WATCH: Details released on President Trump's new policy on undocumented immigrants</s>WATCH: Details released on President Trump's new policy on undocumented immigrants</s>The Trump administration on Tuesday released an aggressive plan to stop illegal immigration, warning that all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States are subject to deportation at any time.

Two memorandums signed by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly laid out a series of policies intended to increase immigration enforcement, speed deportations and discourage new asylum seekers. Among the provisions: the hiring of thousands of new border patrol and immigration enforcement agents, the creation of a new office within Department of Homeland Security to work with the victims of crimes committed by unauthorized immigrants, and an expansion of the number of unauthorized immigrants who can be deported through an expedited process.

The practical impact of the orders is not yet clear. Administration officials, in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, said the moves were not a prelude to mass deportations, which would in any case likely require additional funding from Congress. Many details — including the fate of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants granted temporary protected status by former President Barack Obama — remain unresolved, and some of the new policies will likely face legal challenges.

In the meantime, here is more about what we know — and don’t know — about President Trump’s policies:

Trump meant what he said

The memorandums amount to the clearest evidence yet that Trump plans to make good on his campaign promises to crack down on undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.. And they represent a clear departure from the approach taken by Obama, who after overseeing a surge in deportations early in his administration, worked to reduce them during his final years in office.

The memorandums, which build on the executive orders on immigration Trump signed during his first week in office, drew immediate criticism from pro-immigrant groups. They are likely to be popular with Trump’s core supporters, who made his pledge to build a wall along the Mexican border into a rallying cry during and after the presidential campaign. How the policies will play with the broader public is harder to say: As FiveThirtyEight contributor Dan Hopkins wrote in January, Americans have generally grown more liberal on immigration since 2012, and most oppose mass deportations. But most Americans also oppose “sanctuary cities” that refuse to cooperate with immigration authorities in certain circumstances, and they were divided on Trump’s controversial ban on travel from seven majority Muslim countries.

Trump is retaining, at least for now, one Obama-era policy that has generally proved popular: The 2012 program granting temporary protection to some of the so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children. Trump has called the issue of the Dreamers “a very difficult subject for me,” and Kelly’s memorandum explicitly leaves in place the policy known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Its long-term fate, however, remains unclear, as does the fate of the roughly 750,000 participants in the program, some of whose two-year work authorizations are now expiring.

During his first term in office, Obama drew fire from immigration supporters for increasing deportations, particularly along the Mexican border. Later in his administration, however, Obama changed tack, sharply reducing deportations by focusing on immigrants convicted of serious crimes or who had entered the country recently. Undocumented immigrants who were accused only of immigration-related offenses, such as using fake documents in order to work, were usually spared deportation, as were those convicted of traffic violations and other more minor offenses.

Trump and Kelly look set to reverse that shift — and then some. Immigration authorities will continue to focus on immigrants accused of crimes, but the new memorandums substantially expand the list of offenses that are likely to lead to deportation. The administration will prioritize deportation of undocumented immigrants accused — not necessarily convicted — of all “chargeable criminal offenses,” potentially including immigration-related violations. And the memorandums make clear that anyone in the country illegally can be kicked out of the country at any time.

To enact the tough new policies, the DHS will hire 10,000 additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The agency will also look to expand the number of local law enforcement agencies working with the federal government to enforce immigration law. And DHS will release to the public a weekly report on local law enforcement agencies, documenting the number of undocumented immigrants they release from custody — in effect an attempt to shame so-called sanctuary cities.

During the presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly highlighted victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. Tuesday’s memorandums take that approach from the stump into the bureaucracy: The DHS will create a Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office that will work with victims of such crimes. “Criminal aliens routinely victimize Americans and other legal residents,” the memorandum reads.

Most research, however, has found that immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, commit violent crimes at lower rates than native-born Americans. That isn’t surprising — non-citizens, even those here legally, face possible deportation if they are convicted of a violent crime, meaning such crimes carry a higher risk than they do for the U.S. born. (The children of immigrants commit crimes at roughly the same rate as other U.S.-born citizens.)

