The acting head of the Homeland Security Department reportedly signed a memo that lets Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials quickly deport illegal migrants who were allowed into the country temporarily under two Biden administration programs.
The two programs, a Customs and Border Protection app and an initiative for migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Haiti, were implemented under former President Joe Biden.
The programs allowed migrants — around 1.4 million overall since the beginning of 2023 — to stay in the U.S. for up to two years under a temporary legal status known as "parole," The New York Times reported.
The CBP One app, which gave legal entry to nearly a million migrants with online asylum appointments, was shut down by the Trump administration on Monday.
On Thursday night, acting DHS Secretary Benjamine C. Huffman signed an internal government memo that offers ICE officials instructions on how to use expansive powers that previously were reserved for encounters at the southern border to quickly remove migrants, the Times reported.
The outlet added that immigrant advocates expressed concern that the memo also could apply to Afghan and Ukrainian immigrants brought to the U.S. under separate programs.
One DHS official told the Times that Trump believes Biden’s programs were never lawful.
Huffman’s memo was the latest action taken by the Trump administration to focus on national security and the migrant crisis that ballooned under Biden.
On his first day in office, Trump signed orders declaring a "national emergency" at the southern border and announced the deployment of more troops to the area, vowing to deport "criminal aliens."
Hundreds of migrants in the U.S. were arrested Thursday and others flown out of the country on military aircraft as the White House said Trump's promised deportation operation had started.
The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Huffman sent an internal memo saying DHS is granting immigration-enforcement authority to several agencies at the Justice Department, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the U.S. Marshals Service.
AFP contributed to this story.
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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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