The incoming Trump administration plans to re-establish policies that were rescinded under President Obama in order to find and deport criminal illegal aliens, according to a current official with knowledge of early discussions between the Trump transition team and Obama’s Department of Homeland Security.
A senior DHS official with first-hand knowledge of those meetings said the transition team has given every impression that President-elect Trump will be “sticking to the script,” referring to the hardline immigration views he preached while on the campaign trail and in his “thank you” tours following his win.
The administration is currently “dusting off things that have worked in the past under different administrations” and will then determine how to appropriate discretionary money for these operations, the official said.
Among the programs DHS is considering bringing back are Secure Communities, biometric sharing, and the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVIS). In addition, the DHS official said any process that is not in alignment with Trump’s message will also be under review, including the current refugee and asylum processes.
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement (ICE) could see some of the biggest policy changes. ICE focuses on interior enforcement of immigration laws and will be at the center of Trump’s operation to deport criminals around the country.
The administration would look to replace the Obama administration’s Priority Enforcement Program (PEP) with the Bush-era Secure Communities, the latter of which was created after the September 11 terrorist attacks and first implemented during Obama’s first term.
The Secure Communities program had included the biometric database program, which cross-checked fingerprints between ICE and FBI. The program allowed immigration officials to learn almost immediately if someone on their list was arrested, and allowed them to place a detainer on that person.
It also required jails to hold those people for 48 hours beyond the release date so that ICE could physically take an individual into federal custody and begin removal proceedings. But under Obama’s PEP, detainer orders turned into requests that local entities did not have to follow.
Many sanctuary chose not to follow those orders, citing civil rights concerns that the person is being detained unconstitutionally.
“The Obama administration has essentially told ICE and others to stand down,” said President of Play-Action Strategies James Norton, who worked as deputy assistant secretary of legislative and intergovernmental affairs for DHS under Sec. Michael Chertoff.
Some of these changes were put forth through PEP, which came out of a Nov. 20, 2014 memo issued by DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson. It reformed Secure Communities to prioritize the worst criminal aliens, according to its three priority levels.
People with civil immigration offenses or those who have been charged but not convicted of criminal offenses are no longer the focus of ICE’s deportation efforts under Obama. Some localities follow policies that ban police officers from asking residents about their immigration status, while others will not honor detainer requests, taking advantage of the new, more lenient policies.
These sanctuary cities “won’t be a problem,” according to Norton, because DHS plans to work with federal authorities, not local authorities, and agents already know where violent aliens live.
The current DHS official agreed. “If there was a priority to go after criminals that are aliens and they fit the criteria for being removed or criminal investigations, we can find them. There’s no hiding that [information],” the official said.
Norton said the planned reforms are similar to what former President George W. Bush did following the failure of the 2007 immigration reform bill in the Senate.
“The administration said ‘what are the laws on the books and what are the end policies that can be stepped up through executive order?'” Norton explained.
One of the changes the Bush administration made after the bill failed was working to complete the 2006 Fence Act, which called for the finishing of an 1,800-mile wall on the southern border between the U.S. and Mexico.
The fiscal year 2018 budget will be a key indicator as far as what programs DHS wants to fund. Trump’s transition team has signaled to Republican leaders in Congress that they should appropriate funding for the border wall in upcoming legislation, an early indication immigration will be a primary focus in the first 100 days and into next year.
