Ice given unprecedented authority to expedite deportations as US cities face raids and troops arrive at US-Mexico border
A person sits inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor building in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday. Photograph: Erin Hooley/AP
Trump gives Ice power to deport immigrants who came legally under Biden
Ice given unprecedented authority to expedite deportations as US cities face raids and troops arrive at US-Mexico border
The Trump administration is issuing a new round of heavy-handed measures that could rapidly deport immigrants who entered the United States through recently established legal pathways, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained the New York Times.
The directive, signed by the acting homeland security secretary, Benjamine Huffman, grants Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officials unprecedented authority to expedite deportations for immigrants who entered the country with government authorization through two key Biden-era programs.
These programs, which have allowed more than a million immigrants to enter the country since 2023, had provided scheduling for migrants or asylum seekers through the government-run app CBP One or temporary legal status for up to two years through a parole program for certain countries.
US asylum seekers in despair after Trump cancels CBP One app: ‘Start from zero again’
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The newly reported memo instructs Ice officials to identify and potentially rapidly deport immigrants who have been in the country for over a year and have not yet applied for asylum, in effect sidestepping traditional immigration court proceedings.
In no waste of time, Trump’s press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, posted on X on Friday: “Deportation flights have begun,” accompanied by official pictures of people boarding a military-style aircraft.
Despite such flights being routine under successive administrations, the White House is promoting such images strongly and also deployed troops to the border late on Thursday, including US marines arriving in Boeing Osprey aircraft in California.
The developments come as so-called sanctuary cities like Chicago, Newark and Denver are experiencing direct impacts of the administration’s hardline immigration stance. In Newark, Mayor Ras Baraka condemned a small-scale local Ice raid on Thursday that he claimed resulted in the detention of both undocumented residents and citizens – including a US military veteran.
And Denver’s mayor, Mike Johnston, told CNN the city would cooperate with Ice to deport “violent criminals”, but pushed back against arrests in schools and churches.
A DHS spokesperson defended the new policies, writing in a statement that “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” and that the administration “trusts law enforcement to use common sense”.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has already challenged the policy in federal court, with the senior staff attorney Anand Balakrishnan characterizing the approach as a “mass deportation agenda” that circumvents constitutional due process.
Stephen Miller, a key architect of Trump’s hardline immigration policies, has been vocal in his opposition to the immigration programs of the last administration, previously criticizing the admission of immigrants from what he termed “failed states”.
Thousands who had received or were waiting for CBP One appointments south of the border were left devastated this week after the app was abruptly shut down moments after Trump was sworn in, while those already in the country using the app and who were preparing to apply for asylum may now be in the line of fire.
Later on Friday, the Trump administration followed up, announcing that it was expanding a fast-track deportation authority nationwide, allowing immigration officers to deport people without appearing before a judge.
The administration said it was expanding the use of “expedited removal” authority so it can be used across the country, in a notice in the Federal Register outlining the new rules.
“Expedited removal” gives enforcement agencies broad authority to deport people without requiring them to appear before an immigration judge. There are limited exceptions, including if they express fear of returning home and pass an initial screening interview for asylum.
Critics have said there is too much risk that people who have the right to be in the country will be mistakenly swept up by agents and officers and that not enough is done to protect immigrants who have genuine reason to fear being sent home.
The powers were created under a 1996 law. But these powers were not widely used until 2004, when homeland security said it would use expedited removal authority for people arrested within two weeks of entering the US by land and caught within 100 miles of the border. That meant it was used mostly against immigrants recently arrived in the country.
In the notice on Friday the administration said the authority could be used across the country and would go into effect immediately.
The notice said the person put into expedited removal “bears the affirmative burden to show to the satisfaction of an immigration officer” that they have the right to be in the US.
