Donald Trump authorizes immigration raids on churches, schools and hospitals | Immigration in the United States
There is no longer any place where a migrant can feel safe that they will not be detained for their immigration status in the United States. Not at mass, not in the emergency room, not picking up your child from school. The acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Benjamine Huffman, issued two guidelines in this regard, within the framework of the Donald Trump Administration’s broader plan to carry out a mass deportation, the “largest in history”, in concrete. The first guideline annuls the action guidelines of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and the Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) that restrict the application of immigration laws in so-called “sensitive” areas or in their immediate vicinity; These are, among others, churches, schools and hospitals. And the second guideline ends the widespread use of humanitarian parole, better known as paroleand returns the program to a case-by-case approach.
The regulations that limit the places where ICE and CBP agents can operate have been in force since 2011. The Republican, in fact, maintained it during his first Administration, as did Joe Biden. When it came into effect, the then director of ICE, John Morton, advised against carrying out operations in “sensitive locations” unless they were approved by a supervisor. These were authorized, especially, in matters related to terrorism, national security, or when there was a risk of death or violence.
These rules have allowed immigrants for more than a decade to feel safe while studying, going for medical check-ups or vaccinations, or when participating in groups studying religious texts. In 2018, ICE created a mechanism to film detention actions near or within these sensitive locations. The images were used as a form of internal control of the agents.
John Morton’s memo was replaced by another in October 2021, already during the Biden Administration. The text respected the guidelines and extended the protection areas for illegal immigrants to places such as social services offices (including domestic violence shelters), funeral homes, school bus stops, rallies and response points. to natural emergencies, among others.
The narrative has now completely changed. “This bill empowers the brave men and women of CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murderers and rapists — who have entered our country illegally. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead relies on them to use common sense,” a spokesperson says in the statement announcing the guidelines.
The measure against parole humanitarian, for the moment, is less clear. “The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants into our country. This all stopped on the first day of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of examining migrants on a case-by-case basis,” the text says. It is not announced that it will end the program, as was speculated before Trump’s inauguration, but rather that it will be reviewed individually; Probably, instead of establishing eligible citizenships, as has been done in several Latin American and many other African countries, the approval process will be individual.
He parole Humanitarian is a temporary immigration status granted by the United States Government to people who need to enter the country for urgent humanitarian reasons or for a significant public benefit. It is typically used in emergency cases with a critical humanitarian purpose, such as medical treatment, family reunification, or the need for essential assistance in disaster relief efforts, among other situations where denial of entry could cause significant hardship to the applicant. And although on paper it is granted on a case-by-case basis, in recent practice the Government has granted temporary protection to migrants from the same country to speed up processes. Thus, hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, Haitians, Salvadorans and Nicaraguans, mainly, although there are also other nationalities included, have been able to live and work in the United States without fear of being deported. Now, however, they are an easy target.
