The Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping set of orders Tuesday that implement President Trump's plan to increase immigration enforcement, placing the vast majority of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation.

The memos instruct all agents, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to identify, capture and quickly deport every undocumented immigrant they encounter.

The memos require undocumented immigrants caught entering the country to be placed in detention until their cases are resolved, increase the ability of local police to help in immigration enforcement, call for the hiring of 10,000 more immigration agents and allow planning to begin on an expansion of the border wall between the United States and Mexico.

The memos make undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a crime the highest priority for enforcement operations. But they make clear that ICE agents should also arrest and initiate deportation proceedings against any other undocumented immigrant they encounter.

"Department personnel have full authority to arrest or apprehend an alien whom an immigration officers has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws," one memo read. "They also have full authority to initiate removal proceedings against any alien who is subject to removal under any provision of the (Immigration and Nationality Act)."

A Homeland Security official who briefed reporters Tuesday said that deportation protections President Obama granted in 2012 to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children will continue to be honored so long as those immigrants abide by the rules of the program. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the memos.

More than 750,000 undocumented immigrants are eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA).

The also orders detail a broad plan to keep undocumented immigrants caught crossing the southwest border from making it to the interior of the U.S. They call for detaining all of them until their cases are resolved.

Currently, many undocumented immigrants are processed by immigration agents, released around the country and ordered to reappear for court hearings. The memos seek to end that practice, known as “catch and release,” by ordering the construction of more jails along the southwest border to house detained immigrants until their cases are resolved.

The new directives also allow Customs agents to send some people directly back to Mexico, whether they’re Mexican or not. Under previous administrations, people from Mexico and Canada could be deported directly back home. But people from all other countries, such as from Central America, had to detained until they could be flown back to their country of origin.

The memos do not mention the idea of using National Guard troops along the southwest border, as reported by several media outlets last week.</s>The Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping set of orders Tuesday that implement President Trump's plan to increase immigration enforcement, placing the vast majority of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation.

The memos instruct all agents — including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — to identify, capture and quickly deport every undocumented immigrant they encounter.

The memos require undocumented immigrants caught entering the country to be placed in detention until their cases are resolved, increase the ability of local police to help in immigration enforcement, call for the hiring of 10,000 more immigration agents and allow planning to begin on an expansion of the border wall between the United States and Mexico.

The memos make undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a crime the highest priority for enforcement operations. But they make clear that ICE agents should also arrest and initiate deportation proceedings against any other undocumented immigrant they encounter.

"Department personnel have full authority to arrest or apprehend an alien whom an immigration officers has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws," one memo said. "They also have full authority to initiate removal proceedings against any alien who is subject to removal under any provision of the (Immigration and Nationality Act)."

The memos fulfill Trump's campaign promises to crack down on illegal immigration. Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which advocates for lower levels of legal and illegal immigration, said the memos capture many recommendations his group has been making for years.

"It's Christmas in February," Stein said. "What (Homeland Security Secretary John) Kelly has done is lay out a broad road map of regaining control of a process that's spun out of control."

Immigration advocacy groups were crushed. Although Trump recently said his focus would be to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal histories or who pose a threat to national security, the new memos make clear that nearly all undocumented immigrants are at risk.

"These memos lay out a detailed blueprint for the mass deportation of 11 million undocumented immigrants in America," said Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of America's Voice Educational Fund, which advocates on behalf of immigrants. "They fulfill the wish lists of the white nationalist and anti-immigrant movements and bring to life the worst of Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric."

One group appears to be spared for now. A Homeland Security official who briefed reporters Tuesday said deportation protections that President Obama granted in 2012 to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children will continue to be honored so long as those immigrants abide by the rules of the program. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the memos.

More than 750,000 undocumented immigrants have been granted deportation protections under that program, known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA).

The orders also detail a broad plan to keep undocumented immigrants caught crossing the southwest border from making it to the interior of the U.S. They call for detaining all of them until their cases are resolved.

Currently, many undocumented immigrants are processed by immigration agents, released into the country and ordered to reappear for court hearings. The memos seek to end that practice, known as “catch and release,” by ordering the construction of more jails along the southwest border to house detained immigrants until their cases are resolved.

