Trump and Immigration (Illegal Immigrants in the US)

[HeavyGunner]

1 hour ago, Joseph Moody Jr said:

This issue with illegal immigrants will never end. Right now the courts are backlog of over 500, 000 which have court hearing schedule into 2019, Let say there is 2 million here and courts can do 250, 000 a year it will take another 8 years. So that will 10 years just this group to have court hearings. Then build a wall and those illegal immigrants that was sent back will try to enter this country thru tunnel, over or around ( Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean ). A wall will never stop anyone just look at West and East Berlin, DMZ in Korea and Gaza Tunnels

Like Mrsmackpaul said, they protect a helluva lot more border with less people successfully. 

[Joseph Moody Jr]

Basically, I was trying to say in my earlier post that this problem will never end.

[other dog]

I just hope Kanye and Rosie made it to Canada before they stepped up their border patrol.

[carlotpilot]

leapin lena dunham changed her mind of her own free will.( with a little help from a canadian pm)  

[carlotpilot]

6 hours ago, HeavyGunner said:

Like Mrsmackpaul said, they protect a helluva lot more border with less people successfully. 

border tunnels are the perfect place to dispose of live poisonous snakes after a round up  

 

 

 

[kscarbel2]

On 11/25/2016 at 10:04 AM, Joseph Moody Jr said:

This issue with illegal immigrants will never end. Right now the courts are backlog of over 500, 000 which have court hearing schedule into 2019, Let say there is 2 million here and courts can do 250, 000 a year it will take another 8 years. So that will 10 years just this group to have court hearings. Then build a wall and those illegal immigrants that was sent back will try to enter this country thru tunnel, over or around ( Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean ). A wall will never stop anyone just look at West and East Berlin, DMZ in Korea and Gaza Tunnels

There's no reason for any illegal immigrants to ever set foot in U.S. courts. They are not U.S. citizens or legal residents.

They simply need to be summarily deported, within 48 hours of apprehension.

And, as a consequence of their criminal action, that being their intentionally entering the United States illegally, they should be permanently barred from U.S. soil.

Only by sending a clear and strong message can we stem the tide of “illegal” immigration.

[HeavyGunner]

Amen KS! It seems so many people want to act like this is an impossible problem to conquer but like you said aliens have no rights and should be deported and forbidden from ever setting foot here. It's time the US got a back back bone and start enforcing our laws. It's not only wrong for illegals to be here, but it's also dangerous to have an open border. Like I said earlier in this thread, terrorists HAVE noticed our lax borders. Notice they aren't jumping the Canadian borders to the US or vice versa?  Canada takes the borders seriously. 

[41chevy]

1 hour ago, HeavyGunner said:

Amen KS! It seems so many people want to act like this is an impossible problem to conquer but like you said aliens have no rights and should be deported and forbidden from ever setting foot here. It's time the US got a back back bone and start enforcing our laws. It's not only wrong for illegals to be here, but it's also dangerous to have an open border. Like I said earlier in this thread, terrorists HAVE noticed our lax borders. Notice they aren't jumping the Canadian borders to the US or vice versa?  Canada takes the borders seriously. 

Canada's Prime Minster Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will lift the visa requirement for Mexican visitors as of December 1st, 2016. Currently, Mexicans need to apply for a visa to visit, study or work in Canada. On and after December 1st, Mexicans who want to fly or transit through Canada only need to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization online, which costs only seven Canadian dollars and takes only a few minutes to complete. It's good news for law-abiding Mexican citizens, but will present a security challenge to our northern border. While it is welcome news to law-abiding Mexicans, this unfortunately will make it easier for criminals such as drug dealers and human traffickers to enter into Canada and in turn illicitly enter into the U.S. In addition, due to Mexico's weak passport control and considerable corruption, nationals from outside of Mexico, such as Guatemalans, could obtain Mexican passports without difficulty, and then hop on a plane first to Canada and then cross over to the U.S.

 

 

[41chevy]

21 hours ago, Joseph Moody Jr said:

Basically, I was trying to say in my earlier post that this problem will never end.

Severely penalize the people who rent to them, hire them and end the government support for them, the attraction for them to come here and to stay here goes away. What happens in Europe or the mid East with Illegals is not our problem.

The tunnels in N. Korea and Gaza are not tunnels for refugee or illegal immigrants but for military and terrorists, They were being used in Gaza for that in the early 1970's when we lived there and now by Hamas and PLO for the same reasons.  N. and S Korea,  E and W Germany at the time were split countries with like culture, heritage, history and race, not like the U.S.and South of the Border with different cultures and races.

