ACLU to resist ‘un-American’ Trump plan

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) says it will help resist the Trump administration’s new strategy for prosecuting criminal and undocumented immigrants.

“These memos confirm that the Trump administration is willing to trample on due process, human decency, the well-being of our communities, and even protections for vulnerable children, in pursuit of a hyper-aggressive mass deportation policy,” Omar Jadwat, the director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement Tuesday.

“However, President Trump does not have the last word here — the courts and the public will not allow this un-American dream to become reality.”

{mosads}The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday released details of how it will prosecute criminal and undocumented immigrants under Trump.

The two memos from Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly expand immigration raids and the definition of criminal aliens. They also diminish sanctuary areas and enlist local law enforcement to help execute federal immigration policies.

The documents largely scrap former President Barack Obama’s immigration guidelines, leaving only those relating to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children intact.

The memos make parents and other adults who help children enter the U.S. illegally potentially subject to deportation or criminal prosecution.

Unaccompanied minors who arrive in the U.S. are treated differently under the law than adults; they must be resettled with parents or other adults in the country as they await their immigration cases.

Kelly’s memos say the system is being abused, noting 60 percent of unaccompanied minors are placed into the care of one or more parents living illegally in the U.S.

“Regardless of the desires for family reunification, or conditions in other countries, the smuggling and trafficking of alien children is intolerable,” one memo states.

The document urges authorities to “ensure the proper enforcement of our immigration laws against those who directly or indirectly facilitate the smuggling or trafficking of alien children into the United States.”

The memos additionally instruct immigration enforcement agencies to use detention when starting removal proceedings against an immigrant, instead of giving them a notice to appear in court.

Tuesday’s memos provide guidance to federal immigration authorities following Trump’s earlier decision to expand the definition of criminal immigrants who are priorities for deportation.

The ACLU announced last week it is creating a rapid response team to fight a potential rise in deportations under Trump. It will reportedly address raids conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.