How the Trump administration is building its immigration control machinery

CNN
–
President Donald Trump quickly mobilized broad sectors of the federal government to arrest and detain undocumented immigrants in the United States, as part of a broader strategy to accumulate a great application machinery of the law.
The government sent troops to the border between the United States and Mexico, used military airplanes to repatriate those who crossed the border recently and have deployed personnel from several federal agencies, including those of the Department of Justice, to reinforce immigration control operations. These changes can cause tensions between the agencies, since they compete for limited resources and personnel.
The Government is also preparing plans to expand the government’s detention capacity, resorting to military bases and Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba. And private contractors are discussing options between them while they seek to increase the ability to detention.
“This allows them to overcome one of the greatest obstacles they have, which are the resources,” said John Sandweg, former ICE interim director during Obama administration, noting that obtaining additional funds from Congress will take time.
“By raising this to a national security priority, taking advantage of the abundant resources of the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice with federal agents, there is an immediate increase in resources,” he added.
It is also expected that in the coming weeks the Trump administration will resort to state and local security forces to help in their efforts to stop undocumented immigrants. Together, these measures involve a drastic intensification of the administration control apparatus and reflect Trump’s aggressive agenda in immigration.
The White House Policies Cabinet Deputy Director Stephen Miller, told Jake Tass Floor, not a roof. ”
“The objective is to arrest at least that amount, but hopefully many more, and the Department of Justice will be closely involved in providing the necessary labor to help achieve those objectives,” said Miller.
‘A force multiplier’
Customs and border protection of the United States were also asked to help ICE, since the field offices of this last agency are under increasing pressure, according to several sources.
The application of the law in the interior of the country is complex already requires careful planning, surveillance and operations that are carried out in the hours prior to dawn. During the past week, ICE officers teams, together with agents of the drug control administration and the alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives office, were deployed throughout the country to arrest undocumented immigrants who had been indicated as threats to public and national security, according to Trump officials.
In an interview with CNN last week, the Border Tsar of the White House, Tom Homan, promoted the joint effort, describing it as “game change” and describing the teams as a “force multiplier.”
Historically, ICE has been sub -financed and has a limited number of agents. Trump’s officials were very aware of this while preparing in the weeks before the investiture day, writing a series of memoranda to delegate powers and activate authorities, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
One of them included a memorandum of the National Security Department in which the help of state and local governments was requested to enforce the Federal Immigration Law, citing a “massive influx” of migrants on the border between the United States and Mexico. That language was deliberate, according to one of the sources, which described the finding as a tool to activate new state authorities for the application of the immigration law.
The memorandum allows the agents of the state and local order forces to carry out the application of the immigration laws, invoking a wide legal authority that allows the Secretary of National Security to request help in certain circumstances. It is not clear how it would be implemented and if it will require agreements and training.
Some former national security officials have expressed concern about the possibility of focusing the application of the law on immigration -centered missions and leaving other unattended tasks.
“It is clear that they can do it, but there is an opportunity cost. What are they not going to do? ”Said a former National Security official.
Army enlistment
One of the president’s first acts, declare a national emergency on the border, has already resulted in an action that was highlighted by the White House: the use of pentagon assets on the southern border of the United States.
The administration extended its military flights to transport migrants to Ecuador last week, after a public dispute with Colombia that almost led to a commercial war. And at the request of the National Security Department, the Buckley Space Force Base in Colorado will be used to organize and process immigrants. The installation is in charge of the ICE, among other agencies.
“This is just the beginning,” said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a publication on Monday.
This Wednesday, Trump signed a memorandum that orders the federal government to prepare the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, in Cuba, to house immigrants. The installation expansion process is expected to last weeks and probably does not reach the goal declared by Trump to house 30,000 people, given the limitations of space.

Guantanamo Bay houses a separate migrant processing center that was previously used to temporarily house immigrants detained in the sea.
During the Biden administration, national security officials considered using the center to temporarily retain more migrants in case of mass maritime migration. The process was expected to expand the capacity to take about 30 days, depending on the help that could be obtained and the speed with which it would proceed, according to a former National Security official.
Trump’s main immigration advisors previously told CNN that the management of a detention center for migrants in Guantanamo Bay would be supervised by ICE and reserved for what the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, described as “the worst of worst”.
Homan told CNN on Wednesday that he wants the Department of Defense to be “very involved” in the application of the immigration law.
When he was pressed on how much more money he believes that Congress would need to assign to completely implement Trump’s immigration plans, Homan said they are “working on that figure now.”
“We need… the more money we have, the more success we will be, right? More money for beds, more money for operations, ”he said.
(Tagstotranslate) Army
Source link