US Govt Begins Crackdown on Illegal Immigrants

Fri Jan 24 2025
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Key points

  • State and local officials to help in immigration crackdown or face the consequences
  • On Wednesday Democrats and Republicans passed anti-immigrant legislation
  • Trump defied Biden’s direction not to arrest immigrants near schools and churches
  • Mexico and Colombia are preparing to receive and facilitate thousands of immigrants

ISLAMABAD: President Donald Trump’s administration has asked prosecutors to enquire about officials who oppose immigration implementation steps, increasing a crackdown that Trump started on his first day in office.

According to Reuters, Emil Bove, Trump’s acting deputy attorney general, told Justice Department staff that state and local officials ought to cooperate with the immigration crackdown and federal prosecutors “shall investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution.”

But, the Justice Department could also challenge laws that complicate the effort, Bove wrote.

The policy was released as the new Republican administration prepared to speed up the policing of illegal immigration in cities with large migrant populations, leading to potential issues with officials in cities like New York and Chicago that refuse to cooperate with such efforts.

New memo

The new memo showed how Trump’s Justice Department can try to support his immigration policy by expanding threats of criminal charges beyond immigrants or those who employ them to city and state officials, according to Reuters.

It is the new in a series of executive policies Trump has initiated to curb illegal immigration, his top priority.

During Trump’s first 2017-2021 term in office, a lot of Democratic officials declined to cooperate with his enforcement strategies, and some promised to defy him again.

“We know that we don’t have to participate in immigration enforcement activities,” Democratic California Attorney General Rob Bonta said on CNN.

New legislation

However, opposition in the party is not common this time. In the US House of Representatives on Wednesday 46 Democrats – one-fifth of their number – joined 217 Republicans to pass legislation that would need immigrants who live in the country illegally to be captured for deportation if they are accused of theft.

The bill has already passed the Senate with Democratic backing and now heads to Trump’s desk to become law.

“The American people want us to do something about the border and I think we’d be hard-pressed to not say that we have to deport criminals,” Representative Tom Suozzi, a moderate Democrat who voted for the bill, told Reuters.

Trump has issued a wide ban on asylum and taken steps to restrain citizenship for children born on American soil.

Troops deployment

A US official said on Wednesday the military would deploy 1,000 additional active-duty troops to the Mexico-U.S. border following Trump’s orders.

The administration has declined instructions from Joe Biden to limit immigration arrests near schools, churches, and other sensitive places.

Trump has also increased immigration officers’ power to deport migrants who cannot be convinced they have been in the US for more than two years.

His step to expand fast deportations faced a legal challenge on Wednesday, with immigration advocacy group Make the Road New York filing a lawsuit stating the policy known as expedited removal violated the constitutional right to due process, immigration law, and administrative law.

Executive order

US civil rights groups said that an executive order issued by Trump on Monday – setting a 60-day window for officials to locate countries whose vetting and screening processes are “so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries” – laid the groundwork for reinstatement of a ban on travellers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries.

Americans are divided on Trump’s strategies for mass deportations. An Ipsos survey showed 39 per cent agreed that “illegal immigrants should be arrested and put in detention camps while awaiting deportation hearings,” while 42 per cent disagreed and the rest were unsure.

around 46 per cent of respondents said they approved of how Trump was handling immigration policy. Around 39 per cent disapproved.

Survey results

The poll, which surveyed adults on Jan. 20-21, found 58 per cent of participants agreed that the US should “dramatically cut the number of migrants allowed to ask for asylum at the border,” while 22 per cent disagreed.

State and local officials who obstruct immigration implementation could be charged under federal laws against defrauding the US or harbouring immigrants who are in the US unlawfully, according to the Justice Department memo.

Prosecutors who do not file criminal charges will need to explain their decision to superiors, the memo said.

Sanctuary laws

Of the estimated 11 million immigrants in the US, about 44 per cent lived in states with “sanctuary” laws that resist cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

In Mexico, authorities have started to construct giant tent shelters in the city of Ciudad Juarez to prepare for the influx of deported Mexicans.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, during a trip to Haiti, spoke out for unity in the face of tough immigration restrictions in the United States.

“They don’t want Haitians, they don’t want Venezuelans … they don’t want Colombians,” he said. “Well, let’s leave them alone a while and see how it goes. I believe we will help each other, and those who kick us out will end up alone.”

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