[Uopatos] important: new immigration enforcement memo from Homeland Security Secretary

[stephenl]

Hello all:

Attached is a very, very troubling memo that was signed by Homeland 
Security Secretary
John Kelly. It lays out how and the rationale for basically detaining 
almost all of the
11 million undocumented people. One of the very troubling points is one 
that criminalizes
parents who paid to have their children brought to the U.S. It also 
removes rights for people who
are not LPR or citizens, and generally lays out how large scale 
deportation will take place and
at a speeded up pace.

This is very serious and is going to be unfolding and already is 
according to legal analysts. I thought
it would be good for people to have the full copy.

Below is a Washington Post Story discussing this new memo released on 
Friday.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/memos-signed-by-dhs-secretary-describe-sweeping-new-guidelines-for-deporting-illegal-immigrants/2017/02/18/7538c072-f62c-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.d6238ac99d47&wpisrc=nl_most-draw8&wpmm=1

Politics
Memos signed by DHS secretary describe sweeping new guidelines for 
deporting illegal immigrants
DHS to raise the bar for undocumented immigrants

The Department of Homeland Security drafted new guidelines that would 
speed up deportations and make it more difficult for migrants to claim 
asylum. The agency plans to hire thousands of additional enforcement 
agents, expand the pool of immigrants prioritized for deportation and 
enlist the help of local law enforcement. (Reuters)


By David Nakamura February 18 at 7:52 PM

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly has signed sweeping new 
guidelines that empower federal authorities to more aggressively detain 
and deport illegal immigrants inside the United States and at the 
border.

In a pair of memos, Kelly offered more detail on plans for the agency to 
hire thousands of additional enforcement agents, expand the pool of 
immigrants who are prioritized for removal, speed up deportation 
hearings and enlist local law enforcement to help make arrests.

The new directives would supersede nearly all of those issued under 
previous administrations, Kelly said, including measures from President 
Barack Obama aimed at focusing deportations exclusively on hardened 
criminals and those with terrorist ties.

“The surge of immigration at the southern border has overwhelmed federal 
agencies and resources and has created a significant national security 
vulnerability to the United States,” Kelly stated in the guidelines.

He cited a surge of 10,000 to 15,000 additional apprehensions per month 
at the southern U.S. border between 2015 and 2016.

A White House official said the memos were drafts and that they are 
under review by the White House Counsel’s Office, which is seeking some 
changes. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because 
the process is not complete, declined to offer specifics.

[Read the memos signed by DHS Secretary Kelly on new guidelines for 
deporting illegal immigrants]

In a series of executive actions in January, President Trump announced 
plans to make good on his campaign promises to build a wall on the 
border with Mexico and to ramp up enforcement actions against the 
nation’s estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants. Kelly’s memos, 
which have not been released publicly, are intended as an implementation 
blueprint for DHS, formally establishing the new policies and directing 
agency employees to begin following them.

However, many specifics of achieving the goals of Trump’s executive 
orders remain unclear. For example, Kelly’s memos direct federal 
officials to seek all available funding for the border wall, but most of 
the funds, estimated at more than $20 billion, must be appropriated by 
Congress.

Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, was sworn in to oversee the 
Department of Homeland Security hours after Trump was inaugurated Jan. 
20. His memos are copied to officials at Customs and Border Protection, 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Citizenship and 
Immigration Services. A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman 
declined to comment on the documents but did not dispute their 
authenticity.

The memos do not include measures to activate National Guard troops to 
help apprehend immigrants in 11 states that had been included in a draft 
document leaked to reporters on Friday.

DHS officials said Kelly, whose signature did not appear on the draft 
document, had never approved such plans.
One undocumented woman's solution to deportation? Seeking sanctuary in a 
church.
Play Video3:07
Jeanette Vizguerra, an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the U.S. 
for 20 years, is under a deportation order and was supposed to check in 
with authorities on February 15. Instead, the mother of four and 
immigration activist is seeking sanctuary 15 miles away in the basement 
of First Unitarian Society of Denver. She plans to remain there 
indefinitely. (Alice Li/The Washington Post)

Immigrant rights advocates said the two memos signed by Kelly mark a 
major shift in U.S. immigration policies by dramatically expanding the 
scope of enforcement operations.

The new procedures would allow authorities to seek expedited deportation 
proceedings, currently limited to undocumented immigrants who have been 
in the country for two weeks or less, to anyone who has been in the 
country for up to two years.

Another new provision would be to immediately return Mexican immigrants 
who are apprehended at the border back home pending the outcomes of 
their deportation hearings, rather than house them on U.S. property, an 
effort that would save detention space and other resources.

The guidelines also aim to deter the arrival of a growing wave of 
155,000 unaccompanied minors who have come from Mexico and Central 
America over the past three years. Under the new policies, their parents 
in the United States could be prosecuted if they are found to have paid 
smugglers to bring the children across the border.

“This memo is just breathtaking, the way they really are looking at 
every part of the entire system,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive 
director of the National Immigration Law Center.

Joanne Lin, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties 
Union, said in a statement that “due process, human decency, and common 
sense are treated as inconvenient obstacles on the path to mass 
deportation. The Trump administration is intent on inflicting cruelty on 
millions of immigrant families across the country.”

The memos don’t overturn one important directive from the Obama 
administration: a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals 
that has provided work permits to more than 750,000 immigrants who came 
to the country illegally as children.

Trump had promised during his campaign to “immediately terminate” the 
program, calling it an unconstitutional “executive amnesty,” but he has 
wavered since then. Last week, he said he would “show great heart” in 
determining the fate of that program.

The memos instruct agency chiefs to begin hiring 10,000 additional ICE 
agents and 5,000 more for the Border Patrol, which had been included in 
Trump’s executive actions.

Kelly also said the agency will try to expand partnerships with 
municipal law enforcement agencies that deputize local police to act as 
immigration officers for the purposes of enforcement.

The program, known as 287(g), was signed into law by the Clinton 
administration and grew markedly under President George W. Bush’s 
tenure. It fell out of favor under the Obama administration.

Currently 32 jurisdictions in 16 states participate in the program, 
according to Kelly’s memo.

Kelly called the program a “highly successful force multiplier,” and 
instructed his deputies to expand it “to the greatest extent practical.”

Politics newsletter

The big stories and commentary shaping the day.

Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which 
represents federal agents and officers, had not seen the memos as of 
Saturday afternoon. In an interview, he said his organization fully 
supports the Trump administration’s agenda on border security.

Judd said he thinks the effort to crack down on enforcement is already 
paying dividends. He said that apprehensions of unauthorized immigrants 
in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, one of the heaviest traveled areas of 
the border, have fallen by about 1,000 between the first two weeks of 
January and first two weeks of February.

-- 
Lynn Stephen
Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences
Professor of Anthropology
Participating Faculty in Ethnic Studies, Latin American Studies, Women's 
and
Gender Studies
Department of Anthropology
1218 University of Oregon
Eugene, OR 97403-1218
541-346-5168
stephenl at uoregon.edu
http://pages.uoregon.edu/anthro/people/faculty/core-faculty/#stephen
http://cllas.uoregon.edu/



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