Trump Gives ICE New Powers to Fast-Track Illegal Aliens’ Deportation
Federal agents granted 'expedited removal' powers to handle illegal immigrants
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The Trump administration is granting Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) additional powers to rapidly deport illegal aliens by bypassing immigration courts, according to reports.
The powers will apply in situations where an illegal immigrant is unable to prove they have been residing in the United States continuously for at least two years.
Homeland defense officials can unlock their fast-track “expedited removal” power to quickly deport illegal aliens nationwide when they fail to meet the requirements.
Pro-mass-immigration progressives, lawyers, and activists are protesting the new removal power.
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Previously, the rule was restricted to new migrants who were caught within 100 miles of the border, often walking northwards or being smuggled in a vehicle.
“This is a nationwide ‘show me your papers’ law that will have devastating racial profiling and family separation implications,” said a statement from America’s Voice, a pro-migration group:
Picture this: using whatever pretext they want, ICE detains an individual.
Unless that person is carrying on them right now evidence of their citizenship, legal status in this country, or documentation that they have been continuously in the U.S. for more than two years, they could be on a plane out of the country that day without speaking to a lawyer, a hearing, a judge or the right to appeal.
This escalated expedited removal policy will allow the Trump administration to rapidly deport anyone without so much as a trip home to gather evidence of status or to say goodbye to loved ones, let alone a hearing, judge or attorney to provide actual review or due process.
Eleanor Acer, the chief of Human Rights First complained:
This sweeping move will give ICE and CBP officers the power to bypass immigration courts across the country and order individuals they detain to be summarily deported …
Expedited removal is a summary procedure that allows an immigration officer to issue a deportation order—a power previously entrusted to immigration judges.
Acer continued:
Increasing deportation without due process will also likely lead to the summary expulsion of people who have been in the country for many years, simply because they are not carrying proof of their years of residence when immigration officers take them into custody.
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According to Breitbart, the far-reaching deportation rule is allowed by a 1996 law and will start on Tuesday, July 23.
The authority was not used by migrant-friendly presidents Barack Obama or George W. Bush.
Officials will likely use their expanded authority to first target illegal-immigrant criminals, such as MS-13 gang members, as well as recent migrants who are given deportation orders by judges.
The extended authority will also minimize the risk that protests and progressive groups will be able to block deportations.
The expansion was applauded by pro-American reformers.
“Trump administration to use full statutory authority applying expedited removal to illegal aliens in the country for less than 2 years,” said a tweet from Jessica Vaughan, policy director at the Center for Immigration Studies.
“Long overdue. The 1996 law allows illegals who have been in the United States for more than two years to appeal their deportation in the courts.”
Pro-migrant groups are promising to block the expansion.
The American Immigration Council will not stand idly by.
— American Immigration Council (@immcouncil) July 22, 2019
We will see the Trump administration in court. https://t.co/NAQi0Ca9cg
📣 We are suing to quickly stop Trump's efforts to massively expand the expedited removal of immigrants.
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 22, 2019
Immigrants that have lived here for years will have less due process rights than people get in traffic court.
The plan is unlawful. Period.
A statement from Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said:
DHS has determined that the volume of illegal entries, and the attendant risks to national security and public safety presented by these illegal entries, warrants this immediate implementation of DHS’s full statutory authority over expedited removal.
DHS expects that the full use of expedited removal statutory authority will strengthen national security, diminish the number of illegal entries, and otherwise ensure the prompt removal of aliens apprehended in the United States.
The resident population of illegals is estimated to be from 11 million to 22 million.
That population includes from eight million to 16 million workers, who simultaneously push down Americans’ wages and drive up Americans’ rents and real-estate costs.
The resident population number is difficult to gauge, partly because it grows as illegals overstay their visas or sneak over the border.
The figure also shrinks as illegals depart, get deported, die, or get legal status via marriage or “Adjustment of Status.”
In early 2017, officials denied roughly 12 percent of illegals’ requests for “Adjustment of Status” requests.
The rejection rate nudged up to 14.9 percent in late 2018.
In 2018, for example, 429,990 people got green cards via adjustment, including many illegals.