Despite Trump’s focus on illegal immigration, the number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. isn’t increasing — in fact, illegal immigration has slowed to a relative trickle. According to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Research Center, there were about 11 million people in the U.S. illegally in 2014, the latest data available. That’s down more than a million from 2007. In recent years, the number has been roughly flat — meaning as many undocumented workers are leaving the U.S. as entering it.

Most people in the U.S. illegally have been here a while. Some two-thirds, 66 percent, have been in the U.S. a decade or more, according to Pew’s analysis. Just 14 percent have been here less than five years. In the early 2000s, when illegal immigration was at its peak, those two numbers were roughly equal.

Undocumented immigrants, like immigrants in general, are concentrated in large cities, particularly on the coasts and near the Mexican border. But they live throughout the country — a separate Pew report recently estimated that there are about 20,000 undocumented immigrants in Boise, Idaho, for example. Many, though by no means all, undocumented immigrants work in low-wage sectors such as agriculture and the fast-food industry. (Trump’s initial choice to serve as labor secretary, fast-food CEO Andrew Puzder, drew conservative opposition in part because of his pro-immigration stance. Puzder has since withdrawn his nomination.)

These memos suggest DHS under Trump views illegal immigration as principally an issue of border crossings from people who live in countries south of the U.S. The memorandums call for the hiring of 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents and require all federal agencies to track any spending of U.S. dollars that benefit Mexico. (Trump could highlight any such spending in his campaign to get Mexico to pay for a border wall.) And they direct immigration enforcement authorities to send people crossing the border back to Mexico — even if they aren’t Mexicans.

This is an outdated view of the nation’s immigration challenges. While Mexicans represent about 52 percent of the undocumented population, according to the Pew Research Center, the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico has declined from 6.9 million in 2007 to about 5.8 million as of 2014. A rising share of undocumented immigrants, particularly those who came to the U.S. recently, are from Central America and Asia, and many did not cross the Mexican border to get here. According to data from the Department of Homeland Security, more than half a million people entered the country legally in the 2015 fiscal year and then overstayed their visas. The largest share of them came from Europe, Canada and South America.</s>Mexican immigrants who were deported at a repatriation center in Tijuana, Mexico, in June 2016.

Guillermo Arias / AFP- Getty Images</s>The embattled Trump administration isn't taking its multiple court losses on immigration lying down. Tuesday morning the White House released new memos by the Dept. of Homeland Security detailing the president's orders on undocumented immigrants. They are wide-reaching and almost all-encompassing. In short, any undocumented person who is in the nation's borders is subject to not only deportation, but expedited deportation.</s>Transcript for Details released on President Trump's new policy on undocumented immigrants

Tuesday night, and we begin tonight with those sweeping new guidelines putting millions of undocumented immigrants in America on notice. Tonight here, the new rules, and new directives for border agents and local police. New guidelines released today as president trump was visiting the new national museum of African-American history. Those troubling images tonight from a St. Louis suburb. The headstones knocked over in a jewish cemetery. Amid dozens of threats being investigated by the FBI. We have it all, and ABC's Cecilia Vega leading us off from the white house. Reporter: The trump administration today signing off on new immigration rules that could put the majority of the country's 11 million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation. An overhaul of the immigration system, a promise at the heart of Donald Trump's campaign from the very beginning. We're rounding 'em up in a very humane way. Reporter: His pledge, to target the worst of the worst. We have some bad hombres here and we're going to get them out. Reporter: But the new orders, issued today by the department of homeland security, go far beyond that. Under president Obama the priority was deporting serious criminals. But the new policy directs immigration and border patrol agents to deport anyone convicted of any criminal offense, including crimes like driving without a license. People charged but not convicted could be targeted too. As well as anyone an immigration officer deems a risk to public safety. In the past, any undocumented immigrant arrested within two weeks of arriving in the country faced expedited deportation. Now, anyone who entered illegally within the past two years could face immediate deportation. A much larger group. Is one of the goals here massive deportation? No. Reporter: Not at all? Is the white house's message to undocumented people in this country whose only crime is being in this country illegally don't worry? Or you're on notice? No, the message from the white house and from the dhs is those people who are in this country and pose a threat to public safety or committed a crime will be the first to go, and we will be aggressively make sure that occurs. Reporter: What about the others who aren't? They're watching this fearfully right now. Cecilia, the president has said multiple times, we have to look at this issue on a very, very holistic way. Reporter: The white house insists this is about enforcing the laws already on the books. For so long ice had their hands cuffed behind them in the mission of the job. In fact president Obama expelled record numbers of undocumented immigrants earning the reputation as deporter in chief. But critics say people who are not serious criminals are already being caught up in president trump's crackdown. People like Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, an undocumented mother of two American children who was deported from Phoenix. Her arrest sparking protests. And Jeanette vizguerra who is now hunkered down in a Denver church seeking sanctuary. But the new rules do not affect the more than 750,000 people who came to the country illegally as children, known as dreamers. The president telling David they shouldn't be worried. They shouldn't be very worried. They are here illegally. They shouldn't be very worried. I do have a big heart. We're going to take care of everybody. Reporter: So Mr. President, will they be allowed to stay? I'm gonna tell you over the next four weeks. Cecilia Vega with us live from the white house, and Cecilia, we asked the president about the dreamers. Is what we heard today definitive? Do they get to stay? Reporter: Sean spicer said the matter of dreamers in this country is not yet settled. This is also part of the plan though. They plan to hire 15,000 new immigration officers and border patrol agents, and call on local police to help with deportations, but David, how all of this gets paid for remains to be seen. Cecilia Vega leading us off. Thank you. President trump is also</s>The Trump Administration released new details on how they will deal with undocumented immigrants.</s>It just got easier to deport undocumented immigrants in America.

