Five Questions About Donald Trump’s Immigration Plans
Five Questions About Donald Trump’s Immigration Plans
By LAURA MECKLER
Nov 30, 2016 7:42 am ET 1 COMMENTS
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Teresa Galindo, left , an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, and others march to draw attention to immigration policies proposed by President-elect Donald Trump in New York City Nov. 22. PHOTO: JUSTIN LANE/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Donald Trump built his presidential campaign around opposition to illegal immigration, but many remain confused about what to expect, particularly regarding deportations.
An estimated 11 million or so people are living in the U.S. illegally, and during the 2016 campaign, Mr. Trump at times promised a deportation force to send them back to their home countries. Since the election, Mr. Trump has suggested a more targeted approach focused on criminals.
“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers,” he said in a recent interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
Looking ahead to the Trump administration, here are five questions about what to expect:
Who’s a criminal? Mr. Trump’s promise to focus on criminals sounds a lot like the policy of President Barack Obama, who has directed immigration agents to focus on criminals, too.
Mr. Obama laid out a careful definition of a criminal:
Top priorities include people who pose a threat to national security, gang members and people convicted of felonies or aggravated felonies. A second tier includes those convicted of three or more misdemeanors or one serious misdemeanor.
People guilty of traffic violations or of purely immigration-related crimes are not generally prioritized.
Mr. Trump and his aides have not said how they would define a criminal. Dan Stein, president of the anti-immigration Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Tuesday that he expects the Trump administration to jettison the “shackles” that have prevented the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency from going after most illegal immigrants, but he said it also makes sense to focus on those who pose the “greatest threat to public safety.”
Will Trump get help from states and cities?
The cooperation of local law enforcement officials is critical to identifying criminals. Local officials routinely send digital fingerprints to the Federal Bureau of Investigation of people they arrest, and the FBI shares that information with immigration authorities.
Under a program begun during the George W. Bush administration called Secure Communities, federal officials asked local authorities to detain those identified as in the country illegally so immigration agents could come and get them. During the Obama administration, many agencies balked at cooperating, with some agreeing to hold people only after the administration narrowed its guidelines to serious offenses.
As Mr. Trump promises to be more aggressive, cities are again pushing back. Many have affirmed their status as “sanctuary cities,”where most undocumented immigrants can live safe from threat of deportation.
The Immigrant Legal Resource Center counts five states, 365 counties and 37 cities with policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Mr. Trump has threatened to cut federal funding from cities that don’t cooperate with federal officials.
Officials and activists cite court rulings that it is unconstitutional to hold people who should otherwise be released.
Will the administration use raids and roundups?
The incoming administration will have to decide whether to take more aggressive approaches to finding undocumented immigrants, such as raiding workplaces, church parking lots or other gathering places.
“There’s a lot of crazy, painful things an administration has the capacity to do,” said Benjamin Johnson, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The last time the U.S. conducted mass roundups of undocumented immigrants was during the Eisenhower administration.
“They’re going to really turn ICE agents loose,” said Roy Beck of the group Numbers USA, referring to the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. He said it’s unrealistic to think every illegal immigrant will be deported but that he expects those who come into contact with law enforcement will be removed. “We’re very excited about getting just a good, strong methodical effort.”
How many people will Trump deport?
Mr. Trump estimated that there are 2 million, possibly 3 million, people who are criminals he would target for deportation.
It’s not clear where he got that number, though the government has said there are about 2 million legal and illegal immigrants who have criminal convictions that would subject them to deportation.
Deportations reached a record high under Mr. Obama before he ratcheted back his approach. In 2015, ICE removed about 235,000 unauthorized immigrants from the U.S., the lowest level since Mr. Obama took office. About six in 10 were criminal offenders, and most of the rest were recent border crossers.
What about the Dreamers?
Mr. Trump has vowed to reverse an Obama order allowing people brought to the U.S. illegally as children to apply for a deportation stay. About 750,000 people have signed up for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, and are able to legally work in the U.S.
Opponents of illegal immigration are expecting Mr. Trump to follow through on his promise. Mr. Beck said the simplest course is to bar people from signing up or renewing their participation in the program.
Under that plan, within two years, the program will die.
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