The acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman on Tuesday issued a directive to employees at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection to make arrests inside those facilities and outside on nearby property.
“This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murders and rapists — who have illegally come into our country,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement. “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.”
The directive rescinded guidelines that the Biden administration had implemented in 2021, which barred federal police from “sensitive” areas.
Huffman also moved forward on President Donald Trump’s executive order to stop paroling hundreds of thousands of immigrants outside the United States into the country.
“The Biden-Harris Administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country,” the DHS official said. “This was all stopped on day one of the Trump Administration. This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis.”
Trump is also making good on his plans to restart the Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the Remain in Mexico policy.
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The DHS also said Tuesday that it would restart it now because conditions at the southern border were suitable for it. Under Remain in Mexico, immigrants could seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border but were required to wait in the last country they had traveled through, in most cases, Mexico.
The Biden administration attempted to block Remain in Mexico but ultimately failed in court. Although it was ordered to restart the program, it did not bring it back to its original strength.
