Homeland Security Outlines New Rules Tightening Enforcement Of Immigration Law

The Trump administration is releasing more on its plans to crack down on illegal immigration, enforcing the executive orders President Trump issued in late January. Those orders called for increased border security and stricter enforcement of immigration laws.

The Department of Homeland Security issued the new rules on Tuesday, laid out in two documents signed by Secretary John Kelly.

"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," White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters. "And we will be aggressively making sure that occurs. That is what the priority is."

Under the new rules, the department would greatly expand the number of immigrants who are prioritized for removal. This includes a person in the country illegally who may have committed a crime but not been charged, who has "abused any program related to receipt of public benefits," or who an immigration officer deems a risk to public safety or national security.

Immigrant rights advocates say the rules are written so broadly that they make anyone in the country illegally a target for deportation — potentially, as many as eight to 11 million people.

"In my many years of practicing immigration law, I have not seen a mass deportation blueprint like this one," said Maria Elena Hincapie, the executive director of the National Immigration Law Center.

"This means an undocumented mother ... who has been living in the United States for over ten years and has a U.S. citizen child she's nursing would now also be considered a priority, " she said.

The White House and DHS deny that the rules amount to a blueprint for mass deportation. - Read More, NPR

Homeland Security Outlines New Rules Tightening Enforcement Of Immigration Law