Immigration arrests soar under Trump
Biggest surge among those with no record
The Washington Post
Federal immigration agents are arresting more than 400 immigrants a day, a sharpleap from last year that reflects one of President Donald Trump’s most far-reachingcampaign promises.
In Mr. Trump’s first 100 days in office, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested 41,318 immigrants, up 37.6 percent over the same period last year, the agency said Wednesday. Almost 3 out of 4 of those arrested have criminal records, including gang members and fugitives wanted for murder. But the biggest increase by far is among immigrants with no criminalrecords.
“This administration is fully implementing its massdeportation agenda,” said Gregory Chen, government relations director for the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “They’re going after people who have lived here for a longtime.”
ICE’s announcement showcased one of the Trump administration’s few victories on immigration this year, after federal judges halted parts of his entry ban and sanctuary-city crackdown, and Congress refused his initial requests to fund a borderwall.
Advocates for undocumented immigrants say the numbers will add to the fears of longtime and otherwise law-abiding residents who felt spared from deportation under the Obama administration.
Days after Mr. Trump took office, he issued an executive order that made clear that anyone in the United States illegally could be deported and ended former President Barack Obama’s policy of frequently granting reprieves from deportation to undocumented immigrants with clean criminal records or U.S.-born children.
Acting ICE director Thomas Homan said the statistics released Wednesday show that agents still prioritizelawbreakers: 30,473 criminalswere arrested from Jan. 22 to April 29, an 18 percent increase from the same periodin 2016.
Meanwhile, arrests of immigrants with no criminal records more than doubled to nearly 11,000, the fastestgrowingcategory by far.
“Will the number of noncriminal arrests and removals increase this year? Absolutely,” Mr. Homan said. “That’s enforcing the laws thatare on the books.”
What is less clear is what is happening to the immigrants who are being taken intocustody.
Overall, deportations have fallen about 12 percent this year, to about 56,315 people,which Mr. Homan attributed to a severe backlog in federal immigration courts. He also said it can take longer to deport criminals than those without criminal records, because those in the former category may have additional court proceedings.The Trump administration has called for additional immigration judges and detention space to speed deportations.
Education budget
Funding for college work-study programs would be cut in half, publicservice loan forgiveness would end and hundreds of millions of dollars that public schools could use for mental health, advanced coursework and other services would vanish under a Trump administration plan to cut $10.6 billion from federal education initiatives, according to budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Theadministration would channel part of the savings into its top priority: school choice. It seeks to spend about $400 million to expand charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, and another $1 billion to push public schools to adopt choice-friendly policies.
Sheriff Clarke appointment?
The Department of Homeland Security has declined to confirm that Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke willbe joining the agency.
Sheriff Clarke said in an interview on WISN-AM on Wednesday that he had taken a job as assistant secretary and would start in June. Sheriff Clarke says he would be serving as a liaison to state, local and tribal law enforcementagencies.
DHSspokeswoman Jenny Burke says those appointments are made by the Homeland Security secretary and are announced only when they’ve been made official. Ms. Burke says the department has no such announcement about Sheriff Clarke.
Tax overhaul outreach
Trump administration officials are reaching out to Senate Democrats for help in crafting a tax overhaul package, a departure from the goit-alonestrategy Republicans have been taking on health care.