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

[stephenl]

Thanks Dan. This editorial lays out the dire situation and the 
importance of protest and people
power. Thanks for sharing.

Lynn

On 2017-02-19 16:38, tichenor wrote:
> Thanks so much, Lynn, for sounding the alarm and sharing the memo with
> all of us. To echo Lynn's caution, I was in DC last weekend and
> pro-immigrant allies on the Hill and the national advocacy community
> consider the situation very, very dire. In case you haven't seen it,
> here's a link to the NYT's excellent editorial on Trump's nativist
> plans and its call for actions similar to the airport protests in
> response to his Islamophobic immigration ban:
> 
> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/18/opinion/sunday/breaking-the-anti-immigrant-fever.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region
> 
> Dan
> 
> 
> On 2017/02/19 13:50, stephenl wrote:
>> 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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-- 
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/