The new directives also allow Customs agents to send some people directly back to Mexico, whether they’re Mexican or not. Under previous administrations, people from Mexico and Canada could be deported directly back home. But people from all other countries, such as from Central America, had to be detained until they could be flown back to their country of origin.

The memos do not mention the idea of using National Guard troops along the southwest border, as reported by several media outlets last week.

On the campaign trail, Trump regularly highlighted crimes committed by undocumented crimes and embraced the families of the victims of those crimes. Now, there will be a permanent office within ICE to carry on that message.

The Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement Office, or VOICE, establishes a process to keep victims and their families informed about the status of criminal cases against the undocumented immigrants and any followup deportation proceedings. The new orders eliminate protections that had been granted to undocumented immigrants under the federal Privacy Act, meaning ICE will now publicly distribute information about these cases.

"I direct the Director of ICE to immediately reallocate any and all resources that are currently used to advocate on behalf of illegal aliens ... to the new VOICE Office," Kelly wrote in one directive.</s>Image copyright Reuters Image caption "No wall. Respect for migrants and human rights": Mr Trump's immigration policy has led to protests in Mexico

Mexico has condemned new guidelines issued by the United States, under which almost all illegal immigrants can be subject to deportation.

The new rules include sending undocumented people to Mexico, even if they are not Mexicans.

But Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray says his country cannot "accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another."

Two top US officials are in Mexico to discuss the measures.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the head of Homeland Security, John Kelly, will hold talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto, amid one of the most serious rifts between the two neighbours in recent years.

What is changing?

The changes announced on Tuesday include plans to enforce an existing provision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act that allows authorities to send illegal immigrants back to Mexico, regardless of where they are from.

But it is unclear whether the US has authority to force Mexico to accept foreigners.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption An estimated seven million undocumented immigrants live in these in 20 metro areas

The Obama government focused on deporting immigrants convicted of serious crimes.

Now, the new priorities are broad enough to apply to almost any illegal immigrant, including anyone who has been charged with a crime, misrepresented themselves, poses a risk to public safety, or "abused any programme related to receipt of public benefits".

The new guidelines also allow Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport people immediately.

Expedited deportations can now be used against undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US, who are unable to prove they have been in the country for more than two years.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Trump's stance over immigration has angered Mexicans

Previously, expedited removals were applied to people who had been in the country for less than two weeks and were within 100 miles of the border.

An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the US, many of them from Mexico.

Read more on the Trump administration and immigration:

What has Mexico said?

Mr Videgaray said on Wednesday that Mexico would not accept the new rules. "We are not going to accept that because we don't have to and it is not in the interest of Mexico."

"We also have control of our borders and we will exercise it fully," he added.

He said his country was prepared to go to the United Nations to defend the freedoms and rights of Mexicans under international law.

Roberto Campa, head of the human rights department of Mexico's interior ministry, said the plan to deport non-Mexicans to Mexico was "hostile" and "unacceptable".

Image copyright AFP Image caption Mexico says it will not accept the new US measures

Relations between the US and Mexico have been tense under Mr Trump, who has said Mexico will pay for a wall he wants to build on the southern border, expected to cost billions of dollars.

Last month, Mr Pena Nieto cancelled a planned meeting with the US president in Washington over disagreements over the wall.

What has the US said?

President Donald Trump made immigration and border control a key part of his campaign.

The government said the new guidelines would not usher in mass deportations, but were designed to empower agents to enforce laws already on the books.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Border control was one of main points of Mr Trump's election campaign

Earlier, in Guatemala, Mr Kelly reinforced that the measures did not signal mass deportations.

"We will be looking primarily at criminal offenders first. But there will be no mass round-ups, and when we do take someone into custody, they're then put into the American legal justice system, that's the courts, and the courts will decide what'll happen to them," he told reporters.

Despite the tensions, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Wednesday that the relationship with Mexico was "phenomenal right now".

He said he expected a "great discussion" between US and Mexican officials. The talks are expected to also include drug trafficking and the North American Free Trade Agreement, among other issues.</s>The Department of Homeland Security issued a sweeping set of orders Tuesday that implement President Trump's plan to increase immigration enforcement, placing the vast majority of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants at risk of deportation.

