How Trump's New Immigration Rules Could Impact Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- As promised by the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security unveiled sweeping new guidelines Tuesday.
They could lead to more deportations and detentions of undocumented immigrants.
The guidelines include the immediate return of Mexican immigrants apprehended at the border, and prosecuting parents who pay smugglers to bring their children across the border.
It also keeps in place President Barack Obama's DACA provisions. And it allows people brought to the United States as children to obtain work visas.
Finally, the plan calls for hiring 15,000-more agents for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Border Patrol to carry out immigrant enforcement.
"The message from this White House and from the DHS is that those people who are in this country and pose a threat to our public safety or have committed a crime will be the first to go, and we will be aggressively making sure that occurs," said White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.
The memo on the executive order also includes a directive to shift money to immediately design and construct a wall along the Mexican border.
Mexico says it will not pay for the wall, but President Trump insists it will.
The estimates of Somalis living in Minnesota without documentation vary greatly. There are an estimated 100,000 Latinos in Minnesota who are living here without legal documentation.
There have been numerous public protests against the president's immigration policies. Advocates say these latest policies go farther than they expected.
The U.S. has prioritized deportations with a focus first on those convicted of serious felonies for decades. Now any crime will result in deportation -- as will just being charged with a crime.
"Now we're finding it could include anyone, including people who could had made a criminal offense and not actually been prosecuted or gone through any sort of due process," said JaNae Bates, communications director for the faith-based group ISAIAH.
Bates says the group is fielding calls and emails from frantic individuals. Anxiety is also widespread in the Somali community.
"There are many people who worry because this is saying if you commit any type of minor crimes, you are now, you know, on the line to be deported," said Mohamud Noor, executive director of the Confederation of Somali Community in Minnesota.
But analysts say the president's new immigration orders are more measured than his original refugee ban, which included holders of green cards and legal visas. That order was put on hold by an appeals court.
"I think he's starting to realize that both the constitution and federal immigration law, in this case here, place far more limits on the president than he thinks," said David Schultz, a political analyst and University of Minnesota law professor.
The president is still expected to issue a revised version of the temporary refugee ban soon, which was put on hold by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals
Any new ban is expected to focus on the same seven countries, including Somalia.
