Trump Deportation Agenda at Crossroads 03/16 06:57

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Department of Homeland Security will soon be under 
new management, an opportunity to reset President Donald Trump's immigration 
agenda or to double down on his signature campaign promise to conduct the 
largest deportation operation in American history.

   The White House's political director recently encouraged party lawmakers 
during a retreat at the Republican president's golf club in Florida to focus on 
immigration enforcement against criminals, a pivot from the mass deportation 
agenda he ran on. House Speaker Mike Johnson said the aggressive operations 
have created a "hiccup" for the party, which is now embarking on a "course 
correction."

   Yet all indications are that Trump's mass deportation operation is not 
stalling out but intensifying, with billions of dollars being spent to hire 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, build warehouse detention sites 
and meet the administration's goal of rounding up and removing some 1 million 
immigrants from the U.S. this year.

   "We are at an interesting moment where it has been an inflection point -- 
the public has finally seen what mass detention and mass deportation mean," 
said Sarah Mehta, who tracks the issue at the American Civil Liberties Union.

   "This is not an agency that's slowing down," she said. "They're really going 
forward with some of the cruelest policies."

   White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said the president's policies have 
sent immigrants out of the U.S., either through forced deportations or on their 
own, and sealed up the U.S.-Mexico border.

   "Nobody is changing the administration's immigration enforcement agenda," 
she said.

   Senators ready to grill Trump's DHS nominee over deportations

   The questions put Homeland Security at a crossroads. Secretary Kristi Noem 
is on her way out, and Trump's nominee to replace her, Sen. Markwayne Mullin of 
Oklahoma, appears this week for Senate confirmation hearings.

   After the intense deportation sweeps in Minneapolis and other cities -- and 
the deaths of at least three U.S. citizens at the hands of officers -- 
Democratic lawmakers are refusing to provide routine funding unless the 
department changes its policies.

   At the same time, those who believe Trump won the White House with his mass 
deportation agenda are disappointed the administration did not achieve its 
goals last year and insist he must do better.

   "There has been a lot of talk in Congress and now in the White House about 
kind of backing away from President Trump's, candidate Trump's, mass 
deportation promise," said Rosemary Jenks, co-founder of the Immigration 
Accountability Project, which argues for deportations.

   "We believe that now is an opportunity," she said. "We've got to get the 
deportation numbers up."

   A nation of immigrants no longer?

   The debate is playing out as the United States, celebrating its 250th year, 
squares its founding as a nation of immigrants with images of masked federal 
agents breaking car windows and detaining people suspected of being in the U.S. 
without proper legal standing.

   The Congress, controlled by Republicans, provided some $170 billion in last 
year's tax cuts bill to fuel the effort, more than tripling the budget of ICE.

   GOP Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, in a fiery speech, fought back against 
the Democrats' proposed restraints. "This question about deporting illegal 
immigrants was on the ballot. President Trump was not bashful," he said. "And 
the American people supported the idea that we are going to deport people."

   Yet there are signs of cracks in the Trump coalition. Some Republicans 
prefer what one called a more humane approach and are sharing their views with 
Mullin.

   Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., considered a stalwart against illegal immigration, 
said in his state it's immigrants who milk most of the dairy cows, and he's 
heard from restaurant groups that rely on immigrants to fill jobs.

   "Can we just turn back the clock and have these all these people who came in 
here illegally, just be back home?" he asked.

   "In terms of actually implementing that, it's a lot tougher -- particularly, 
in fact, when you realize a lot of these people, most of them, came here to 
seek opportunity, wanting freedom," he said. "They're working, supporting their 
family, contributing to organizations and community."

   Mass deportation group wants more

   The Mass Deportation Coalition, a group of conservative organizations 
including the Heritage Foundation and Erik Prince, founder of the security firm 
Blackwater, was formed recently to keep the administration on track.

   It calls last year's focus on removing violent criminal immigrants "phase 
one" and says "phase two" should focus this year on deporting immigrants beyond 
those with violent criminal histories.

   Mark Morgan, who served as acting head of ICE and Customs and Border 
Protection during Trump's first term and is part of the coalition, said that 
doesn't mean roving patrols through Home Depot parking lots. It's about 
strategic enforcement focused on immigrants at worksites, those who have 
overstayed visas and who a judge has already ordered removed, he said.

   But they're facing opposition from within the Republican Party, Morgan said, 
particularly from those who want to narrow deportation to mainly criminals and 
from business groups that want to ease up on worksite enforcement.

   "The Republicans that are saying that their definition of targeted 
enforcement is only criminal, they're wrong. They're on the wrong side of 
this," he said.

   "That's why you see some of the base that's really becoming apoplectic 
because they're like, 'Wait a minute. You're talking about only removing 
criminals now?' That's not what you promised,'" Morgan said.

   What's coming next

   The deportation advocates as well as those working to protect the rights of 
immigrants see that the Trump administration's best chance at reaching its 
goals is creating an environment so unwelcoming for immigrants that they just 
leave -- what's often called self-deportation.

   Mehta, at the ACLU, expects the administration will step up efforts to end 
temporary permissions that allow immigrants to remain in the U.S. -- 
particularly refugees and asylum-seekers -- while their cases are making their 
way through the system. She called it a "deliberate attempt to make people 
undocumented -- to take away lawful status -- and then to be able to enforce 
against them."

   Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said he fears more nonviolent immigrants will 
be rounded up to fill the new warehouses being equipped as the Trump 
administration tries to reach its deportation goals.

   That's unacceptable, he said, and among "the key questions that Senator 
Mullin will have to answer at his confirmation hearing."