Trump keeps his promise to his voters and launches mass anti-immigration operations. The agents' targets are foreigners with criminal records, but also those with "communicable diseases"
The White House said U.S. authorities arrested 538 illegal immigrants and deported hundreds aboard military flights. The mass operation came just days after Donald Trump took office , spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said.
In just 48 hours, hundreds have ended up in handcuffs. The blitz targeted illegal aliens with long lists of criminal records throughout the country, after Trump signed the implementing decrees that began the vast deportation campaign promised by the new occupant of the White House.
According to Fox News, the federal agency for the border and immigration of the United States (Ice, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has made several high-profile arrests especially in the Boston area . In recent days, the Democratic administration of the Atlantic city and that of the State of Massachusetts had reiterated their intention not to collaborate with the arrest and expulsion activities of irregular immigrants undertaken by the Trump administration.
Trump seals off border with Mexico
The U.S. Congress has translated the president's orders into the first law of his second term, a crackdown on immigration that goes hand in hand with the deployment of large forces on the border with Mexico. The passage of the Laken Riley Act , named after a 22-year-old Georgia student murdered last year by an undocumented Venezuelan wanted for theft, shows how quickly the political debate on immigration in the United States has accelerated in the direction indicated by Trump. A total of 46 Democrats joined Republicans in passing the law, with 263 votes in favor and 156 against.
Entry prohibited to "sick" foreigners
According to an internal Customs and Border Protection document, Trump is preparing to send 10,000 troops to the southern border and order border agents to deny entry to asylum seekers if they "have traveled through a country with communicable diseases." The memo doesn't mention any in particular, and even a cold can be contagious, so the move effectively closes the border to anyone attempting to seek asylum under U.S. law from any country. The memo also says that Border Patrol agents have been instructed to "deter, deny, identify and interdict." But to continue its crackdown on migrants, the Interior Department has also decided to expand the powers of ICE agents and authorize them to arrest migrants "in churches and schools." "They will have no safe place to hide," the department said in a memo.
What Trump's Immigration Law Provides
The new measure would detain, until deported, a large swath of undocumented aliens, including asylum seekers, who have committed minor crimes such as theft or shoplifting. The move would also require a massive increase in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but the measure does not currently include any new funding. Meanwhile, the new president has launched a series of executive orders aimed at sealing the border with Mexico and deporting millions of immigrants without permanent legal status, which has been condemned by the U.S. bishops through their president Timothy Broglio.
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