President Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan “could be possible” if he can achieve everything he has sketched out in his executive orders, a former immigration official from the Obama administration told ABC News on Wednesday.
John Sandweg served as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the Obama administration and noted significant differences in the role of ICE under President Donald Trump compared to the Obama presidency.
“During the Obama administration, we put forth the definition of what we called serious criminal aliens, individuals who had a nexus to crimes that suggest they may be dangerous opposed to public safety,” Sandweg said. “But you do get a lot of misdemeanors, things like driving without a license. In the Obama administration, we did say we weren’t interested in those people because we didn’t think the resources we spent were worth the value they provided from public safety.”
Sandweg said that the Trump administration targets all individuals, whether they have been convicted, not convicted, or even arrested for misdemeanors; anyone can be a target.
ICE has arrested 11,000 undocumented immigrants as part of President Trump’s significant crackdown. Sandweg believes that Trump’s plan for mass deportation is achievable if the president can implement everything outlined in the orders.
With Trump’s aggressive approach, there are now more than two dozen religious groups suing the Trump administration due to a policy change that allows ICE agents to make arrests in churches.
The lawsuit challenges the administration’s decision to reverse the Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy that prohibited enforcement actions in sensitive locations such as churches, schools, day care centers, and hospitals. The administration argued that these places were being used to conceal criminals.
Sandweg explains that it is rare for ICE to enter a school or church to assert authority; frankly, they do not enjoy doing this, according to Sandweg.
“Even in this Trump administration, it will be exceedingly rare for ICE to go into a school, church, or hospital,” Sandweg said. “I think a lot of this is the administration eliminated this policy for a political message. ICE agents and the operators who are actually doing this work don’t have a lot of interest on going to those sensitive locations.”
Sandweg said that the Trump administration is attempting to convey a message to criminals that ICE is present everywhere. One of the administration’s goals is self-deportation; they aim to instill fear in undocumented migrants, making them believe there will be no safe place to hide.
“Just as much as this is about helping ICE make arrests, a lot of this, I think, is trying to persuade migrants who are in this country unlawfully to leave the country voluntarily.”
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