A new ProPublica article reveals a previously unreported February 2017 memo from ICE that fully articulates the Trump Administration’s strategy to go after any and all undocumented immigrants:
In a February memo, Matthew Albence, a career official who heads the Enforcement and Removal Operations division of ICE, informed his 5,700 deportation officers that, ‘effective immediately, ERO officers will take enforcement action against all removable aliens encountered in the course of their duties.’
The following is a statement from Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America’s Voice, reacting to the news:
It’s all there in black and white, and it’s just as we have been saying: Trump’s deportation policy is aimed at deporting everyone. Period. It is all-out mass deportation of anyone and everyone ICE agents come across – no matter how long they have lived here, how much they contribute, or how many children or American citizens would be left behind.
When he testifies before Congress, Secretary Kelly complains about getting tough questions and lashes out at Members of Congress by telling them to ‘shut up.’ In April he went so far as to deny that ICE was targeting everyone and that his agency goes after those with no criminal record, stating, ‘It’s got to be something else.’
It is something else: it’s called lying. This memo proves that Kelly is not being straight with Congress and the American people. He shamelessly uses the smokescreen of Trump’s campaign rhetoric about immigrants as criminals, but the truth is much more cowardly. Kelly’s DHS is actually prioritizing people like Jesus Lara, an Ohio father who has lived here for more than fifteen years, supporting four U.S. citizen children, and has no criminal record.
Kelly is overseeing a policy of merciless mass deportation. This is not the policy that America wants or needs.