Late Monday, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued two memos that outline the department’s guidelines for carrying out executive orders signed by President Trump on Jan. 25. The memos detail how immigration enforcement will be stepped up along the United States-Mexico border and within the United States, giving federal agents broad authority to arrest and deport virtually any undocumented resident who entered the U.S. as an adult.

The Trump administration clarified the memos Tuesday, saying people protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a holdover from the Obama administration, are not being targeted.

The new rules scared immigrants even as they pleased Trump supporters and others who want to see tougher rules on immigration.

“We are terrified as to what can happen next,” said Debora Goiz Estarza, a 20-year-old student who lives in San Bernardino. Though Estarza is protected by Obama-era DREAMER rules, her parents and two of her siblings have no such protections and could be deported under the guidelines issued Monday.

“We’re getting prepared for the worst, but we’re also prepared to fight. We’re getting involved. We’re learning our rights," she said.

"Since Trump became president, our lives have been affected in so many ways,” she added. "I don’t feel in control of my future anymore.”

Rosenberg's son was killed in 2010 in a traffic accident involving an undocumented immigrant. The memos outlined how the Trump administration will establish the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office to assist families like the Rosenbergs by providing information about the status of criminal cases involving undocumented immigrants and any subsequent deportation orders.

“It’s an opportunity for the federal government to help families who really need it, who are totally in the dark about the crimes committed by people who are in the country illegally,” said Rosenberg.

The memos also eliminate protections that Homeland Security had granted to undocumented immigrants under the Privacy Act, meaning that federal agencies will now be able to publicly distribute information about their cases. Data available to date has shown that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than people born in the United States.

California Democrats “are always talking about how Trump’s immigration policies are breaking up families, but they never talk about my family," Rosenberg added.

"These people can go back to their home countries. The only place I get to go is the cemetery.”

In addition to expanding deportation priorities to include nearly all undocumented immigrants, the memos call for the federal government to dramatically expand its capacity to detain immigrants. As part of that, the administration wants to build new holding centers along the southern border.

The memos call for border patrol agents to quickly deport immigrants apprehended at the southern border, through a practice known as “expedited removal,” which allows Customs and Border Protection to immediately deport individuals, without sending the case to other agencies or federal immigration judges for review or hearings. The policies also make it easier for the government to deport undocumented minors, and to send asylum-seekers to Mexico while U.S. officials process their claims.

The memos also echo Trump's earlier call to hire 10,000 new agents to work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and 5,000 new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. The memos direct federal immigration agencies to expand partnerships with local law enforcement, calling those relationships “excellent force multipliers” in federal immigration enforcement.</s>The fear of deportation was never more real for Olga, an undocumented immigrant of 17 years, than it was on Tuesday.



The Department of Homeland Security had just issued two memos that greatly expanded the mandate of federal immigration officials to subject all of the estimated 11 million people living in the US illegally to deportation, even if they don’t have a criminal record.



