Trump administration officials reportedly instructed U.S. border agents to immediately deport migrants crossing into the country illegally without allowing them to request legal protection.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed national security directives designed to overhaul U.S. border and immigration policy. Among the orders were designating international cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and restoring the "Remain in Mexico" policy, by which migrants remain south of the border until their immigration hearing.
Trump cited his constitutional powers over foreign affairs to empower U.S. immigration officials to "repel, repatriate, or remove any alien engaged in the invasion across the southern border of the United States," according to internal government documents and agency officials, CBS News reported.
With a focus on migrants who pose a public health or national security risk, documents cite the public health-related 212(f) authority that applies to "aliens that traveled through a country with a communicable disease," the outlet reported.
Two Customs and Border Protection officials told CBS news that migrants will not be allowed to see an immigration judge or asylum officer. Biometrics and fingerprints are to be taken before deporting the migrants.
Republicans have argued that migrants are claiming asylum even though they don’t meet the definition, CNN reported.
Aliens with criminal histories are subject to prosecution in the U.S., one official said.
The directives apply to the U.S.-Mexico border, U.S.-Canada border, and Border Patrol coastal sectors.
"Put simply, this order ends asylum at the United States border for anyone fleeing danger, even for families persecuted on the basis of their religion or political speech," American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Lee Gelernt said, CBS News reported.
Former President Joe Biden issued an executive action last summer restricting asylum for people crossing the border illegally, CNN reported. At the time, Biden administration officials argued that migrants still had an option available to them through the border app known as CBP One to schedule an appointment.
Trump's administration shut down CBP One on Monday.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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