 

Edited November 26, 2016 by 41chevy

[HeavyGunner]

6 hours ago, 41chevy said:

Canada's Prime Minster Justin Trudeau announced that Canada will lift the visa requirement for Mexican visitors as of December 1st, 2016. Currently, Mexicans need to apply for a visa to visit, study or work in Canada. On and after December 1st, Mexicans who want to fly or transit through Canada only need to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorization online, which costs only seven Canadian dollars and takes only a few minutes to complete. It's good news for law-abiding Mexican citizens, but will present a security challenge to our northern border. While it is welcome news to law-abiding Mexicans, this unfortunately will make it easier for criminals such as drug dealers and human traffickers to enter into Canada and in turn illicitly enter into the U.S. In addition, due to Mexico's weak passport control and considerable corruption, nationals from outside of Mexico, such as Guatemalans, could obtain Mexican passports without difficulty, and then hop on a plane first to Canada and then cross over to the U.S.

So they don't need a passport?  If that's the case what a crock. We have to have them to cross into Canada just long enough to load a truck and cross the border and we already have a background check which is required for our hazmat endorsement. 

[41chevy]

1 hour ago, HeavyGunner said:

So they don't need a passport?  If that's the case what a crock. We have to have them to cross into Canada just long enough to load a truck and cross the border and we already have a background check which is required for our hazmat endorsement. 

Nothing but $7 Canadian and a smile!   But. . . U.S. citizens and travelers with a current valid Canadian visa, Canadian citizens, including dual citizens, and Canadian permanent residents cannot apply for an eTA. and need a valid passport for entry.

[gearhead204]

I can get into Canada with just an enhanced Wash. drivers lic. I will get more harassment from U.S. customs trying to get home, than from the canooks!  

[other dog]

34 minutes ago, gearhead204 said:

I can get into Canada with just an enhanced Wash. drivers lic. I will get more harassment from U.S. customs trying to get home, than from the canooks!  

I've never been to Canada, but i've always heard that from drivers who did run Canada, that it was a lot bigger pain in the ass to get back across to the U.S. than it was to get into Canada.

 I was in Detroit once, in the 80's, and could have went to Windsor to get a load of lumber, but I turned it down. If I was going to Canada I didn't want to cross the border just so I could say i'd been there, like I did in Mexico, I wanted to go to Moose Jaw or somewhere. 

[carlotpilot]

Right on about getting back in the states. Pay nothing to get into Canada, and have to pay US customs at that time $5.00 first thing as you entered the customs compound, basically a toll booth.

[kscarbel2]

CNN  /  December 7, 2016

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel met with Donald Trump in New York on Wednesday, urging him to continue the Deferred Action for [illegal immigrant] Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program until a modernized immigration system can be decided by Congress.

Emanuel delivered a letter co-signed by 14 other mayors, including New York's Bill de Blasio, and two other local government officials on the issue.

"Ensuring DREAMers can continue to live and work in their communities without fear of deportation is the foundation of sound, responsible immigration policy," Emanuel wrote.

Trump has said he will terminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an executive action signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2012 that gives some undocumented [illegal] immigrants an exemption from deportation and a renewable two-year work permit.

(DREAMers – Politically correct speak for criminal “illegal immigrants” in year 2016)

More than 740,000 people have been approved to receive DACA status, according to Department of Homeland Security statistics.

Among the guidelines, the policy states applicants must have come to the United States before they turned 16 years old, must have been in the States since June 15, 2007, and cannot have been convicted of certain crimes.

"Those are students, those are also people who want to join the armed forces, they gave their name, their address, their phone number, where they are. ... They are something we should hold up and embrace," Emanuel said after meeting with Trump; his chief of staff, Reince Priebus; and his senior adviser, Steve Bannon.

On his website, Trump calls Obama's DACA executive action "illegal and unconstitutional."

But in an interview with Time magazine, which named Trump person of the year, he softened his stance [flip-flopping].

"We're going to work something out that's going to make people happy and proud," he said. "They got brought here at a very young age, they've worked here, they've gone to school here. Some were good students. Some have wonderful jobs. And they're in never-never land because they don't know what's going to happen."

Emanuel, who was Obama's chief of staff from January 2009 to October 2010, said they also discussed how White House operations might run. They also had discussions on infrastructure investments, education programs and Chicago as a sanctuary city, the mayor said.

