NATION/WORLD
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
East Oregonian
Page 7A
Millions targeted for possible deportation under Trump rules
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Millions of people living in the
United States illegally could
be targeted for deportation
— including people simply
arrested for traffic violations
— under a sweeping rewrite
of immigration enforcement
policies announced Tuesday
by the Trump administration.
Any immigrant who is in
the country illegally and is
charged or convicted of any
offense, or even suspected of a
crime, will now be an enforce-
ment priority, according to
Homeland Security Depart-
ment memos signed by Secre-
tary John Kelly. That could
include people arrested for
shoplifting or minor offenses
— or simply having crossed
the border illegally.
The Trump administra-
tion memos replace more
narrow guidance focusing on
immigrants who have been
convicted of serious crimes,
are considered threats to
national security or are recent
border crossers.
Under the Obama adminis-
tration guidance, immigrants
whose only violation was
being in the country illegally
were generally left alone.
Those immigrants fall into
two categories: those who
crossed the border without
permission and those who
overstayed their visas.
Crossing the border ille-
gally is a criminal offense, and
the new memos make clear
that those who have done so
are included in the broad list
of enforcement priorities.
Overstaying a visa is a civil,
not criminal, offense. Those
who do so are not specifically
included in the priority list but,
under the memos, they are still
more likely to face deportation
than they had been before.
The new enforcement
documents are the latest
efforts by President Donald
Trump to follow through on
campaign promises to strictly
enforce immigration laws.
He’s also promised to build
a wall at the Mexican border
— he insists Mexico will
eventually foot the bill — and
Kelly’s memos reiterate calls
for Homeland Security to start
planning for the costs and
construction.
Trump’s earlier immigra-
AP Photo/Steven Senne
Molly Hitt, of Boston, displays an American flag while standing in front of a memorial to the Irish potato famine,
right, during a rally called “We Will Persist,” Tuesday in Boston. According to organizers the rally was held to send
a message to Republicans in Congress and the administration of President Donald Trump that they will continue
to press for immigration rights and continued affordable healthcare coverage.
Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP
In this photo taken Feb. 7, an arrest is made during a
targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed
at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large
criminal aliens in Los Angeles.
tion orders, which banned all
refugees as well as foreigners
from seven Muslim-majority
countries, have faced wide-
spread criticism and legal
action. A federal appeals court
has upheld a temporary halt.
Kelly’s enforcement plans
call for enforcing a long-
standing but obscure provi-
sion of immigration law that
allows the government to send
some people caught illegally
crossing the Mexican border
back to Mexico, regardless of
where they are from. Those
foreigners would wait in that
country for U.S. deportation
proceedings to be complete.
This would be used for people
who aren’t considered a threat
to cross the border illegally
again, the memo says.
That provision is almost
certain to face opposition from
civil libertarians and Mexican
officials, and it’s unclear
whether the United States has
the authority to force Mexico
to
accept
third-country
nationals. But the memo also
calls for Homeland Security
to provide an account of U.S.
aid to Mexico, a possible
signal that Trump plans to use
that funding to get Mexico to
accept the foreigners.
Historically, the U.S. has
quickly repatriated Mexican
nationals caught at the border
but has detained immigrants
from other countries pending
deportation proceedings that
could take years.
Mexico’s new ambas-
sador to the U.S., Geronimo
Gutierrez, called the policy
changes “something very
serious.” In a hearing Tuesday
with Mexican senators, he
said, “Obviously, they are
a cause for concern for the
foreign relations department,
for the Mexican government,
and for all Mexicans.”
The memos do not change
U.S. immigration laws, but
take a far harder line toward
enforcement.
One example involves
broader use of a program that
fast-tracks deportations. It will
now be applied to immigrants
who cannot prove they have
been in the United States
longer than two years. It’s
unclear how many immigrants
that could include.
Since at least 2002 that fast
deportation effort — which
does not require a judge’s
order — has been used only
for immigrants caught within
100 miles of the border,
within two weeks of crossing
illegally.
The administration also
plans to expand immigration
jail capacity. Currently Home-
land Security has money and
space to jail 34,000 immi-
grants at a time. It’s unclear
how much an increase would
cost, but Congress would have
to approve any new spending.
The American Civil
Liberties Union said it would
challenge the directives.
“These memos confirm
that the Trump administration
is willing to trample on due
process, human decency, the
well-being of our commu-
nities, and even protections
for vulnerable children, in
pursuit of a hyper-aggressive
mass deportation policy,” said
Omar Jadwat, director of the
ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights
Project.
