By AMY TAXIN and ALICIA A. CALDWELL
2/11/17
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Advocacy groups say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are rounding up people in large numbers around the country as part of stepped-up enforcement under President Donald Trump.
They say a roundup in Southern California was especially heavy-handed and cite arrests in places such as Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Texas and North Carolina that have rattled immigrants.
The government says it’s simply enforcing the laws and conducting routine enforcement targeting immigrants in the country illegally with criminal records. Authorities say it’s no different than what happened during the Obama years on a regular basis.
The truth lies somewhere in between. Here are some of the facts surrounding what’s happening with immigration enforcement.
TRUMP VS. OBAMA …
The president’s [Trump] order also said enforcement priorities would include convicted criminals, immigrants who had been arrested for any criminal offense, those who committed fraud, and anyone who may have committed a crime.
Under President Barack Obama, the government focused on immigrants in the country illegally who posed a threat to national security or public safety and recent border crossers. But despite the narrower focus, more than 2 million people were deported during Obama’s time in office, including a record of more than 409,000 people in 2012. At one point, he was dubbed the “Deporter in Chief” by his critics.
The record was reached with the help of the Secure Communities program that helped the government identify immigrants in the country illegally who had been arrested. In the latter half of Obama’s tenure, deportations plummeted to lows matching those of former President George W. Bush’s term.
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ARE THE LATEST RAIDS A DIRECT RESULT OF TRUMP’S ORDER? …
The agency called it an “enforcement surge” that was no different than enforcement actions carried out in the past and said a “rash of recent reports about purported ICE checkpoints and random sweeps are false, dangerous, and irresponsible.” In a statement, the agency said “officers frequently encounter additional suspects who may be in the United States in violation of the federal immigration laws. Those persons will be evaluated on a case by case basis and, when appropriate, arrested by ICE.”
THE NEW NORMAL?
Despite the claims that this is business as usual, an indication of the changed tactics came earlier in the week when Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testified before Congress. He told lawmakers immigration agents expressed frustration about that they were not fully allowed to enforce immigration laws under the Obama administration. He predicted Trump’s directives would end that frustration.
The ICE raids themselves are not new. Obama deported more people than the vast majority of presidents before him. You can check the Dept of Homeland Security historical stats here and more recent stats here. He earned that moniker of “Deporter in Chief.” His policy of targeting recent immigrants included women, children, and families.
What does seem to be new, is that anyone caught up in the ICE raids is now vulnerable. It used to be that, officially, ICE wasn’t supposed to focus on people who had been here in the States more than a couple years and who didn’t pose a threat to “national security or public safety.”
Now, with Trump’s new executive order, the definition of who is a “criminal” is so broad that anyone can be pulled off the street or caught up in the wider net of a raid, and the government will put effort into deporting them. Doesn’t matter how long you’ve been here or how much you’ve contributed to society, as long as someone can look at you and say, “Well, you MAY HAVE committed a crime,” you’re a priority for deportation. And THAT is a recipe for even more discrimination and abuse of power.
AP FACT CHECK: Are immigration raids result of Trump policy?
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