Trump's Immigration Ban Do-Over Offers Civil Rights Groups More Challenges
BY: Diego Reyes/Contributing Writer
President Trump’s first attempt on his immigration ban took a huge turn when the federal appeals courts deemed it unconstitutional. The executive orders spurred protests across the country at airports and state capitals from supporters of immigration and refugees. Trump’s orders restricted all immigration from 7 predominantly Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen – that he deemed terror prone for 90 days, all refugees for 120 days, and Syrian refugees indefinitely.
However, civil rights groups and judges agued that there wasn’t enough evidence that these countries had committed acts of terror in the United States. Furthermore, banning all refugees from Syria and imposing a test of Christianity on asylum seekers were also considered unconstitutional.
At airports, green hard holders, approved refugees, and legal immigrants were detained for hours, undergoing invasive search procedures to ensure that they were indeed legal migrants and not terrorists. Nevertheless, many Syrian refugees and migrants have been deported under the executive orders, as well as Iraqis who even once worked for the U.S. government.
As a result of the blockades from federal judges, President Trump is signing new executive orders that will re-introduce the same “Muslim ban,” but advisors around him said there will no longer be a “priority” on Christian refugees. Rather, the process will favor those who are “a minority religion in the individual’s country of nationality.” Furthermore, green card holders will no longer face detainment.
Another side of the new executive orders pertains to border protection more specifically. One of the biggest changes will be directed to the Border Patrol (CBP) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents dealing with the immigrants, who are required to search the cell phones, social media accounts, and items of every immigrant from the 7 countries, even if they are green card or visa holders.
Other law enforcement agents, including local police officers, will be included in the new orders, giving them the power to detain and deport illegal immigrants they find.
During the Obama administration, the deportation process was only imposed on those found within 100 miles of the border and had been in the country no more than 14 days. Now, illegal immigrants found anywhere in the country, who have been living here up to 2 years, can be deported by law enforcement agents. The Department of Homeland Security has been instructed to begin hiring 10,000 new agents in order for the new regulations to be enforced.
Another significant change pertains to the so-called “dreamers,” or children who came to the U.S. illegally, who will now be allowed to stay in the U.S. In the initial orders, anyone that was label as an illegal immigrant would be held and ultimately be deported, including those who came to the U.S as children and others that were given protection under the Obama administration.
While the administration is giving children leniency, no adults will be given that opportunity. In the previous orders, the CBP and ICE were focused on mainly criminals and felons, but in the new orders, everyone will be made a priority for deportation.
“We’re going to treat everyone humanely and with dignity, but we are going to execute the laws of the United States,” a DHS official said on a conference call with reporters.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend that Americans that while Trump is making these changes, he does not necessarily agree with them.
“[I]f they’re on an airplane and inbound, they will be allowed to enter the country,” Kelly said. “And this, again, is just a pause until we look at a number of countries — seven in particular — and look at their vetting processes, how reliable they are — and I will tell you right now they’re not very reliable,” the Homeland Secretary added.
President Trump, however, does not necessarily agree with his own new measures. “The new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a very bad decision,” President Trump said in a statement.
One area where new changes cannot be found, though, is in the vetting process itself. It is still unclear what new restrictions Prsident Trump plans to impose on the refugee and immigration vetting processes, which he has repeatedly criticized.
Already, challengers are arguing that the new orders still violate immigration law and the Constitution. Lee Gelernt, an attorney with ACLU, warns about how the new order will present new legal challenges and ultimately bring even more problems to the fear of immigrants rising in the U.S.
