Trump allows migrants to be arrested at schools, churches

President Donald Trump has lifted restrictions on migrants, allowing them to be arrested at sensitive locations like schools and churches.

The move reverses guidance that for over a decade has restricted two key federal immigration agencies — Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection — from carrying out immigration enforcement in sensitive locations.

What they're saying:

"This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murders and rapists — who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement Tuesday.

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The ICE guidance dates back to 2011. Customs and Border Protection issued similar guidance in 2013.

Trump's plans to beef up border security

The backstory:

Trump rolled out a blueprint to beef up security at the southern border in a series of executive orders that began taking effect soon after his inauguration Monday, making good on his defining political promise to crack down on immigration and marking another wild swing in White House policy on the divisive issue.

Some of the orders revive priorities from his first administration that his predecessor had rolled back, including forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico and finishing the border wall. Others launched sweeping new strategies, like an effort to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in America and ending use of a Biden-era app used by nearly a million migrants to enter America.

The Trump administration is reinstating its "Remain in Mexico" policy, which forced 70,000 asylum-seekers in his first term to wait there for hearings in U.S. immigration court.

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Mexico, a country integral to any American effort to limit illegal immigration, indicated Monday that it is prepared to receive asylum-seekers while emphasizing that there should be an online application allowing them to schedule appointments at the U.S. border.

The other side:

Actual execution of such a far-reaching immigration agenda is certain to face legal and logistical challenges.

Trump's plan for mass deportations

Dig deeper:

Trump is moving to realize his pledge of mass deportations of at least 11 million people in the country illegally.

One order restores efforts to pursue everyone in the country illegally, moving away from the Biden administration’s more narrow deportation criteria. He also wants negotiations with state and local governments to deputize police to enforce immigration laws.

What's next:

The incoming administration also ordered an end to releasing migrants in the U.S. while they await immigration court hearings, a practice known as "catch-and-release," but officials didn’t say how they would pay for the enormous costs associated with detention.

Trump plans to "end asylum," presumably going beyond what Biden has done to severely restrict it. It is unclear what the incoming administration will do with people from countries that don’t take back their citizens, such as Nicaragua and Venezuela.

The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story also came from multiple sources including a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, which supports Trump's lifting of restrictions on migrant arrests at sensitive locations. This story was reported from Los Angeles. 

Immigration