The American Council of Immigration does not approve or oppose candidates for elected offices. We aim to provide an analysis of the impact of elections on the US immigration system.
Written by Aaron Reichlin Melnick and senior fellow. Adriel Orozco, Senior Policy Advisor
A new “red flag” emerged last week as the Trump administration continued to increase immigration enforcement measures across the US. Policy measures that dramatically affect the fundamental rights of immigrants in this country or erode basic legal protection and excellent governance. These red flags range from new cooperation between immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) and state and local governments to efforts to deport seven men to South Sudan, a country they have never done before. Here is a summary of the red flags that came out of the Trump administration last week.
Repeated attacks on basic due process
Here’s what we know: Last week, the Trump administration continued its ongoing attacks on legitimate processes for non-citizens.
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled that the Trump administration “arguably” violated a court order by placing eight men on planes in South Sudan (on the brink of a new civil war). Judge Murphy ordered the DHS to hold the man for 15 days, and after a process of challenging the removal, he must warn anyone facing removal to an unknown country with at least 10 days of notice. If an individual currently detained in Djibouti succeeds in showing that he is likely to face persecution and torture in South Sudan, the ice may need to be returned to the United States for further litigation. The Trump administration suffered another loss from calling the alien enemy law and a client of the American Immigration Council, detained in Georgia, determined that ICE could not be legally covered by the 1798 law because it failed to provide a meaningful due process. Like the Supreme Court, judges ruled that the administration’s policy of challenging people for 12 hours is unconstitutional, giving 24 hours to file habeas litigation. The Trump administration’s efforts to limit the due process through “self-abolition” have also risen in the first charter flight of those who benefited from last week’s $1,000 “self-abolition.” Flights to Honduras and Colombia were on board, including children from US citizens who were also paid $1,000 in “self-abolition.” In the new operation, Council senior fellow Aaron Reichlimmelnick will break down how this policy will feed and switch between immigrants.
ICE targets non-citizens of arrests while appearing in immigration court cases
Last week, Ice Agent launched a national operation last week to arrest non-citizens who appear at immigration court hearings in several states, including Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Nevada, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. Other states across the country may have other incidents. The report says the government attorneys employed in the ice were told to request dismissal of the case from an immigration judge. Once the person’s lawsuit was dismissed, the ice agents arrested the non-citizen. Given the dismissal of immigration court cases, the goal of ICE is to put them in “quick removal,” a rapid tracking process in which low-level immigration officers can remove people, rather than immigration judges.
ICE agents used variations of arrest tactics across the country. At Barrick Immigration Court in New York, Ice Agent checked documents of all those who left the courthouse building, but at Miami Immigration Court, agents in the courtroom signalled agents waiting in the hallway when a person’s lawsuit was fired. Once outside the courtroom, the person was taken into custody. What has changed? In January, the ICE and the Immigration Examination Office (EOIR), which oversees ICE and the Immigration Court, removed policies restricting arrests in and around Immigration Courts. These policies recognized that people were unlikely to appear in court if immigration enforcement agents appeared at or near a court hearing. Why is this important? ICE confirmed that people are targeting them to place them in rapid removal. At present, lawyers, clients and unrepresented non-citizens are rushing to assess the risk of attending a hearing. The resulting fear is likely to block attendees, thus eliminating removal orders for non-citizens who do not appear in court.
DHS rapidly expands aggressive collaboration with state and local police
Here’s what we know: For the past four months, the Trump administration has taken steps to quickly expand agreements with state and local police agencies across the country to approve local law enforcement agencies to enforce federal immigration laws. Over the past few weeks, we have seen local or state police attacks in Tennessee, Florida and Texas.
As of last week, ICE had signed 588 “287(g) contracts” in 40 states. This is a five-fold contract just four months ago. The 287(g) program allows DHS to provide state and local police with the authority to perform certain immigration enforcement functions. The Trump administration revives the “taskforce model” of the 287(g) program, which was cancelled in 2012, as it demonstrated detrimental effects on community safety. This model allows local and state police to interrogate, arrest, detain, detain and process immigrants for undirected removal procedures from the ice with minimal training in immigration laws and procedures. Unlike previous models of the 287(g) program focusing on state and local prisons, current local police forces can interrogate and arrest non-citizens outside of community and regular police interactions. As of last week, the Trump administration had launched 285 “Task Force Model” 287(g) contracts in 29 states. These contracts have a track record of weakening community trust in police forces, increasing racial profiling and lower public safety. We have already seen the impact of this in Tennessee. There, last week, the police chief expressed fear that the baby might have died because caretakers were scared of calling 911 due to immigration status. The Trump administration has also taken steps to represent state troopers as federal police officers, like Florida. There, 100 state highway patrol officers are considered to be US federal ex-s and are empowered to make immigration-related arrests.
As the Trump administration’s efforts to achieve massive deportation intensifies, we can expect to see a continuous rise in unprecedented immigration enforcement policies and tactics. These indiscriminate and scattered efforts to increase non-citizen arrests, including thousands of people who pose no threats to public safety, show double its deportation agenda with little consideration of the boundaries of law and policy and the impact on the nation. All these red flags can be expected to come in just a week.
Submitted below: 287(g), Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Trump Administration
