The administration of US President Donald Trump plans to consider almost all illegal immigrants subject to deportation, but will leave protections in place for immigrants known as “dreamers,” who entered the US illegally as children, according to official guidelines released on Tuesday.
The US Department of Homeland Security guidance to immigration agents is part of a broader border security and immigration enforcement plan in executive orders that Trump signed on Jan. 25.
Former US president Barack Obama issued an executive order in 2012 that protected 750,000 immigrants who had been brought to the US illegally by their parents. Trump has said the issue is “very difficult” for him.
Photo: EPA
Trump campaigned on a pledge to get tougher on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US, playing on fears of violent crime, while promising to build a wall on the border with Mexico and to stop potential terrorists from entering the nation.
Trump’s planned measures against illegal immigrants have drawn protests, such as an event last week that activists called “A Day Without Immigrants” to highlight the importance of foreign-born people, who account for 13 percent of the US population, or more than 40 million naturalized citizens.
A banner declaring “Refugees Welcome” was posted on the base of the Statue of Liberty in New York, before park rangers removed it on Tuesday, WABC TV reported.
Homeland security officials, on a conference call with reporters, said that although any immigrant in the nation illegally could be deported, the agency would prioritize those deemed a threat.
These include recent entrants, those convicted of a crime and people charged, but not convicted of a crime. Some details of the guidelines were detailed in a draft memo seen on Saturday.
Many of the instructions will not be implemented immediately because they depend on US Congress, a public comment period or negotiations with other nations, the officials said.
Mexican immigration officials immediately objected to part of the new rules.
The guidance also calls for the hiring of 10,000 more US Immigration and Customs agents and 5,000 more US Customs and Border Protection agents.
The new rules would subject immigrants who cannot show they have been in the nation for more than two years to “expedited removal.” Currently, only migrants apprehended near a US border who cannot show they have been in the nation for more than 14 days are subject to rapid removal.
The agency also plans to send non-Mexican migrants crossing the southern US border back into Mexico as they await a decision on their case.
The officials said this plan would be dependent on partnerships with the Mexican government and would not be implemented overnight.
The guidelines were released a day before US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly were due in Mexico City for talks with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto and officials.
An official from the Mexican Secretariat of Foreign Affairs said the government would tell Kelly’s team that it was “impossible” for Mexico to accept deportees or asylum applicants from foreign nations, and would ask them to explain their plan.
The deportation of Mexicans would be one of the government’s major concerns at the meeting, said the official, who declined to be named.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
RSS