However, Rep. Lamar
Smith, a Texas Republican
who sits on the House Home-
land Security Committee,
applauded the Trump effort,
saying the memos “overturn
dangerous” policies from the
Obama administration.
The directives do not affect
President Barack Obama’s
program that has protected
more than 750,000 young
immigrants from deportation.
The Deferred Action for
Childhood Arrivals remains
in place, though participants
could be deported if they
commit crimes or otherwise
are deemed to be threats
to public safety or national
security, according to the
department.
During the campaign
Trump vowed to immediately
end that program, which he
described as illegal amnesty.
The directives indicate that
some young people caught
crossing the border illegally by
themselves may not be eligible
for special legal protections if
they are reunited with parents
in the United States. And
those parents or other relatives
that the government believes
helped the children would
face criminal and immigration
investigations.
Under the Obama admin-
istration, more than 100,000
children,
mostly
from
Honduras, El Salvador and
Guatemala, were caught at the
border. Most were reunited
with parents or relatives living
in the United States, regard-
less of the adults’ immigration
status.
The enforcement memos
also call for the hiring of 5,000
new Border Patrol agents
and 10,000 Immigration
and Customs Enforcement
agents, but it’s unclear how
quickly that could take place.
Currently, two of every three
applicants for Customs and
Border Protection jobs fail
polygraph exams and there
are about 2,000 vacancies.
IMMIGRATION: Federal government can deputize
local law enforcement to enforce immigration law
Continued from 1A
law allows in that we notify
them any time someone born
outside of the U.S. is booked
into our jail. We then provide
ICE with a potential release
date from local charges. If
ICE decides to move forward
on the deportation process,
they may come and pick the
inmate up upon release from
local charges, or they will
provide us with a detainer.”
The federal agency uses
the administrative detainers
to have local jails hold
possible
undocumented
immigrants.
The
U.S.
District Court in Oregon
in 2014 ruled the detainers
were not mandatory holds
but only requests. Since then,
per the sheriffs’ association,
Oregon jails do not honor the
requests.
“Our preference is to
obtain a legitimate federal
warrant for the arrest and
detention of an ICE suspect,”
Rowan added. “Our goal
here is to not jeopardize local
monies being paid out on a
suit filed here, so caution is
used each and every time.
The sooner ICE can pick
up and move the inmate the
better.”
Even with the court ruling,
Rowan stated the issue is not
easy to navigate.
“The last thing I want is
to put someone out on the
streets that poses a threat to
local public safety, but also be
mindful of the risk associated
to holding an offender longer
than the law allows,” Rowan
said. “Each is evaluated on a
case by case basis, but I will
always place public safety
first.”
Pendleton police chief
Stuart Roberts in an email
said no one has contacted his
department about the new
federal policy nor “any devi-
ation from policy, practice or
law.”
“Therefore we will main-
tain status quo,” he said.
“Our job is to deal with the crime that is happening, make
arrests, and present the product to the DA’s office.
Hermiston has no lists whatsoever specific to citizenship.”
— Jason Edmiston, Hermiston Police Chief
Hermiston Police Chief
Jason Edmiston said while
cities sometimes act in
conjunction with the federal
government,
Hermiston
has no plans to change their
operations.
“It’s not uncommon for
local entities or employees to
be deputized under a federal
umbrella, such as during a
major drug investigation,”
Edmiston said. “As far as
specifically to immigration,
we have not been contacted.
Before any decision would
be made at the local level, we
would consult the city manag-
er’s office. There are no plans
in place for the Hermiston
Police Department to partici-
pate in any kind of round-ups
for immigration purposes.”
“Our job is to deal with
the crime that is happening,
make arrests, and present the
product to the DA’s office,”
he said. “Hermiston has no
lists whatsoever specific to
citizenship.”
Morrow County Sheriff
Ken Matlack said his office
has worked with plenty
of federal agencies, but
operates under the state’s
1987 law when it comes to
immigration. However, there
are circumstances when local
police find out about some-
one’s immigration status.
During a stop for speeding,
for example, Matlack said
police will ask for a driver’s
license. Not providing a
license is a crime in Oregon,
the class C misdemeanor of
failure to carry and present.
“Our effort at that point is
to determine who you are and
why don’t you have a driver’s
license,” Matlack said. “And
we do that for everyone
that doesn’t have a driver’s
license.”
