Trump Today: Beefed-up Border Patrol, more lockups for undocumented immigrants

The Department of Homeland Security issued two memos Tuesday outlining how it will implement President Trump’s executive orders on illegal immigration — calling on federal agents to remove from the country undocumented immigrants convicted of any criminal offense. The memos also direct the Department of Homeland Security to immediately hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents and 500 air and marine officers. The guidance memos signed by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly dramatically change the enforcement policies pursued by the Obama administration. “It implements new policies designed to stem illegal immigration and facilitate the detection, apprehension, detention and removal of aliens who have no lawful basis to enter or remain in the United States,” one of the memos says. Obama also focused primarily on border states, but the new directives expand enforcement to interior states and instruct ICE officials to recruit police and sheriff’s deputies across the county to help with deportations. “The guidance makes clear, however, that ICE should prioritize several categories of removable aliens who have committed crimes, beginning with those convicted of criminal offense,” the memos say. Direct the Department of Homeland Security to “develop a method for public reporting of statistical data regarding aliens apprehended at or near the border for violating the immigration law.” The moves will likely prompt criticism from so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco, where local law enforcement agencies typically are barred from cooperating with deportation efforts.