THIS may be one of the most unsettling weeks for kababayans who are living and working in the United States without legal status as the Trump administration unveiled new guidelines to be implemented by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
These provisions make good on Pres. Donald Trump’s campaign promise to deport the almost 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. Trump is also to expected to sign a new executive order this week, in lieu of the executive order that had been frozen by the federal court and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
As the Washington Post first reported, the new guidelines signed by DHS Secretary John Kelly is expected to “aggressively detain and deport illegal immigrants inside the United States and at the border.”
USA Today reports that new guidelines call for the hiring of thousands of additional enforcement agents and increasing the number of immigration judges, expanding the pool of immigrants prioritized for removal, enlisting local law enforcement to help with arrests and speeding up deportation hearings. They also propose prosecuting parents and family members in the U.S. who pay smugglers to bring over unaccompanied minors.
Whereas former President Barack Obama focused his administration’s deportations exclusively on hardened criminals and those with terrorist ties, the Trump administration’s deportation efforts dramatically expand the scope of enforcement operations, giving ICE agents the power to determine the operational definition of the word “criminal record” or “crime” committed by those in the U.S. without legal status.
This means that ICE agents have the prerogative to include an apprehension for a reason like a DUI or just being in the country illegally as reasons enough to deport the undocumented.
According to the Washington Post, the new guidelines would now allow authorities to seek expedited deportation proceedings. Currently, this procedure is limited to undocumented immigrants who have been in the country for two weeks or less. The new order will be expanded to cover anyone who has been in the country for up to two years.
The Post further stated that under the new guidelines, Mexican immigrants who are apprehended at the border would now be ordered to immediately return back home, pending the outcomes of their deportation hearings. They would no longer be detained in the U.S., an effort that would reportedly save detention space and other resources.
The guidelines also aim to stop the pouring in of the growing wave of 155,000 unaccompanied minors who have come from Mexico and Central America over the past three years. Under the new guidelines, their parents in the United States could be prosecuted if they are found to have paid smugglers to bring the children across the border.
The new guidelines also give the go signal for Trump’s promised border wall to begin construction, mandating the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to “immediately begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall, including the attendant lighting, technology (including sensors), as well as patrol and access roads.” Funding for the wall’s construction and maintenance, however, would still need approval by Congress.
While the new guidelines failed to make good Trump’s campaign promise to overturn the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) that has provided work permits to more than 750,000 immigrants who came to the country illegally as children, the Trump administration clarified that these DACA recipients would be spared for now, temporarily.
IF YOU THINK these guidelines and Trump’s soon to be released new executive order on immigration could make you and your family vulnerable, then you better consult a reputable immigration attorney to know your rights and options as provided for by law.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