I am an older gay guy in a long-term wonderful relationship. My spouse and I are in our 36th year together. I love politics and news. I enjoy civil discussions and have no taboo subjects. My pronouns are he / him / his and my email is Scottiestoybox@gmail.com
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3 thoughts on “Trump gives Ice power to deport immigrants who came legally under Biden”
I had been trying to tell myself that the Trump regime is unlikely to realise the worst of its goals, but given the speed at which some truly evil orders have been put into action over the past week, I’m starting to feel physically ill. And I’m not even on American soil.
Hi Barry. During the four years that Biden was president the hard conservative right and the Christian nationalist joined together releasing that they could each use tRump as a puppet to get everything they wanted out of government. They realized that he was weak and stupid enough that they enshrine their hateful desires into law in ways no other president would allow. That was put into writing as Project 2025. It describes a total take over by white Christian nationalist very conserve ideals making the US a fundamentalist white male cis straight dominated society forcing everyone to live in the way they demand. No rights for the LGBTQ+ and the erasing them from public society such as Russia did. Non-whites that remain in the country will be second class people who do not have the rights of whites nor equality with the white people. Segregation will be the law of the land. Limits to where non-whites can live, eat, be at times, and jobs they are allowed to do. They want women reduced to home wives who are dependent on their fathers as kids and then their husband when becoming of legal age to marry. They will be unable to work outside the home, will not be able to have credit in their own names without a man saying they will be responsible for it. Women will be house sex slaves who keep the male’s home, raises his kids, and waits on / serves his every need including sexually. There are some of these groups openly calling for a revoking of the right to vote for women. They take the Handmaid’s tale as a guideline not the horrendous hellscape it was written to be.
They basically want a return to the 1950s and then the 1850s. A white male dominated society only with the government owned by the wealthiest people. The only difference from those times is they want only one religion in the country and that is a strict fundamentalist version of Christianity. They want every one forced to worship and tithe to the fundamentalist Christian church of the nation / state. Christian doctrines will be written into the laws and enforced by a moral police like in Iran and other Muslim theocracies.
So they wrote this and implemented the search for fellow believers to enforce it before tRump even won because if he did not win they would wait and use it the next time they got a stooge into the presidency. They were ready to feed him the orders while stroking his ego to sign them. They are already introducing the laws for their goals in red states, and in the federal congress. His last term he was stopped by the courts, but now the right owns a lot of them including the most powerful court.
The SCOTUS has shown they are majority Christian bigots and racist who support the goals of project 2025 and the idea of erasing the LGBTQ+ from society / public view. They support the removal of females having control over their own bodies or being equal to males. The majority of them have made clear they support the goals of tRump and gave him and only him king type power. If you read the ruling from the small 5 right wing majority they say tRump has immunity but all other president’s action they retain the power to decide. In other words it is if it fits our views and bigotries or not. They did not decide this on the laws or the constitution, but as Robert’s said they were making a ruling for the ages trying to force bigotry and racism into US law forever. Thanks for letting me write all this and getting it off my chest. Best wishes.
I suspect that if I was a US citizen (which thankfully I’m not) I too would be ranting. So please feel free to rant as much as you need. I learnt a long time ago (thanks to Quakers) that sharing a concern is effective antidote to harm caused by keeping things bottled up, and more effective than prayer in finding a solution to that concern.
Personally I think placing so much executive power in a single person is a disaster waiting to happen. The writers of your constitution granted the president far more powers than the King of England had at that time, but that’s something Americans are going to have to solve by themselves. Even so, I think the “Free World” (or what’s left of it) will struggle to remain united.
In one of your recent reblogs, there was a quote from Friedrich Schleiemacher who defined heresy as “that which preserves the appearance of Christianity, and yet contradicts its essence“, and I have no hesitation in borrowing it to say that “Trumpism” or “Christian Nationalism” is that which preserves the appearance of freedom, and yet contradicts its essence. I really don’t understand why so many Americans have been hoodwinked by their rhetoric. But then America has a bought press, not a free press, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised.
