Washington
CNN
—
Federal immigration authorities will be authorized to arrest people and carry out enforcement actions in and near places such as churches and schools, marking a break from longstanding policy of avoiding so-called hotspot areas.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman announced in a statement the end of two directives, giving agents more authority to determine whether or not they conduct law enforcement and eliminating a legal pathway for migrants seeking to come to the United States.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in American schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, but will trust them to use common sense,” the statement read.
This is a key example of how law enforcement will be different under the Trump administration than under the Biden administration.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement established a policy in 2011 preventing agents from making arrests in sensitive locations. The Biden administration has issued similar guidance. Immigrant advocates share concerns about removing the policy, arguing it would stoke fear in immigrant communities and prevent children from going to school or people from seeking treatment in hospitals.
The second directive calls for the phasing out of parole programs that allowed certain migrants to temporarily live and work in the United States. Republicans have repeatedly said the Biden administration abused the parole program by expanding it to multiple nationalities. The statement did not specify which programs would be phased out, but said the program would be reinstated “on a case-by-case basis.”
“The Biden-Harris administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants into our country. All of this ended on the first day of the Trump administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of reviewing migrants on a case-by-case basis,” the statement said.
