Immigration policy of the first Donald Trump administration
[47] During the election campaign, Trump promised to ask Congress to pass Kate's Law, named after her, to ensure that criminal aliens convicted of illegal reentry received strong, mandatory minimum sentences.
This was evident just this week when, as an example, a young woman in San Francisco was viciously killed by a 5-time deported Mexican with a long criminal record, who was forced back into the United States because they didn't want him in Mexico.
[56]A study published in Social Science Quarterly in May 2016 tested Trump's claim that immigrants are responsible for higher levels of violent and drug-related crime in the United States.
[120][121] The committee, which included former U.S. Attorney General and Chief Judge of the Southern District of New York Michael Mukasey, and Reps. Mike McCaul and Peter T. King, decided to drop the religious basis and instead focused on regions where Giuliani says that there is "substantial evidence that people are sending terrorists" to the United States.
"[126] According to lawyers and legal scholars cited in a New York Times report, the president has the power to carry out the plan but it would take an ambitious and likely time-consuming bureaucratic effort, and make sweeping use of executive authority.
"[130] When asked if his new proposal meant that there would be greater checks on immigration from countries that have been compromised by terrorism, such as France, Germany and Spain, Trump answered, "It's their own fault, because they've allowed people over years to come into their territory.
[152][153] According to the guidance, asylum claims on the basis of gang-based or domestic violence are unlikely to meet the criterion of persecution "on account of the applicant's membership to a particular social group", unless the home government condones the behavior or demonstrates "a complete helplessness to protect the victims".
[159] In a notification to lawmakers, the Pentagon reported officials at Health and Human Services asked about providing beds for children at military installations "for occupancy as early as July through December 31, 2018.
[163] On September 26, 2019, the Trump administration announced it plans to allow only 18,000 refugees to resettle in the United States in the 2020 fiscal year, its lowest level since the modern program began in 1980.
[citation needed] On April 29, 2019, President Trump ordered new restrictions on asylum seekers at the Mexican border — including application fees and work permit restraints — and directed that cases in the already clogged immigration courts be settled within 180 days.
[173] On May 2, 2019, Department of Homeland Security announced that it had stepped up its collection of biometric data from migrant families to include a DNA testing pilot program and the fingerprinting of children under the age of 14.
[184] On September 24, 2017 the executive order was superseded by Presidential Proclamation 9645 to establish travel restrictions on seven countries, omitting Sudan from the previous list while adding North Korea and Venezuela.
Greg Stanton, the Mayor of Phoenix commented that "Rather than tracking down violent criminals and drug dealers, ICE is spending its energy deporting a woman with two American children who has lived here for more than two decades and poses a threat to nobody.
[194][195] Subsequently, Judge Orrick issued a nationwide permanent injunction on November 20, 2017, declaring that section 9(a) of Executive Order 13768 was "unconstitutional on its face"[196][197] and violates "the separation of powers doctrine and deprives [the plaintiffs] of their Tenth and Fifth Amendment rights.
[201][202] President Obama's "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals" (DACA) Executive Order from 2012 enabled an estimated 800,000 young adults ("Dreamers") brought illegally into the U.S. as children to work legally without fear of deportation.
President Trump announced in September 2017 that he was cancelling this Executive Order with effect from six months and he called for legislation to be enacted before the protection phased out in March 2018, stating "I have a love for these people, and hopefully now Congress will be able to help them and do it properly."
[214][215][216] In June 2018, immigrants faced with losing their status filed suit against the terminations in Federal District Court in San Francisco, arguing that they were made arbitrarily, without a formal process, and in a discriminatory manner.
[217] By February 2018, the Trump administration had begun a practice of separating minor children entering the United States from the parents or relatives that accompanied them, including people applying for asylum.
[226][227][228][229][230] Forty Democratic United States Senators sent a letter to President Trump urging him to "rescind this unethical, ineffective, and inhumane policy and instead prioritize approaches that align with our humanitarian and American values.
Seeking to end the 20 day restrictions and licensing requirements of detention centers, on June 21, 2018, the Trump Department of Justice asked US District Court Judge Dolly Gee to alter her 2015 ruling in Reno v. Flores[252] On July 9, Judge Gee denied the government's request to hold families together indefinitely in ICE facilities, and its request to exempt detention facilities from state licensing requirements for that purpose.
Due to the processing delays, the program had not offered relief for those who faced the threat of immediate danger, yet at the level of the individual families it had made it less attractive to bring children illegally, as there was the prospect of legal entry.
[280] On July 2, 2019, the Western District Court of Washington issued a class-wide ruling to require bond hearings for noncitizens who have showed a credible fear of persecution in their home country and are currently held separate from their families.
[282][283] In February 2021, the administration of President Joe Biden ended the "Remain in Mexico" policy, resuming admission of new asylum seekers and the approximately 25,000 with pending cases to the United States, and asking the Supreme Court to dismiss the appeal as moot.
Cuccinelli was referring to Emma Lazarus' famous words on a bronze plaque at the Statue of Liberty, which starts, "Give me your tired, your poor / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free".
"[303] The National Immigration Law Center stated that the rule "will have a dire humanitarian impact, forcing some families to forgo critical lifesaving health care and nutrition.
[313] Saying he wanted to go in a "tougher direction," Trump began a major reorganization of the DHS on April 5, 2019, first by withdrawing his nomination of Ron Vitiello to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
CNN reported that during March 2019 meetings Trump demanded that asylum seekers be denied entry into the country, which he was advised was contrary to law and could expose border agents to personal legal liability.
The alleged behavior in the statements are claims of being beaten while handcuffed, locked up for extended time in solitary confinement, being left nude and shivering in concrete cells, and being stripped of clothes and strapped to chairs with bags over their heads.
[340] The Texas Tribune reported that detained children who had been held at the Shiloh Treatment Center from 2014 through 2017 said they had been forcibly treated with antipsychotic drugs by the facility personnel, based on legal filings from a class action lawsuit.
[348] Newsweek reports that 11 of the 17 members of Congress sitting on the committee that determined appropriations for ICE in 2019, including funding for contractors like GEO and CoreCivic, accepted private prison money to run their political campaigns.