[kscarbel2]

Trump puts new spotlight on Long Island gang killings

Associated Press  /  December 8, 2016

As he sat down for an interview with Time magazine for his "person of the year" profile, Donald Trump explained his tough view on illegal immigration by retrieving a copy of the Long Island newspaper Newsday and pointing to a blaring headline: "Extremely Violent Gang Faction."

The article focused on the killings of five teenagers from the same New York City suburb and suspicions that the slayings were the work of a street gang, MS-13, that has roots in El Salvador and has been linked to at least 30 killings on Long Island since 2010.

"They come from Central America. They're tougher than any people you've ever met," Trump said. "They're killing and raping everybody out there. They're illegal. And they are finished."

That tough talk was welcomed — and created new worries — in the suburban community plagued by the gang violence.

Just months ago, advocates for immigrants were lamenting publicly that a string of disappearances of Hispanic high school students in Brentwood, New York, hadn't gotten enough attention from authorities while they were happening.

Now, they are worried that the president-elect's attention will mean a crackdown that goes far beyond gangs.

"It's not a good thing," said Maryann Sinclair Slutsky, executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Long Island Wins. "I don't know why he's picking Long Island. The entire immigrant community is terrified. All immigrants in that community feel uncomfortable. There's profiling going on and whether they are totally upstanding citizens, they are going to feel targeted in some way."

Gang-related violence in Brentwood got renewed attention in September when best friends Nisa Mickens, 15, and Kayla Cuevas, 16, were found beaten to death in a residential neighborhood near an elementary school.

Within a few weeks, the skeletal remains of three other Brentwood teens were found hidden in secluded areas of the hamlet. Miguel Garcia-Moran, 15, disappeared in February. Oscar Acosta, 19, was reported missing in May. Jose Pena-Hernandez, 18, vanished in June.

Police suspect all the killings were committed by members of local offshoots of the MS-13 street gang, which has already left a trail of corpses on Long Island.

Some of the people accused in those crimes were in the U.S. illegally.

In one of the most heinous killings, in 2010, three teenage MS-13 members shot a 19-year-old woman and her 2-year-old son in the woods over an imagined slight of the gang's honor. Two were El Salvadoran citizens who were illegally in the U.S. at the time they killed the pair, as was Heriberto Martinez, the MS-13 leader convicted of authorizing the murders. Another of the killers was a U.S. citizen.

In July, four MS-13 members were charged with killing four men in Brentwood and neighboring Central Islip between 2013 and 2015. Two of them were citizens of El Salvador. One had illegally re-entered the U.S. after previously being departed. A second was in proceedings to be deported.

Suffolk County Sheriff Vincent DeMarco, whose office is involved in the probe of this year's killings in Brentwood, said there is "no question" that gangs were recruiting young [illegal] immigrants who had crossed into the U.S. without authorization. Brentwood, he said, "is becoming a border town."

"I don't think anyone would argue with the president-elect and Homeland Security removing criminal alien gang members from the streets of Brentwood. I think the residents of Brentwood deserve it," DeMarco said.

Trump has called for increased border security and deportations of undocumented [illegal] immigrants with criminal records.

Suffolk County Police Commissioner Tim Sini said as part of a local law enforcement crackdown on the gang, six MS-13 members have been taken into federal custody and are expected to be charged under racketeering statutes. More than 50 others have been charged in state courts.

Sini refused to identify any of the more than four dozen suspects, or say what they did.

[kscarbel2]

The Washington Post  /  December 23, 2016

Federal ethics experts for former Democratic and Republican administrations warned Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump is creating a major conflict of interest by allowing his Virginia vineyard to seek special temporary visas for foreign workers.

Trump, who is president of the Charlottesville vineyard that applied this month for H2 visas for six foreign workers, will soon run the U.S. government, which determines whether to grant those visas.

Trump Vineyard Estates LLC filed a request Dec. 2 with the Labor Department for six H2 visas, which permit U.S. employers to hire foreigners for seasonal jobs. The request was posted online by the Labor Department on Wednesday.

The workers are needed to prune the vines on the estate, the Labor application said, and they would be paid $10.72 per hour for a 40-hour, six-day week. The jobs are anticipated to last from January to June.

During the presidential campaign, Trump consistently argued that the federal government should limit immigration to protect American jobs.

The Trump vineyard applied for 19 temporary visas for foreign workers in 2014, 2015 and this year, before the most recent request, according to federal records.

