Just hours after President Trump’s inauguration, his administration reversed a Biden-era policy that had prohibited U.S. immigration agents from making arrests at or near schools, places of worship, and other locations deemed “sensitive.”
Benjamine Huffman, whom the Trump administration appointed as acting homeland security secretary pending the confirmation of South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, issued a memo on Monday undoing the Biden administration’s guidelines regarding immigration arrests at “sensitive locations.”
This policy, originally signed by former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, instructed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to avoid apprehending unauthorized immigrants at or near locations that could restrict access to essential services or activities.
These locations included schools, places of worship, hospitals and healthcare facilities, shelters, relief centers, and public demonstrations such as rallies and protests.
In a statement defending the reversal of the Biden administration’s rule, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) emphasized that the Trump administration “will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
Pro-immigrant advocates expressed concern that the rescinding of these guidelines would open the door for the Trump administration to carry out mass deportations at schools and churches.
However, the Trump administration clarified that the decision was aimed at targeting unauthorized immigrants with serious criminal backgrounds.
“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and apprehend criminal aliens — including murderers and rapists — who have entered our country illegally,” the DHS statement explained. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest.”
ICE Police (Photo: Getty Images)
Monday’s action is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to remove restrictions that previous administrations had placed on ICE operations, as it prepares for what the president has promised will be the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
The administration is also expected to increase immigration arrests in cities and communities with “sanctuary” policies that limit cooperation between local law enforcement and ICE.
Additionally, the administration is likely to reverse other Biden-era policies that halted mass immigration sweeps at worksites such as factories and that restricted ICE arrests to individuals with serious criminal histories, national security threats, or recent border arrivals.
Tom Homan, who served as Mr. Trump’s “border czar,” has repeatedly stated that, like every previous administration, the new administration will prioritize the arrest of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and have committed crimes.
However, he stressed that no one in the country illegally would be exempt from immigration enforcement, and warned that arrests of non-criminal unauthorized immigrants were likely to increase.
President Trump wasted no time on his first day back in the White House to initiate his anticipated immigration crackdown, issuing a series of orders aimed at denying birthright citizenship to children of unauthorized immigrants and temporary visa holders, suspending asylum and refugee admissions, and deploying military forces to assist with border enforcement under an emergency declaration.
Another executive order directed officials to expand detention facilities to house deportees and to increase agreements with local law enforcement, enabling them to arrest and detain unauthorized immigrants as deputized immigration officers.
