Tag: Limiting

EXCLUSIVE: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday issued memos to repeal limits on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents imposed by former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas — and order a review of the use of humanitarian parole to admit migrants.

The first memo, a draft of which was reviewed by Fox News, rescinds a 2021 memo by Mayorkas, which provided an expanded list of areas that are “protected areas” where ICE could not engage in immigration enforcement. It said the policy was designed to make sure enforcement did not limit “people’s access to essential services or engagement in essential activities.”

Those areas include schools, universities, healthcare facilities, places of worship, “places where children gather,” social service establishments, food banks, religious or civil ceremonies and disaster or emergency response and relief centers.

“In our pursuit of justice, including in the execution of our enforcement responsibilities, we impact people’s lives and advance our country’s well-being in the most fundamental ways. As a result, when conducting an enforcement action, ICE and CBP agents and officers must first examine and consider the impact of where actions might possibly take place, their effect on people, and broader societal interests,” Mayorkas said in a statement at the time.

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The memo issued Monday rescinded that guidance and said that common sense should be used instead.

“Going forward, law enforcement officers should continue to use that discretion along with a healthy dose of common sense,” the new memo said. “It is not necessary, however, for the head of the agency to create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.”

ICE agents who spoke to Fox News said they believe that rescinding the Mayorkas order is going to free them up to go after more illegal immigrants, because illegal immigrants have until now been able to hide near schools and churches and avoid arrest.

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A separate memo, also reviewed by Fox, focuses on the use of humanitarian parole, which was used broadly by the Biden administration to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S., including nearly 1.5 million via the CBP One app and parole processes for nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV.) The administration also launched parole programs for nationals from Ukraine and Afghanistan.

The memo notes that the statute demands the authority be used on a “case by case basis,” something that Republican critics claim the administration has abused. It emphasizes that parole is “a limited use authority, applicable only in a very narrow set of circumstances.”

It also claims that “it has been repeatedly abused by the Executive Branch over the past several decades in ways that are blatantly inconsistent with the statute.”

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“Most important, the parole statute does not authorize categorical parole programs that make aliens presumptively eligible on the basis of some set of broadly applicable criteria,” it says.

The memo directs the heads of (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to compile a list of instructions, policies and procedures related to parole, review them, and formulate a plan to phase out any that are not in accord with the statute.

They will then provide a report to the DHS secretary, while also pausing, modifying or ending any programs that they believe were not enacted properly, and that they can do in a way that is consistent with statutes, regulations and court orders.

The memos came just hours after Trump signed a slew of 10 border-related executive orders, including orders deploying the military to the border, ending Biden’s parole programs and ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants.

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The orders also declare a national emergency, and order the resumption of construction of the wall at the southern border.

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted,” Trump said moments after being inaugurated. “And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”