Various federal agencies are announcing immigration policies and initiatives aimed at implementing the various executive orders signed by President Trump during the first two days of his Administration. The Department of Justice announced a new prosecutorial discretion memo, making it clear the agency is to focus on prosecuting members of drug cartels and immigrants who commit violent crimes.
DHS Interim Secretary Benjamin Huffman issued two directives. The first rescinds a 2011 ICE memorandum prohibiting the agency from conducting enforcement activities in sensitive areas like schools, churches and hospitals. It also ends President Biden’s large humanitarian parole programs for a specific group of Latin American countries. USCIS will now only grant parole on an indivualized case-by-case basis. DHS also reinstated Migrant Protection Protocols after a protracted court battle in the Biden Administration to end them.
The Secretary of Homeland Security also changed the policy on expedited removal to cover the entire United States. Immigrants who entered the US without inspection and who are arrested by immigration authorities within two years of entering the US, may be removed via expedited removal and are not entitled to being placed in removal proceedings in an immigration court.