The Trump administration rescinded two major Biden-era immigration initiatives Tuesday, further cementing the White House’s dedication to tougher enforcement policies.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a directive that rescinds the Biden administration’s guidelines on so-called “sensitive locations” where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are prohibited from conducting enforcement activities. The administration also announced it would be rolling back the “broad use” of humanitarian parole and returning it to a case-by-case basis.
The Trump administration lauded the moves as a step away from the soft-on-enforcement approach taken by the previous White House.
“This action empowers the brave men and women in [Customs and Border Protection] and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murders and rapists — who have illegally come into our country,” a DHS spokesperson said of the revocation of sensitive locations. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”
“The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” the spokesperson continued.
An ICE memo establishing “sensitive locations” was introduced in October 2011, which mostly prohibited ICE agents from entering schools, hospitals or churches. However, this list was expanded incredibly under the Biden administration to include broad areas of social services and public spaces, limiting the scope where ICE agents could work.
The second directive announced Tuesday includes a phaseout of parole programs that allowed migrants to enter and work in the U.S. en masse under the Biden administration. Republicans have long criticized parole initiatives such as the CHNV program for being rife with fraud and allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela into the U.S.
“The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country,” the DHS spokesperson said. “This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration.”
“This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis,” the spokesperson continued.
The two directives were issued by acting DHS Director Benjamine Huffman. If confirmed, South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem will be taking the reins at the department.
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump issued a slate of executive orders that declared a national emergency at the border, designated cartels as terrorist organizations and sought to reinterpret the 14th Amendment as denying birthright citizenship for individuals born on U.S. soil by illegal migrant parents.
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