In addition, Trump has sought to hire 513 foreign workers since 2013 for some of his other businesses, including for his Palm Beach home, Mar-a-Lago Club.

Kerry Woolard, the Trump Winery’s senior manager who signed the Labor request, refused to comment.

Although Trump, during a campaign event in May said of the winery, “I own it 100 percent, no mortgage, no debt,” the winery’s website says it is a registered trade name of Eric Trump Wine Manufacturing LLC and is “not owned, managed or affiliated with Donald J. Trump, The Trump Organization or any of their affiliates.”

The winery is on land owned by Trump Vineyard Estates LLC. Trump reported in his campaign’s federally required financial disclosure statement in May 2016 that he was president of that entity.

[kscarbel2]

Reuters  /  January 3, 2017

In a wide-ranging request for documents and analysis, President-elect Donald Trump's transition team asked the Department of Homeland Security last month to assess all assets available for border wall and barrier construction.

The team also asked about the department's capacity for expanding immigrant detention and about an aerial surveillance program that was scaled back by the Obama administration but remains popular with immigration hardliners.

And, the team asked whether federal workers have altered biographic information kept by the department about immigrants out of concern for their civil liberties.

The requests were made in a Dec. 5 meeting between Trump's transition team and Department of Homeland Security officials.

In response to the transition team request, U.S. Customs and Border Protection staffers identified more than 400 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, and about the same distance along the U.S.-Canada border, where new fencing could be erected.

It’s unknown whether the Trump team is considering a northern border barrier. During the campaign, Trump pledged to build a wall and expand fencing on parts of the U.S.-Mexico border but said he sees no need to build a wall on the border with Canada.

One program the transition team asked about was Operation Phalanx, an aerial surveillance program that authorizes 1,200 Army National Guard airmen to monitor the southern border for drug trafficking and illegal migration.

The program once deployed 6,000 airmen under President George W. Bush.

The transition team also asked for copies of every executive order and directive sent to immigration agents since Obama took office in 2009.

Trump has said he intends to undo Obama's executive actions on immigration, including a 2012 order to allow children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents to remain in the country on temporary authorizations that allow them to attend college and work.

The program, known as DACA, collected information including participants' addresses that could theoretically be used to locate and deport them if the policy is reversed.

Another request of the transition team was for information about whether any migrant records have been changed for any reason, including for civil rights or civil liberties concerns.

A Department of Homeland Security official, speaking on condition of anonymity [why?], said the agency interpreted the request to mean the transition team wanted to make sure that federal workers were not tampering with information to protect DACA recipients and other migrants from deportation.

The internal memo summarizing the meeting between Trump's transition team and U.S. Customs and Border protection said the team had requested a comprehensive picture of border security as well as resources available for walls and barriers.

The Department of Homeland Security official said agency representatives who attended the meeting believed the request to include both the northern and southern borders. U.S. Customs and Border Protection then prepared a report on specific locations and costs of building a fence along the U.S.-Canada border.

Reuters reviewed a copy of the report, which estimated the cost of building fencing along the northern border fence would be $3.3 billion and cover 452 miles along border of Canada and the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Adding 413 miles of fencing on the southwest border would be more expensive, according to the estimate of $11.37 billion, because it would be aimed at keeping pedestrians as well as vehicles from crossing.

Pedestrian fences require more staff and would cost $11.2 million per mile versus $4.1 million per mile to build to build, according to the report.

In fiscal year 2015, the latest year for which data is available, border patrol agents apprehended 2,626 illegal migrants on the U.S.-Canada border compared to 331,333 apprehended on the U.S.-Mexico border.

[kscarbel2]

Where do America's illegal immigrants live?

BBC  /  February 9, 2017

Out of America's estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants almost 7 million live in the nation's 20 largest metro areas, according to a report by Pew Research Center.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-38914536

[kscarbel2]

Reuters  /  February 9, 2017

President Donald Trump’s “wall” along the U.S.-Mexico border would be a series of fences and walls that would cost as much as $21.6 billion, and take more than three years to construct, based on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) internal report seen by Reuters on Thursday.

The report’s estimated price-tag is much higher than a $12-billion figure cited by Trump in his campaign and estimates as high as $15 billion from Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

The report is expected to be presented to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly in coming days.

The plan lays out what it would take to seal the border in three phases of construction of fences and walls covering just over 1,250 miles (2,000 km) by the end of 2020.

With 654 miles (1,046 km) of the border already fortified, the new construction would extend almost the length of the entire border.

