Memos released this week by Department of Homeland Security secretary John Kelly prioritise the removal of undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of any criminal offence.Mr Trump continues to create an environment of fear among the United States’ immigrant populations while continuing to meet his promises made on the campaign trail.
The language of the memo opens the door for more wide-scale deportation operations. The Obama administration carried out the largest number of deportations, reaching nearly three million. But it made a priority of undocumented immigrants who were convicted of serious crimes.
The memos are already provoking fear because of the vast expansion of the Government’s use of its immigration enforcement powers. The policy allows for the quick removal of people who have been in the US for up to two years, and anywhere in the country, if they cannot prove they have legal entry.
The policies will mostly enforce existing law and will not lead to immediate massive round-ups of undocumented immigrants, officials say. But that is not how immigrant communities see the new measures which give broad latitude to agents in the field and regional offices to make decisions. The fact people are not a priority does not exempt them from potential enforcement.
The new enforcement priorities could possibly apply to nearly every undocumented immigrant in the US. Mr Trump was recently pilloried in public for his claims about racist attacks in Sweden. One of the country’s official Twitter accounts, controlled by a different citizen each week, said: "Nothing has happened here in Sweden. There has not [been] any terrorist attacks here. At all."
However, despite widespread debunking of his claims, it has since emerged a largely under-reported attack did, in fact, occur last month. Immigration played a huge part in Mr Trump’s campaign to "Make America Great Again", which meant he beat Democrat Hillary Clinton. And he seems determined to play hard when it comes to illegal immigrants, or those seeking asylum from the mainly Muslim countries previous identified.
The change in enforcement priorities will require a considerable increase in resources. With an estimated 11 million people in the US illegally, the Government had kept to a narrow set of guidelines. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has now been directed to hire 10,000 more agents "expeditiously". Also, the directives instruct ICE, as well as Customs and Border Protection, to start reviving a programme that recruits local police officers and sheriff’s deputies to help with deportation. The programme will face resistance from some US states and so-called sanctuary cities which have refused to allow law enforcement workers to round up undocumented immigrants.
More widely, Mr Trump’s actions will receive much condemnation globally, probably in vain. Last month, the President signed two executive orders relating to the southern border with Mexico. The first directed the construction of a wall in the region. The second increased the number of border patrol agents and immigration enforcement officers who carry out raids and deportations.
Parts of Europe remain swamped with refugees, many of whom are accused of atrocities in the cities which have opened their doors to those fleeing war and famine. The rise of alt-right parties in Germany, Austria and other parts of the European Union does not promise more tolerance — in fact, just the opposite. Having the leader of the world’s largest economy continue to target immigrants for deportation will only give rise to greater intolerance at a time when calm and reason is needed.