The memos instruct all agents, including Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to identify, capture and quickly deport every undocumented immigrant they encounter.

The memos require undocumented immigrants caught entering the country to be placed in detention until their cases are resolved, increase the ability of local police to help in immigration enforcement, call for the hiring of 10,000 more immigration agents and allow planning to begin on an expansion of the border wall between the United States and Mexico.

RELATED | READ FULL Draft memo calling for National Guard roundup

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The memos make undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of a crime the highest priority for enforcement operations. But they make clear that ICE agents should also arrest and initiate deportation proceedings against any other undocumented immigrant they encounter.

"Department personnel have full authority to arrest or apprehend an alien whom an immigration officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws," one memo read. "They also have full authority to initiate removal proceedings against any alien who is subject to removal under any provision of the (Immigration and Nationality Act)."

A Homeland Security official who briefed reporters Tuesday said that deportation protections President Obama granted in 2012 to undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children will continue to be honored so long as those immigrants abide by the rules of the program. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the memos.

More than 750,000 undocumented immigrants are eligible for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program (DACA).

The also orders detail a broad plan to keep undocumented immigrants caught crossing the southwest border from making it to the interior of the U.S. They call for detaining all of them until their cases are resolved.

Currently, many undocumented immigrants are processed by immigration agents, released around the country and ordered to reappear for court hearings. The memos seek to end that practice, known as “catch and release,” by ordering the construction of more jails along the southwest border to house detained immigrants until their cases are resolved.

The new directives also allow Customs agents to send some people directly back to Mexico, whether they’re Mexican or not. Under previous administrations, people from Mexico and Canada could be deported directly back home. But people from all other countries, such as from Central America, had to detained until they could be flown back to their country of origin.

The memos do not mention the idea of using National Guard troops along the southwest border, as reported by several media outlets last week.</s>Only hours before a two-day visit to Mexico by the U.S. secretary of state and head of the Homeland Security, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said Wednesday that Mexico "will not accept" the unilateral imposition of U.S. immigration proposals, according to media reports.

The foreign minister also said he would not hesitate to take the issue to the United Nations to defend what he called the rights of immigrants, Reuters reports.

His comments followed the release of new directives by the Department of Homeland Security aimed at increasing deportations among the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants.

Under the new guidelines, all federal immigration officers can now conduct an "expedited removal" anywhere in the U.S. against people who arrived in the U.S. in the previous two years.

One critical part of the new directives, which would require Mexican cooperation, says federal immigration officials can send those undocumented immigrants back to Mexico, even if they're not from there.

Many of the undocumented immigrants in recent years have come from Central America and travelled through Mexico to reach the U.S. border.

Videgaray said the new U.S. proposals would be the main focus of talks Wednesday and Thursday with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of DHS John Kelly.

“I want to make it clear in the most emphatic way that the government of Mexico and the people of Mexico do not have to accept provisions that one government wants to unilaterally impose on another,” Videgaray said, according to Univision. “We will not accept that because we have no reason to; it is not in the interest of the Mexico.”

The immigration issue has caused increasing strain between Mexico and the U.S., particularly over President Trump's pledge to build a border wall and make Mexico pay for it. The fallout over the issue led Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to cancel a trip to the U.S. recently.

In Washington, White House spokesman Sean Spicer, in response to question about immigration, was asked Wednesday Tillerson and Kelly were on a cleanup mission with Mexico.

“I would argue that we have a very healthy and robust relationship with the Mexican government and Mexican officials," Spicer said. "I think they would echo that same sentiment. I think the relationship with Mexico is phenomenal right now. I believe there’s an unbelievable and robust dialogue between our two nations.”

nder the Obama administration, a process known as an "expedited removal" was used mostly along the southwest border. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrols agents were able to quickly deport undocumented immigrants caught within 100 miles of the border who had arrived in the U.S. in the previous two weeks.

Most undocumented immigrants caught entering the country have been placed in detention or released on bond while their deportation cases proceeded. That practice, dubbed "catch and release," led to many undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and skipping out on their court cases.

