Trump's immigration policies will pick up where Obama left off

Editor: Vladimir Bajic | Tactical Investor

Trump’s immigration policies

In late May, before the uproar over the Trump administration’s family separations policy had reached fever pitch, several prominent journalists and activists tweeted disturbing photos published in the Arizona Republic from a facility that allegedly housed minors who had been wrenched from their parents. The pictures showed children, covered only in a thin layer of aluminium foil, sleeping in cages.

“I saw this photo floating around and didn’t know if it was real. It is,” activist Shaun King wrote, in a representative post. “Children of immigrants are being held in cages, like dogs, at ICE detention centres, sleeping on the floor. It’s an abomination.”

But there was one problem. The photos, it turned out, were from 2014, during the Obama administration’s second term.

Right-wing outlets (and the president) gleefully pounced on the mistake, most of the people who had disseminated the photos dutifully corrected the record, and everyone moved on. But partisan point-scoring aside, the tweets did raise an uncomfortable question that has been lurking in the background of the families-separation crisis: Had Democrats paid enough attention to the harsh immigration policies put into place by President Obama?

The generally accepted narrative of Obama’s evolution on immigration policy is as follows: During his first term, the 44th president put his focus squarely on rescuing the economy and passing health-care reform, leaving the heavy lifting on immigration for a later date. Full Story

Trump’s immigration policies: Who will be deported?

In 2014, the Obama administration issued guidelines for deporting unauthorized immigrants that placed the highest priority on gang members, felons and those who posed security threats. A goal was to concentrate limited resources on the most serious cases, but many Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents complained that the priorities tied their hands, taking away their discretion as to whom to pursue.

Under the new directives, the government “no longer will exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement.” Immigration agents can now focus on picking up and removing anyone charged with or convicted of any criminal offence, even minor ones, as well as anyone already ordered deported, regardless of whether they have a criminal record.

One unauthorized immigrant in California, Kristina, who did not want her last name used because of fear of deportation, said she was alarmed to learn on Tuesday that she would now be considered a prime target. Kristina has been in the country for 25 years and has been ordered deported, but her removal had been postponed for the last four years by the Obama administration. “We have our whole lives here; our children are citizens,” she said. “Now I don’t know if I can go out, if I should drive.” Full Story

Trump’s immigration policies will pick up where Obama left off

Trump’s immigration policies

Trump’s immigration policies: Who will be deported?

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