Many cost estimates and timelines have been floated since Trump campaigned on the promise of building a wall. The report seen by Reuters is the work of a group commissioned by Kelly as a final step before moving forward with requesting U.S. taxpayer funds from Congress and getting started on construction.

The first phase would be the smallest, targeting sections covering 26 miles (42 km) near San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas; and in Texas's Rio Grande Valley.

The report assumes DHS would get funding from Congress by April or May, giving the department sufficient time to secure contractors and begin construction by September. Trump has said Congress should fund the wall upfront, but that Mexico will reimburse U.S. taxpayers. Mexico has said it will not pay.

Several U.S. congressional delegations are visiting the border this month to assess funding needs.

The U.S. government has begun seeking waivers to address environmental laws on building in some areas, and has begun working with existing contractors and planning steel purchases for the project.

Trump told law enforcement officials on Wednesday, "The wall is getting designed right now."

The report accounted for the time and cost of acquiring private land, one reason for its steep price increase compared to estimates from Trump and members of Congress.

Uncertainties around the project could drive its cost up to as much as $25 billion.

The second phase of construction proposed in the report would cover 151 miles (242 km) of border in and around the Rio Grande Valley; Laredo, Texas; Tucson, Arizona; El Paso, Texas and Big Bend, Texas.

The third phase would cover an unspecified 1,080 miles (1,728 km), essentially sealing off the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

[kscarbel2]

What in the world? An illegal immigrant, not a citizen of the United States, inherently has NO “rights” under our Constitution. No U.S. court should waste taxpayer money by listening to him. He should be promptly deported......done deal.

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U.S. arrests Mexican immigrant in Seattle covered by Obama program

Reuters  /  February 14, 2017

U.S. authorities have arrested an [illegal] immigrant from Mexico who was brought to the United States illegally as a child and later given a work permit during the Obama administration in what could be the first detention of its kind under President Donald Trump.

Daniel Ramirez Medina, a 23-year-old with no criminal record, was taken into custody last week at his father's home in Seattle by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

The officers arrived at the home to arrest the man's father [illegal immigrant], though court documents did no make clear the reason the father was taken into custody.

Ramirez, now in custody in Tacoma, Washington, was granted temporary permission to live and work legally in the United States under a program called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, established in 2012 by Democratic President Obama.

The program protects from deportation 750,000 people [illegal immigrants] who were brought to the United States illegally as children, sometimes called the "dreamers," and gives them the temporary right to work legally in the United States.

Trump has promised a crackdown on the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States, most of whom come from Mexico and other Latin American countries.

A move against DACA recipients like Ramirez would represent a significant broadening of immigration enforcement under Trump.

Ramirez filed a challenge to his detention in Seattle federal court on Monday, arguing that the government violated his constitutional rights because he had work authorization under the DACA program.

Ethan Dettmer, a partner in the law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher who is one of the lawyers representing Ramirez, said he is not aware of any other DACA recipient who has been arrested.

"We are hoping this detention was a mistake," Dettmer said.

A BROKEN PROMISE?

Another one of his lawyers, Mark Rosenbaum of the legal advocacy group Public Counsel, characterized the DACA program as a promise from the federal government's executive branch that DACA recipients would not be targeted for deportation.

"We have no reason to believe that promise will be broken. This case should not see the inside of a courtroom," Rosenbaum said.

U.S. immigration officers last week arrested more than 680 people [a drop in the bucket] in the country illegally. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary John Kelly said the operations, conducted in at least a dozen states, were routine and consistent with regular operations. But immigrant advocacy groups and Democrats have expressed concern that the Trump administration will escalate immigration enforcement efforts in line with the president's tough stance toward illegal immigrants.

Last month, Trump said his administration was devising a policy on how to deal with people covered by DACA. "They are here illegally. They shouldn't be very worried. I do have a big heart. We're going to take care of everybody. We're going to have a very strong border."

Under DACA, the government collected information including participants' addresses that potentially could be used to locate and deport them if the program is reversed.

Ramirez was brought to the United States from Mexico in about 2001 at about age 7. The government granted him a DACA card in 2014 and renewed it in 2016, finding that he was no threat to public safety. He has a 3-year-old son.

Ramirez in his lawsuit is seeking his immediate release and an injunction forbidding the government from arresting him again. A hearing in the case has been scheduled for Friday.

