President Trump is ordering the federal government to step up enforcement of the nation's immigration laws, to the delight of enforcement-first immigration hawks who have been on the outside looking in during the last two administrations.
"For me, every day since the election has been like Christmas," said former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who was for a decade the leading immigration restrictionist in Congress. "Santa Trump gives me a present every day and this was today's."
The gift Tancredo is referring to came in the form of Department of Homeland Security documents made public Tuesday detailing the Trump administration's plans to step up immigration enforcement both at the border and within the interior of the country.
According to these documents, the Trump administration is going to expand its enforcement priorities beyond illegal immigrants who have also committed serious crimes. Any criminal conviction could result in deportation, especially for the kind of document fraud that is common among the undocumented.
The memoranda remind the public that any illegal immigrant is subject to removal. The DHS is ordered to widen the areas of the country where illegal immigrants can be deported swiftly. Immigration authorities will "no longer will exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement."
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05.12.2024