A person sits inside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractor building in Chicago, Illinois, on Thursday. Photograph: Erin Hooley/AP
Scottie's Playtime 
I had been trying to tell myself that the Trump regime is unlikely to realise the worst of its goals, but given the speed at which some truly evil orders have been put into action over the past week, I’m starting to feel physically ill. And I’m not even on American soil.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Hi Barry. During the four years that Biden was president the hard conservative right and the Christian nationalist joined together releasing that they could each use tRump as a puppet to get everything they wanted out of government. They realized that he was weak and stupid enough that they enshrine their hateful desires into law in ways no other president would allow. That was put into writing as Project 2025. It describes a total take over by white Christian nationalist very conserve ideals making the US a fundamentalist white male cis straight dominated society forcing everyone to live in the way they demand. No rights for the LGBTQ+ and the erasing them from public society such as Russia did. Non-whites that remain in the country will be second class people who do not have the rights of whites nor equality with the white people. Segregation will be the law of the land. Limits to where non-whites can live, eat, be at times, and jobs they are allowed to do. They want women reduced to home wives who are dependent on their fathers as kids and then their husband when becoming of legal age to marry. They will be unable to work outside the home, will not be able to have credit in their own names without a man saying they will be responsible for it. Women will be house sex slaves who keep the male’s home, raises his kids, and waits on / serves his every need including sexually. There are some of these groups openly calling for a revoking of the right to vote for women. They take the Handmaid’s tale as a guideline not the horrendous hellscape it was written to be.
They basically want a return to the 1950s and then the 1850s. A white male dominated society only with the government owned by the wealthiest people. The only difference from those times is they want only one religion in the country and that is a strict fundamentalist version of Christianity. They want every one forced to worship and tithe to the fundamentalist Christian church of the nation / state. Christian doctrines will be written into the laws and enforced by a moral police like in Iran and other Muslim theocracies.
So they wrote this and implemented the search for fellow believers to enforce it before tRump even won because if he did not win they would wait and use it the next time they got a stooge into the presidency. They were ready to feed him the orders while stroking his ego to sign them. They are already introducing the laws for their goals in red states, and in the federal congress. His last term he was stopped by the courts, but now the right owns a lot of them including the most powerful court.
The SCOTUS has shown they are majority Christian bigots and racist who support the goals of project 2025 and the idea of erasing the LGBTQ+ from society / public view. They support the removal of females having control over their own bodies or being equal to males. The majority of them have made clear they support the goals of tRump and gave him and only him king type power. If you read the ruling from the small 5 right wing majority they say tRump has immunity but all other president’s action they retain the power to decide. In other words it is if it fits our views and bigotries or not. They did not decide this on the laws or the constitution, but as Robert’s said they were making a ruling for the ages trying to force bigotry and racism into US law forever. Thanks for letting me write all this and getting it off my chest. Best wishes.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I suspect that if I was a US citizen (which thankfully I’m not) I too would be ranting. So please feel free to rant as much as you need. I learnt a long time ago (thanks to Quakers) that sharing a concern is effective antidote to harm caused by keeping things bottled up, and more effective than prayer in finding a solution to that concern.
Personally I think placing so much executive power in a single person is a disaster waiting to happen. The writers of your constitution granted the president far more powers than the King of England had at that time, but that’s something Americans are going to have to solve by themselves. Even so, I think the “Free World” (or what’s left of it) will struggle to remain united.
In one of your recent reblogs, there was a quote from Friedrich Schleiemacher who defined heresy as “that which preserves the appearance of Christianity, and yet contradicts its essence“, and I have no hesitation in borrowing it to say that “Trumpism” or “Christian Nationalism” is that which preserves the appearance of freedom, and yet contradicts its essence. I really don’t understand why so many Americans have been hoodwinked by their rhetoric. But then America has a bought press, not a free press, so perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised.
LikeLiked by 2 people