According to the lawsuit, Ramirez was asleep at his father's home last Friday morning when ICE agents arrived and arrested the father. When they entered, they asked Ramirez if he was in the country legally, and Ramirez said he had a work permit.

ICE agents took Ramirez to a processing center in Seattle and he again disclosed his DACA work permit.

"It doesn't matter, because you weren't born in this country," one of the agents said.

Ramirez was fingerprinted, booked and taken to a detention center in Tacoma where he was still in custody on Tuesday.

[kscarbel2]

Reuters  /  February 19, 2017

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has prepared new guidance for immigration agents aimed at speeding up deportations by denying asylum claims earlier in the process.

The new guidelines, contained in a draft memo dated February 17, directs agents to only pass applicants who have a good chance of ultimately getting asylum, but does not give specific criteria for establishing credible fear of persecution if sent home.

The guidance instructs asylum officers to "elicit all relevant information" in determining whether an applicant has "credible fear" of persecution if returned home, the first obstacle faced by migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border requesting asylum. (Graphic: tmsnrt.rs/2m4aPAs)

The goal of the new instructions is to raise the bar on initial screening in order to ease strain on the courts and reduce the number of immigrants allowed to stay in the United States, often for years, while they await a hearing.

The administration's plan is to leave wide discretion to asylum officers by allowing them to determine which applications have a "significant possibility" of being approved by an immigration court.

In 2015, just 18 percent of asylum applicants whose cases were ruled on by immigration judges were granted asylum, according to the Justice Department. Applicants from countries with a high rate of political persecution have a higher chance of winning their asylum cases.

The guidelines are contained in two draft memos signed by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and currently under review by the White House.

The memos also outlined plans for greatly expanding the categories of people that immigration agents target for deportation, and gives them wide discretion in deciding who to deport.

Previously, recent arrivals and convicted criminals were the prime targets.

The new plan would include migrants who have been charged but not convicted of crimes, and would also apply to illegal immigrants who have been in the country for many years [sounds great].

The memos call for quickly hiring 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as well as 5,000 more border patrol agents.

WHAT IS "CREDIBLE FEAR"?

Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an applicant must generally demonstrate "a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion."

Immigration lawyers say any applicants who appear to meet that criteria in their initial interviews should be allowed to make their cases in court. They oppose encouraging asylum officers to take a stricter stance on questioning claims and rejecting applications.

Interviews to assess credible fear are conducted almost immediately after an asylum request is made, often at the border or in detention facilities by immigration agents or asylum officers, and most applicants easily clear that hurdle.

Between July and September of 2016, U.S. asylum officers accepted nearly 88 percent of the claims of credible fear, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.

Asylum seekers who fail the credible fear test can be quickly deported unless they file an appeal. Currently, those who pass the test are eventually released and allowed to remain in the United States awaiting hearings, which are often scheduled years into the future because of a backlog of more than 500,000 cases in immigration courts.

Between October 2015 and April 2016, nearly 50,000 migrants claimed credible fear, 78 percent of whom were from Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala or Mexico, according to statistics from USCIS.

The number of migrants from those three countries who passed credible fear and went to court to make their case for asylum rose sharply between 2011 and 2015, from 13,970 claims to 34,125, according to data from the Justice Department.

Former border patrol chief Mike Fisher credits that trend to advice from immigration lawyers who know "asylum officers are going to err on the side of caution and refer most cases to a judge."

[TeamsterGrrrl]

To put this in perspective, Those 34,125 who made it into court is .01% of the current U.S. population... Denying them a hearing will have virtually no effect on U.S. population growth or more likely, loss.

[kscarbel2]

If it actually happens, sounds great. A huge mistake, a lack of law enforcement, finally being corrected.

Enter the country legally, or don’t enter at all.

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Associated Press  /  February 21, 2017

Millions of people living in the United States illegally could be targeted for deportation - including people simply arrested for traffic violations - under a sweeping rewrite of immigration enforcement policies announced Tuesday by the Trump administration. Any immigrant who is in the country illegally and is charged or convicted of any offense, or even suspected of a crime, will now be an enforcement priority, according to Homeland Security Department memos signed by Secretary John Kelly. That could include people arrested for shoplifting or minor offenses - or simply having crossed the border illegally.

[kscarbel2]

I can see this both ways.

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Reuters  /  February 22, 2017

Mexico reacted with anger on Wednesday to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s plan to deport almost all illegal immigrants to Mexico, if they entered the United States from there, regardless of nationality.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said the United States plan to deport non-Mexicans to Mexico is “unacceptable”.