The Mexican native, who declined to use her full name out of fear of retribution, runs a jewelry store in Los Angeles with her husband. Olga always believed that if she kept her head down, worked hard, and stayed out of trouble, she would be OK.

“But now the fear – no, dread – is everywhere,” Olga told BuzzFeed News.

In addition to laying out new enforcement priorities, the memos from Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly calls for hiring thousands more immigration agents, starting plans for a US-Mexico border wall, and expediting deportation proceedings — a plan that immigrant rights advocates say is lays the foundation for the deportation force President Trump promised on the campaign trail.

“They’re not only going after criminals now, they’re going after innocent people who have dedicated their lives to their jobs and kids,” Olga told BuzzFeed News.

She pointed to the story of a Phoenix mother, Guadalupe Garcia de Rayo, who was deported after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-in, and the arrest of Daniel Ramirez, who has protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for allegedly being a gang member.

While the DHS memos did not address how the Trump administration plans to deal with the 750,000 young immigrants like Ramirez, referred to as DREAMers because of the protections sought for them by the DREAM Act. They were shielded from deportation and received work permits under then-President Obama’s 2012 executive actions that de-prioritized the deportations of undocumented immigrants with no criminal records.

However, the DHS memos give immigration agents the mandate to deport anyone in the US illegally, including people who have used a fake Social Security number to work or have been suspected, not convicted, of a crime.

They also expand the “expedited removal” process, which deports immigrants without making their case before a judge. The process was reserved for undocumented immigrants who were within 100 miles of the border and had been in the country for 14 days, but now it can apply to anyone who has been in the US for less than two years.

“In my many years of practicing immigration law I have not seen a mass deportation blueprint like this one,” said Marielena Hincapié, executive director of the National Immigration Law Center. “Today’s memo offers a guide to allow Trump to enact a mass deportation agenda, which he talked about on the campaign trail, but are even more extreme than his rhetoric.”

Federal officials insisted that “mass deportations” were not on the agenda, and that agents in the field would have discretion to carry out their expanded enforcement powers. They also noted that it would take time to implement the policies due to costs associated with expanding ICE by thousands of agents.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday told reporters that everybody in the US illegally is “subject to removal at any time,” but that people with convictions will still be prioritized.

“The message from this White House and the DHS is that those people who are in this country and pose a threat to our public safety or have committed a crime will be the first to go and we will be aggressively making sure that that occurs,” Spicer said.

But Jessica Karp Bansal, litigation director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said it’s meaningless to say there are priorities but also tell immigration authorities to deport anyone who is undocumented.



“The memo is saying, ‘Deport anyone,’” Bansal said. “Now you’re considered a criminal if one ICE officer thinks you’ve done something to break a law.”



A series of immigration raids across the US this month, which resulted in about 680 arrests, also fueled fears of a crackdown. Officials insisted the raids were routine and planned before Trump took office, but Bansal said people who would have previously been left alone under the previous administration, such as those without criminal records, were rounded up.

“A lot of people are saying these were similar to Obama’s, but there were many more collateral arrests,” Bansal said. “That shows that any time they find someone who overstayed their visa or have never been convicted of any crime, ICE’s marching orders are to deport them.”

Of the 680 arrested, 25% lacked a criminal conviction, according to the DHS.

Olga, who also teaches catechism at a church, said many of her students asked about the raids and whether their parents would be rounded up. Her 27-year-old son grew angrier the more he heard about the raids.

“I tell my son and my kids not to lose faith, not to get angry,” Olga. “Go vote, volunteer, that’s how we can fight back against this.”

Olga tries to hide her fears from her students and children. Chief among them is what she and her husband will do if they’re deported to Mexico after building a life in the US.

“What are we going to do? We invested everything we had in our jewelry store and two houses,” Olga said. “We left our country when we were young, I’m 47 and my husband is 53, no one is going to want to hire us.”</s>It just got easier to deport undocumented immigrants in America.

Late Monday, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued two memos that outline the department’s guidelines for carrying out executive orders signed by President Trump on Jan. 25. The memos detail how immigration enforcement will be stepped up along the United States-Mexico border and within the United States, giving federal agents broad authority to arrest and deport virtually any undocumented resident who entered the U.S. as an adult.

