damages until the order is put into practice.
And then there’s how to pay for it all. Constructing a border wall and hiring thousands of new immigration officers will cost a pretty penny—by some estimates, several billion dollars will be spent on the project as a whole.
DHS Secretary John Kelly says that the department will start assessing financial needs by preparing a report on how much money the US gives to Mexico, and then asking Congress to consider whether some of those funds could be redirected to reducing illegal immigration.
The memos, DHS says, aren’t due for immediate implementation, but will be part of an extended trial-and-error style process, drawn out over the next several years. The Trump administration is also still working on an updated executive order concerning international immigration, likely to be unveiled later this month.
