House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi charged Tuesday that the Trump administration’s new rules are “a cruel blueprint for mass deportations,” even as Republicans cast them as necessary, common-sense steps to enforce the laws as passed by Congress.
“Tearing apart families and dragging parents out of their homes does not make America great and it does not make America safe,” Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement. “These memos are a cruel blueprint for mass deportations that will terrorize communities, circumvent immigration courts by expanding expedited removal to the entire country, dismantle due process, and make it harder for undocumented victims and witnesses to come forward to police.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kelly issued new policies on Tuesday that direct immigration officials to deport not only serious criminals, but those here illegally who are convicted of any criminal offense, including fraud often committed by those here illegally to acquire false identities. The DHS orders also widen the areas of the United States where illegal immigrants can be deported quickly.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said the policies would reverse years of Obama administration policies that encouraged illegal immigration that included hundreds of thousands of unaccompanied minors who have attempted to enter the United States at the Mexican border.
“The Trump administration has begun work to end the Obama administration’s disastrous policies in order to ensure our immigration laws are actually enforced,” Goodlatte said. “I look forward to working with President Trump and Secretary Kelly to ensure they have the necessary tools to do this work and to take legislative action to make reforms permanent so that future administrations must also enforce our immigration laws.”
Goodlatte pledged to take up legislation “to make reforms permanent” to ensure “immigration laws are actually enforced” in the future.