The Trump administration clarified the memos Tuesday, saying people protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, a holdover from the Obama administration, are not being targeted.

The new rules scared immigrants even as they pleased Trump supporters and others who want to see tougher rules on immigration.

“We are terrified as to what can happen next,” said Debora Goiz Estarza, a 20-year-old student who lives in San Bernardino. Though Estarza is protected by Obama-era DREAMER rules, her parents and two of her siblings have no such protections and could be deported under the guidelines issued Monday.

“We’re getting prepared for the worst, but we’re also prepared to fight. We’re getting involved. We’re learning our rights," she said.

"Since Trump became president, our lives have been affected in so many ways,” she added. "I don’t feel in control of my future anymore.”

Rosenberg's son was killed in 2010 in a traffic accident involving an undocumented immigrant. The memos outlined how the Trump administration will establish the Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office to assist families like the Rosenbergs by providing information about the status of criminal cases involving undocumented immigrants and any subsequent deportation orders.

“It’s an opportunity for the federal government to help families who really need it, who are totally in the dark about the crimes committed by people who are in the country illegally,” said Rosenberg.

The memos also eliminate protections that Homeland Security had granted to undocumented immigrants under the Privacy Act, meaning that federal agencies will now be able to publicly distribute information about their cases. Data available to date has shown that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than people born in the United States.

California Democrats “are always talking about how Trump’s immigration policies are breaking up families, but they never talk about my family," Rosenberg added.

"These people can go back to their home countries. The only place I get to go is the cemetery.”

In addition to expanding deportation priorities to include nearly all undocumented immigrants, the memos call for the federal government to dramatically expand its capacity to detain immigrants. As part of that, the administration wants to build new holding centers along the southern border.

The memos call for border patrol agents to quickly deport immigrants apprehended at the southern border, through a practice known as “expedited removal,” which allows Customs and Border Protection to immediately deport individuals, without sending the case to other agencies or federal immigration judges for review or hearings. The policies also make it easier for the government to deport undocumented minors, and to send asylum-seekers to Mexico while U.S. officials process their claims.

The memos also echo Trump's earlier call to hire 10,000 new agents to work for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and 5,000 new Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. The memos direct federal immigration agencies to expand partnerships with local law enforcement, calling those relationships “excellent force multipliers” in federal immigration enforcement.

Southern California is home to the nation’s largest cluster of undocumented immigrants, accounting for about 10 percent of the 11 million people thought to be living in the United States illegally. That includes about 1 million undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles County, 270,000 in Orange County, 160,000 in Riverside County, and 140,000 in San Bernardino County, according to estimates from the Migration Policy Institute.

"Let us be clear about this: these guidelines represent an unlawful, expedited process, a dragnet, to remove undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S," said Angelica Salas, executive director for Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. "This is a dastardly approach to a very human issue."

"I will do everything in my power — in partnership with the City Council, our City Attorney, the LAPD, advocates for immigrants, educators, and members of Congress — to protect and defend the rights of all Angelenos whose families may be unjustly affected by these orders," Garcetti said. "We will fight for the people who call our communities home, and stay committed to leading with the humanity and openness that define us as a people."

“It feels hopeful,” said Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising, an anti-illegal immigration group based in Claremont. “It’s definitely a step in the right direction for public safety. We finally have an ally in the White House who wants to respect and enforce our laws. So it’s been very encouraging.”

If the memos lead to more deportations, the timing isn't clear.

"It may not happen as fast as people think," said Cornell Law School professor Stephen Yale-Loehr.

“Immigrants already have to wait an average of 2.5 years to have a hearing before an immigration judge. Unless the administration finds funding to hire more immigration judges, those backlogs will skyrocket,” Yale-Loehr added.

“Congress also needs to find money to hire more Border Patrol and immigration enforcement personnel to carry out the executive orders.”

But any big increase in deportations would touch the economy, particularly in Southern California.

"Wages are going to be going up dramatically," said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a public policy professor at UC Riverside.

Trump, he added, "is delivering on a promise to a very narrow segment of the population and the economy is going to suffer for it.”
The Trump administration releases a new memo that sets the policy for the deportation of undocumented migrants accused of any crime.