Under the new guidelines, people caught entering the country will be placed in jail while their deportation cases are processed. Homeland Security plans to hire 10,000 ICE agents and build new detention facilities along the southwest border, and more immigration judges and staff will be hired to speed up cases.</s>Mexico has condemned new guidelines issued by the United States, under which almost all illegal immigrants can be subject to deportation.

The new rules include sending undocumented people to Mexico, even if they are not Mexicans.

But Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray says his country cannot “accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another.”

Two top US officials are in Mexico to discuss the measures.

Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and the head of Homeland Security, John Kelly, will hold talks with President Enrique Pena Nieto, amid one of the most serious rifts between the two neighbours in recent years.

The changes announced on Tuesday include plans to enforce an existing provision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act that allows authorities to send illegal immigrants back to Mexico, regardless of where they are from.

But it is unclear whether the US has authority to force Mexico to accept foreigners.

The Obama government focussed on deporting immigrants convicted of serious crimes.

Now, the new priorities are broad enough to apply to almost any illegal immigrant, including anyone who has been charged with a crime, misrepresented themselves, poses a risk to public safety, or “abused any programme related to receipt of public benefits”.

The new guidelines also allow Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport people immediately.

Expedited deportations can now be used against undocumented immigrants anywhere in the US, who are unable to prove they have been in the country for more than two years.

Previously, expedited removals were applied to people who had been in the country for less than two weeks and were within 100 miles of the border.

An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the US, many of them from Mexico.</s>MEXICO CITY: Mexico will not accept new "unilateral" U.S. immigration proposals, and will not hesitate in approaching the United Nations to defend immigrants, the country's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Wednesday, ahead of a meeting with senior U.S. officials.

Videgaray said the new U.S. proposals would be the main point of discussion for upcoming meetings, which will take place between Mexican officials, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Wednesday and Thursday.</s>Mexico has condemned new guidelines issued by the United States on deporting undocumented immigrants.

Under plans unveiled by the Trump administration on Tuesday, almost all people staying in the US illegally can be subject to deportation.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said his country could not "accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another."

The row comes as two top US officials are preparing to visit Mexico.

The White House said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the head of Homeland Security, John Kelly, would talk to Mexican officials and "walk through" the implementation of the new immigration guidelines.

They include plans to enforce an existing provision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act that allows authorities to send undocumented migrants back to Mexico, regardless of where they are from.

It is unclear whether the US has authority to force Mexico to accept foreigners.

But Mr Videgaray said on Wednesday: "We are not going to accept that because we don't have to and it is not in the interest of Mexico."

Mr Videgaray also warned the US about treatment of Mexican citizens.

"The Mexican government will not hesitate in going to international organisations, starting with the United Nations, to defend human rights, liberties and due process for Mexicans abroad according to international law."

Mr Tillerson and Mr Kelly were scheduled to discuss a range of issues with President Enrique Pena Nieto on Thursday, but Mr Videgaray said the new changes to policy would now dominate the discussion.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said on Wednesday that he expected a "great discussion".

Read more from BBC News on the Trump administration and immigration:
• A Mexican man killed himself, hours after being deported from the US
• How an updated executive order expected soon from President Trump will attempt to revive the travel ban struck down by the courts
• National Park Service police are investigating after a giant "Refugees Welcome" banner was illegally attached to the Statue of Liberty

An estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants live in the US, many of them from Mexico. President Donald Trump made immigration and border control a key part of his campaign.

The new priorities are broad enough to apply to almost any illegal immigrant, including anyone who has been charged with a crime, misrepresented themselves, poses a risk to public safety, or "have abused any program related to receipt of public benefits".

The new guidelines also allow Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport people immediately.

Expedited deportations can now be used against undocumented immigrants who are unable to prove they have been in the country for more than two years, anywhere in the US.

Previously, expedited removals were applied to people who had been in the country for less than two weeks and were within 100 miles of the border.</s>Mexico has indicated it would not accept the Trump administration’s new US immigration proposals, saying it would go to the United Nations to defend the rights of immigrants in the US.



Luis Videgaray, Mexico’s foreign minister, was responding to Donald Trump’s plans to enforce immigration rules more vigorously against undocumented migrants, which could potentially lead to mass deportations to Mexico, not just of Mexicans but also citizens of other Latin American countries.

