President-elect Donald Trump put immigration at the top of his campaign agenda. He vowed to impose, in his words, ‘unprecedented discipline’ on the country’s southern border.
Trump also vowed that on his first day as president, he would launch the largest illegal immigration crackdown in the nation’s history.
Throughout the campaign, Trump described immigration as a crisis. He has vowed to quickly implement a controversial policy aimed at curbing illegal immigration and new immigrants.
“We’re going to fix our border … we want to let people back in,” Trump said in his victory speech in Florida on Tuesday. They have to come in a legal way.’
Mark Hetfield, chief executive of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIS), said, ‘Many people think there is a line and everyone has to toe that line. Most of the time, there is no such line.’
A report by the Migration Policy Institute says the same. They say there are multiple paths to the visa, each with its own waiting period, which determines how long an applicant must wait to become a permanent resident.
Due to strict re-entry, many undocumented immigrants cannot join these lines at all.
The Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 blocked re-entry for immigrants with a history of being in the United States ‘unlawfully’.
Those who leave and seek re-entry, including those who have been in the United States illegally for more than 180 days but less than one year, cannot re-enter for three years. Those who have been in the US illegally for more than a year will face a 10-year ban.
Trump plans to detain undocumented immigrants with a paramilitary National Guard. He also cited the Aliens Enemies Act, an 18th-century law that allowed the deportation of people from countries deemed hostile to the United States.
Trump’s goal is to drastically reduce the number of undocumented immigrants. His supporters see the plan as a step to restore order. But opponents argue that this would trigger many legal battles and create management problems.
Jeremy Robbins, executive director of the American Immigration Council, said in an email to VOA, “If a president were to pursue a policy of mass deportation, it would cost the government enormous amounts of money and put a huge strain on the economy at the same time.”
“It is critical that policymakers and the American people understand what is involved, costing taxpayers millions of dollars, disrupting already strained industries, imprisoning millions in detention centers and tearing apart thousands of families,” Robbins wrote in an email. will go as a result of which chaos will be created across the country and panic among people.’
Another policy is expected to be reintroduced, which would speed up the deportation of immigrants and reduce immigration across the US-Mexico border.
Another promise Trump made during his campaign was to reverse steps taken by the Biden administration to allow certain groups of immigrants to enter the United States legally.
Under Biden’s policy, 30,000 immigrants a month from four countries, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, are allowed to legally enter the United States subject to conditions. Trump has vowed to close the road.
Trump has promised to reopen the travel ban list to include more countries to tighten the vetting process for those coming to the United States. He wants to initiate an ‘ideology vetting’ process that would ban people who Trump describes as ‘dangerous, crazy, hateful, hateful and reckless’.
Trump’s campaign team says the moves will strengthen national security, though they have raised concerns about discrimination and rights.
Trump also said, ‘He will revoke the birthright rights of children born in the United States while their parents were in the country illegally. This move has to be seen in the light of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and is expected to face a stiff legal challenge.’
Trump’s immigration policy has support from his core supporters, but is facing opposition from legal experts and rights groups. Mass deportations and travel bans to the U.S. could violate human rights and face extensive court challenges, they argue.
Mark Hetfield of HIS said rights activists are concerned about what the new Trump administration will do with legal immigration.
“If he wants to end the refugee program, we’ll probably sue…but the bottom line is, the president has a lot of power when it comes to the refugee program,” Hetfield said. And on the question of political asylum, he will make it impossible to apply at the border, as he did with his Remain in Mexico program.’
Michelle Ming, political director of United We Dream, America’s largest youth-led immigrant organization, said: ‘They will be ready to protect immigrants.
Michelle Ming thinks the White House will need to host a lot of Know Your Rights meetings throughout Trump’s second term.
“When Trump takes office, we will remind him that we are here to fight any policy that harms our people,” he said.
Source:dailynayadiganta