US President-elect Donald Trump is seeking to eliminate a policy that prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from detaining immigrants in or near so-called sensitive locations, such as churches, schools, hospitals, and events such as weddings, rallies and even funerals.
This is according to sources familiar with the plan, reported NBC News, which specified that the measure would take place as soon as Trump assumes power on January 20, 2025.
The sources, who wished to remain anonymous, said the move seeks to increase ICE's authority to arrest immigrants across the country, as well as the speed with which they can act, all with the goal of fulfilling the next president's campaign promise of "the largest deportation in U.S. history."
It should be noted that the policy preventing ICE agents from carrying out such raids dates back to 2011, when John Morton, former director of ICE, sent a statement with the details, an action that has remained in place until the current Administration of Joseph Biden.
Biden even issued his own guidance, expanding the areas that “require special protection,” where undocumented people are allowed to go to specific public areas without fear of being deported just because of their immigration status.
The policy only allowed ICE agents to enter these “sensitive locations” when there was a national security or terrorism concern, such as the arrest of a criminal considered dangerous or if there was an imminent risk of death or physical harm to a person or property, or concern that evidence in a criminal investigation would be destroyed.
However, it was always necessary to have authorization from superiors to carry out the task, but with Trump's new order, all of this will no longer be necessary.
According to the Pew Research Center, as of 2022 there were 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, of which four million are Mexican.
The organization noted that the population of unauthorized immigrants increased in six states between 2019 and 2022: Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Texas. Only California registered a decrease.
In 2022, he said, unauthorized immigrants accounted for 3.3 percent of the total U.S. population and 23% percent of the foreign-born population.
With information from NBC News.
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