LA Times Analysis of Trump Immigration EO Finds Nearly Entire Undocumented Population At Risk of Deportation
An important new Los Angeles Times analysis of President Trump’s immigration executive orders echoes our assessment: despite claims that Trump plans to just build a wall and focus on “criminals,” the details in the immigration executive orders make clear that just about all of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in America are at risk of deportation.
Said Lynn Tramonte, Deputy Director of America’s Voice Education Fund: “Make no mistake. Trump is building up his vaunted Deportation Force, and sending agents out after anyone they can find – including contributing members of society with families, homes, jobs, and productive lives here. There are no actual priorities when it comes to Trump’s immigration scheme: everyone is a target.”
The Los Angeles Times article quotes Jessica Vaughn of the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigrant organization with close ties to Jeff Sessions and others in the Trump Administration, betraying as much. According to Vaughn: “Almost everyone who is here illegally could potentially be considered a priority.”
“Amidst the chaos and deliberate distractions of the Trump White House, real danger lurks just below the surface for anyone paying attention. Nowhere is this more true than the immigration order, where almost every undocumented immigrant is subject to mass deportation. While the Trump Administration claims to want to focus on ‘criminals,’ they have laid out a blueprint for mass deportation. Don’t be fooled – their deportation priorities add up to just about everyone,” Tramonte continued.
Below are key excerpts from Brian Bennett’s LA Times story:
“…Far from targeting only ‘bad hombres,’ as Trump has said repeatedly, his new order allows immigration agents to detain nearly anyone they come in contact with who has crossed the border illegally. People could be booked into custody for using food stamps or if their child receives free school lunches.
The deportation targets are a much larger group than those swept up in the travel bans that sowed chaos at airports and seized public attention over the past week. Fewer than 1 million people came to the U.S. over the past decade from the seven countries from which most visitors are temporarily blocked.
Deportations of this scale, which has not been publicly totaled before, could have widely felt consequences: Families would be separated. Businesses catering to immigrant customers may be shuttered. Crops could be left to rot, unpicked, as agricultural and other industries that rely on immigrant workforces face labor shortages. U.S. relations could be strained with countries that stand to receive an influx of deported people, particularly in Latin America. Even the Social Security system, which many immigrants working illegally pay into under fake identification numbers, would take a hit.
The new instructions represent a wide expansion of President Obama’s focus on deporting only recent arrivals, repeat immigration violators and people with multiple criminal violations. Under the Obama administration, only about 1.4 million people were considered priorities for removal.
‘We are going back to enforcement chaos — they are going to give lip service to going after criminals, but they really are going to round up everybody they can get their hands on,’ said David Leopold, a former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Assn. and an immigration lawyer for more than two decades.
Trump’s orders instruct officers to deport not only those convicted of crimes, but also those who aren’t charged but are believed to have committed “acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.”
That category applies to the 6 million people believed to have entered the U.S. without passing through an official border crossing. The rest of the 11.1 million people in the country illegally, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, are believed to have entered on a valid visa and stayed past its expiration date.
…The changes, some of which have already begun with more expected in the coming months, set the stage for sweeping deportations last seen in the final years of the George W. Bush administration. Factories and meatpacking plants were raided after talks with Congress over comprehensive immigration reform broke down in 2007. After Obama took office, his administration stopped those worksite raids and restricted deportation priorities.
…Although immigration agents will want to go after criminals and people who pose national security risks, Trump’s order gives them leeway and marks a return to “traditional enforcement,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that advocates for restrictions on immigration.
“Almost everyone who is here illegally could potentially be considered a priority,” Vaughan said.
…In addition, Homeland Security officials have circulated an 11-page memo on how to enact Trump’s order. Among other steps, that document suggests expanding the use of a deportation process that bypasses immigration courts and allows officers to expel foreigners immediately upon capture.”
For more analysis on the subject, read David Leopold’s recent Medium piece, which explains that, “Trump’s plan is a blueprint to implement his campaign promises of mass deportation, and it puts in place the Deportation Force to carry out his plan.”
