Thread: DHS cancels Obama policies, orders agents to expand deportations

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly officially ordered federal agents this week to begin arresting and deporting more illegal immigrants, releasing them from the handcuffs the Obama administration had imposed, and making headway on one of President Trump’s chief campaign promises.

While young adult illegal immigrant “Dreamers” are still exempted, agents were told there are no longer any other special classes of people that should be considered off limits for deportation.

Those caught at the border are to be swiftly shipped back, Mr. Kelly said, and he freed agents to target a broader universe of illegal immigrants for deportation from within the interior of the U.S. The secretary said agents are still to give priority to those with criminal rap sheets, but are free to use discretion — taken away from them in the Obama years — to detain anyone they believe to be in the country illegally.

“It is not intended to produce mass roundups,” a Homeland Security official said, briefing reporters on two new memos Mr. Kelly signed Monday.

The memos set the groundwork for building a wall and call for hiring 5,000 more Border Patrol agents, 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and 500 more officers for the Air and Marine operations at Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Funding those priorities will depend on Congress.

Secretary Kelly also said local police who want to help enforce immigration laws will be welcomed, rather than rebuffed, as they were under the Obama administration.

Drafts of the memos had leaked in recent days, sparking feverish outcry from immigrant-rights groups who said they were a major step back in respecting illegal immigrants.

On Capitol Hill, Democrats vowed scrutiny and resistance.

“We need an immediate public examination in Congress of these heavy-handed, anti-family policies,” said Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat. “The Senate should also pass the bill I’ve sponsored to repeal the mass deportation order. The Republican-controlled Congress has an urgent responsibility to do its constitutional duty and act as an independent check on President Trump.”

The two memos are watered down slightly compared to draft versions that leaked last week. Rather than being instructed they “should” arrest most illegal immigrants, as they were in an earlier version, agents are now told they “may” arrest anyone they deem a priority.

But overall, the memos are designed to carry out Mr. Trump’s first two immigration executive orders, signed Jan. 25.
The new memos do not address his “extreme vetting” policy, signed Jan. 27, which has become ensnared in court battles. An updated memo on vetting is expected later this week.

Under President Obama, immigration enforcement was chiefly a border matter. If migrants could sneak into the interior or, even if they were caught at the border, if they were part of a class Mr. Obama deemed protected, they were given low priority and allowed to disappear into the country with millions of other illegal immigrants.

Mr. Trump dramatically expands that “border” area both south and north. The policies will put pressure on Mexico to do more to stop the flow of people coming through its territory, and will also unleash immigration agents and prosecutors in the interior of the U.S. to arrest and deport migrants who would have been considered special classes under Mr. Obama.

But many of those details remain to be worked out.

Use of expedited removal — a swift deportation — will be expanded to cover more people. But the department will first go through a complex regulation process to figure out exactly how far it wants to go.

“We will see what happens there. We’re not going to start changing this today,” a Homeland Security official said.
Likewise, the official said they won’t immediately begin using a part of the memo that calls for shipping illegal immigrants caught at the U.S.-Mexico border back into Mexico while they are awaiting their deportation cases. That will “happen in time,” the official said.

“This would say ok, if you want to make a claim for asylum or relief from removal or whatever that case may be, we’re going to hear your case, but you’re going to wait in Mexico,” the official said.

Officials said there is no numerical goal for total deportations, and pushed back against charges from immigrant-rights advocates that mass deportations are in the offing.

“We don’t need a sense of panic necessarily in our communities here,” one department official said, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity. “What we’re doing is we’re simply executing the laws passed by the United States Congress.”

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...gents-to-expa/

who said they were a major step back in respecting illegal immigrants.

Why should we be expected to "respect" illegals that have broken our law, abused the 14th amendment,cheated the tax system by working for cash, committed fraud and view the U.S. as a money machine for Mexico,China, Soth American communist countries and the Irish, to name a few....

DHS Removes Obama’s ‘Handcuffs’ on Border Patrol Agents







File Photo

by BOB PRICE21 Feb 2017Washington, DC

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removed “handcuffs” placed on Border Patrol agents by the Obama Administration, freeing them to expand border enforcement operations.


DHS Secretary John F. Kelly lifted most of the restrictions imposed on Border Patrol agents under the previous administration and ordered Border Patrol agents expand their efforts to enforce laws against illegal border crossings. The order came in a memo obtained by Breitbart Texas from DHS officials and discontinued President Obama’s “catch and release” program known as the “Priority Enforcement Program” (PEP) enacted on November 20, 2014. The order leaves in place, President Obama’s deferred action programs for children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.


“Except as specifically noted above, the Department no longer will exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement,” Secretary Kelly wrote in the memorandum. “In faithfully executing the immigration laws, Department personnel should take enforcement actions in accordance with applicable law.”


To support the expanded enforcement actions, Kelly ordered the hiring of an additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 500 U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Air and Marine Operations (AMO) officers. “CBP has insufficient agents/officers to effectively detect, track, and apprehend all aliens illegally entering the United States,” Kelly continued. “The United States needs additional agents and officers to ensure complete operational control of the border.”


Leaked Border Patrol training materials released in an article by Breitbart Texas Managing Director Brandon Darby revealed the frustrating requirements placed on Border Patrol agents under the PEP program.


“Nothing says don’t arrest, but it clearly says don’t waste your time because the alien will not be put into detention, sent back or deported,” an official within U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) told Darby at the time. “There is literally no reason to arrest an illegal alien because they are specifically telling Border Patrol there will be no consequence for the illegal alien. It is a waste of time and resources to arrest someone who is off limits for detainment or deportation and the documents make that fact clear. Border Patrol agents are now being trained to be social workers, not law enforcement.”




After the Obama Administration had put the PEP program in place, a high percentage of migrants apprehended at the border were released with a “notice to appear.”


“[The Obama] administration has handcuffed the Border Patrol,” Babeu told reporters in a March 2016 press conference reported by Breitbart Texas.


This new set of orders from Secretary Kelly effectively removes those handcuffs and ends Obama’s catch and release programs.

“A country has a duty and obligation to secure its border. That didn’t change because Obama was the president,” Jackson County, Texas, Sheriff Andy Louderback told Breitbart Texas on Tuesday. “We are back to the rule of law now, and the gloves are off now, there’s no PEP. We are now allowed to do our job. I am on cloud 80 right now.” Louderback previously served as president of the Texas Sheriff’s Association.


Breitbart Texas was at a press conference when sheriffs from across the state descended upon the Texas Capitol in August 2015 to decry the federal policies of the Obama administration saying, criminal aliens have free rein.


“Policies that facilitate the release of removable aliens apprehended at and between the ports of entry, which allow them to abscond and fail to appear at their removal hearings, undermine the border security mission,” Kelly stated. “Such policies, collectively referred to as ‘catch-and-release,’ shall end.”




http://www.breitbart.com/texas/2017/...patrol-agents/