The Trump administration’s promise to tighten immigration efforts ramped up this week. Here’s a roundup of some of the coverage.
Earlier this month, Kirstjen M. Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security, decided to end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from El Salvador. Salvadorans and Haitians with TPS have 60 days to re-apply to the program one last time, according to The Washington Post.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released a notice on Thursday giving TPS recipients from El Salvador until March 9, and those from Haiti until March 19, to re-apply. The U.S. Department of Justice granted Salvadorans, the largest group of TPS beneficiaries, this status after a series of earthquakes in 2001. Haitians were granted the status after a 7.0 earthquake hit the island Jan. 12, 2010.
Raids and Deportations
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are planning a campaign of immigration raids in the San Francisco Bay Area and it is expected to be the biggest enforcement action under President Trump, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Starting this month, California became a sanctuary state after Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 54 in October. In an interview with FOX News Insider earlier this month, acting ICE director Thomas Homan said, “California better hold on tight.” San Francisco Bay Area police departments are unlikely to help ICE in sweeps.
In the Detroit Metro Airport, Jorge Garcia, 39, and his family shared a tear-filled farewell after he was deported to Mexico. Garcia was brought to the U.S. at age 10 and had lived in the country for nearly 30 years. ICE ordered Garcia to leave by Jan. 15, according to the Detroit Free Press. Garcia’s wife, Cindy, will be a guest of Rep. Debbie Dingell to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Jan. 30, according to The Washington Post.
Department of Justice: “three out of four convicted of terrorism were foreign-born”
Earlier this week, the Justice Department released a report about how 402 immigrants were convicted of international terrorism-related charges between Sept. 11, 2001, and Dec. 31, 2016. The report was required by President Trump’s Executive Order 13780, Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States. The report supports President Trump’s immigration policy, according to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the press release. The report has been criticized for counting terrorism-related charges from overseas and not counting domestic terrorism incidents, according to The New York Times.
The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it will review the legality of Trump’s revised travel ban,which restricts entry from six Muslim-majority countries, according to POLITICO.