Foreign nationals often
provide a driver’s license
from another county and
those are legal in Oregon, he
said. Drivers also might have
other documentation, such
as a passport or a green card,
which shows a person has
legal permanent residency.
If an officer can determine
who the person is, they prob-
ably get off with a citation for
driving without a license, he
said. But if a driver cannot
prove who they are — or
if they commit the class A
misdemeanor of lying about
who they are — the next trip
is to jail.
“We don’t let people go
before we know who they
are,” Matlack said.
For Morrow County law
enforcement, that requires
a drive to the Umatilla
County Jail, Pendleton,
which has the equipment to
identify someone through
fingerprints. Matlack said
that can take a few hours and
reveal Bill Jones is really
Frank Johnson with warrants
or perhaps a detainer from
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement.
Jonathan Shaklee, a
Kennewick-based
immi-
gration lawyer at the firm
Shaklee and Oliver, said he
has had an increase in calls
for his services, and notices
an increase in anxiety from
callers.
“A lot of people are
worried because of the
expanded expedited removal
proceedings,” he said. “There
used to be a classification
system for prioritizing depor-
tation or removal cases. It
seems that has been removed.
Anyone who’s committed
a crime or might have been
charged — it could be minor
— they’re not prioritizing
fugitives who’ve fled the
country as opposed to people
picked up for shoplifting,”
he said. “The language in the
memo is very broad.”
Shaklee also said under
section 287(g), the federal
government can essentially
deputize state or local law
enforcement agencies to
enforce immigration law.
Shaklee said he doesn’t
know how strictly those rules
will be enforced.
“I’m not sure if (local and
state law enforcement) will
get penalized (for not partic-
ipating),” he said.
In the past, if a person was
arrested for a local crime, they
would be taken to jail and
wait to be bailed out. If ICE
happened to come through at
that time, the person might be
detained. But generally, local
police weren’t looking for
illegal immigrants.
Shaklee said he’s had
many employers come
in
with
undocumented
employees, wanting to help
them.
“It’s tricky when the
employer comes in with the
employee, because there’s an
inherent conflict of interest,”
Shaklee said. “If he knows
a worker is undocumented,
legally he should be firing
them.”
Shaklee said the best thing
for employers to do is to find
counsel to represent them and
make sure they are in compli-
ance with I-9 requirements.
———
Contact Phil Wright at
pwright@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0833.
Contact Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
AP Photo/Blake Nicholson
In this Feb. 16 photo, debris is piled on the ground
awaiting pickup by cleanup crews at the Dakota
Access oil pipeline protest camp in southern North
Dakota near Cannon Ball.
Deadline to leave
pipeline protest camp
won’t be extended
BISMARCK,
N.D.
(AP) — The Army Corps
of Engineers said it won’t
extend
a
Wednesday
deadline for Dakota Access
oil pipeline opponents to
vacate their encampment
on federal land in North
Dakota.
The camp has existed
since August and at times
has housed thousands of
people who supported the
concerns of Sioux nations
that the $3.8 billion pipeline
to carry North Dakota oil
through the Dakotas and
Iowa to a shipping point in
Illinois threatens the envi-
ronment and sacred sites.
Dallas-based
developer
Energy Transfer Partners
disputes those claims.
With flooding expected
this spring, the Corps on
Feb. 3 told the few hundred
people remaining in camp
that they must take their
possessions and leave by 2
p.m. Wednesday.
Camp leader Phyllis
Young said rain Monday
hampered that effort, and
that Native Americans also
took time out for traditional
ceremonies related to the
weather. Frozen ground
also is making it difficult
for people to remove tent
stakes, she said.
Corps
Capt.
Ryan
Hignight confirmed that
people in camp sought an
extension on the deadline
to move. But he said
the Corps is focused on
people’s safety and on the
environment.
Gov. Doug Burgum also
listed Wednesday as the
deadline in an evacuation
order he issued last week.
Spokesman Mike Nowatzki
said Tuesday that the dead-
line hasn’t changed. He
said arrests are possible if
people refuse to leave.
A schedule for emptying
the camp, released late
Wednesday, calls for the
first bus to arrive at 9 a.m. to
take those willing to leave
to a “transition center” in
Bismarck to get a change of
clothes, medical screening
and hotel and bus vouchers.
The schedule’s entry
for 2 p.m. says: “Certain
individuals in the camps
would like to experience
a ceremonial arrest which
will occur at this time.”