“We are not going to accept it because we don’t have to accept it,” Videgaray said, according to the Reforma newspaper. “I want to make clear, in the most emphatic way, that the government of Mexico and the Mexican people do not have to accept measures that one government wants to unilaterally impose on another.”

The sweeping measures were announced in Washington on the eve of a visit to Mexico by the US secretaries of state and homeland security that had been aimed at salvaging bilateral relations, currently at their lowest point in at least three decades.

Rex Tillerson and John Kelly are seeking to soothe Mexican fears in the wake of Trump’s new executive orders, the construction of a border wall that he insists Mexico be made to pay for, and his threat to unpick the 1994 Nafta free trade agreement that underpins the Mexican economy.

On Thursday, the two men, a former oil executive and a retired general, will meet the Mexican president, Enrique Peña Nieto, who abruptly cancelled a trip to Washington at the end of January after Trump sent out a tweet suggesting it was better not to come “if Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall”.

Since then, Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and closest foreign policy adviser, has reportedly worked behind the scenes to limit the damage, helping broker a placatory phone conversation between the presidents on 27 January, and attending a meeting on 8 February in Washington between Tillerson and his Mexican counterpart Videgaray, according to the Washington Post.

Kushner and Videgaray, who is Peña Nieto’s closest political adviser, were introduced by mutual friends in the business world, and their personal relationship has helped prevent an escalating war of words between the two capitals, diplomats said.

Videgaray has placed high stakes on the visit. “This is a moment of definition: The decisions we make in the coming months will determine how Mexico and the United States coexist for the next decades,” he was quoted as saying at the G20 meeting in Bonn last week by the Los Angeles Times.

But Mexican observers worry that the relationship with Kushner, who is 36 years old and has no previous foreign policy experience, is a thin reed on which to try to rebuild a profoundly damaged bilateral relationship.

“I don’t know if there is a strategy and if there is a strategy, the strategy is a person,” said Carlos Heredia, professor at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City.

The US state department referred questions about Kushner’s role to the White House, which did not respond.

“This is indeed a low point in US-Mexico relations, representing an abrupt break from the last 30-plus years of cooperation,” said Shannon O’Neil, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of a book on US-Mexican relations. “While the visit will go some way to smoothing bilateral discussions, there is a hard-earned trust that has been broken, and that can’t be repaired with just a high-level visit.”

O’Neil added: “The Trump administration’s hostile beginning has also shifted Mexico’s domestic politics. Rising nationalism there will make compromises with the United States all the harder as Mexico looks toward its own 2018 presidential race.”

Tens of thousands of migrants – mostly from Central America, but increasingly from further afield – transit Mexico annually in attempts to reach the US border. Mexico has turned enforcer, imposing the Southern Border plan in 2014 to detain and deport migrants transiting Mexican territory, even as it doggedly defends its own nationals at risk of deportation in the United States.

In recent interviews, the economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, has raised the possibility of Mexico suspending cooperation on migrant enforcement. He told news channel Milenio: “There would be no incentive to continue collaborating on important issues for North American security such as migration issues” if Nafta is abandoned.

Brandon Capece, a research fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, said the state of bilateral relations was at its lowest point since the 1980s when the two countries were locked in ideological differences over foreign policy and before the signing of Nafta in 1994 made them economic partners, with more than $1.5bn in trade crossing the border each day.

“Even renegotiating Nafta is something that can be mutually beneficial for all three nations involved, but only if Trump can move beyond his misperceived notion that the United States is somehow the victim in this relationship,” Capece said. “That being said, given the failure of the Trump administration to articulate a clear foreign policy and their reluctance to rely on experts within the Washington foreign policy establishment, it is unlikely that this trip in and of itself will calm nerves in either Washington or Mexico City.”</s>It just got easier to deport undocumented immigrants from America.

Late Monday night, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly issued two memos that outline the department’s guidelines for carrying out executive orders signed by President Donald 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 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 Esparza, a 20-year-old student who lives in San Bernardino. Though Esparza 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,” Rosenberg said.

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, and 5,000 new Customs and Border Protection 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 of Los Angeles. “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.”
Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso rejects and condemns the United States's new plan on deporting undocumented immigrants, stating that Mexico cannot "accept unilateral decisions imposed by one government on another."