Arizona Officials React To New DHS Order Expanding Immigration
ADI News Services
By Sophia Kunthara
The Department of Homeland Security has ordered more aggressive enforcement of detainment and deportation laws for undocumented immigrants, prioritizing those with criminal convictions but putting anyone in the U.S. illegally at risk of expulsion.
The memos, which were released Tuesday morning by Homeland Secretary John Kelly, detail how agencies should implement the detainment and deportation provisions introduced in President Donald Trump’s campaign messages. They exclude those protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which grants temporary protection to immigrants who were brought into the country before the age of 16 and who meet several program criteria. But the Trump administration crackdown applies to others who are undocumented.
Maricopa County Attorney Calls For No More Immigration Holds
After Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery told Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone to stop the practice of “courtesy holds,” ICE stopped picking up suspected illegal immigrants from local jails. Since then, 33 detainees on ‘immigration holds’ have been freed from Maricopa County jails, according to The Arizona Republic.
Montgomery issued a statement announcing that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office will no longer detain county jail inmates facing a civil immigration detainer beyond the period of time for detention authorized under Arizona State law. In other words, the county will no longer cooperate with federal agents, and may be putting them at risk.
Trump policies spark community conversation in Maricopa
inMaricopa.com
Maricopa Police Chief Steve Stahl met with leaders of the community Feb. 15 to address concerns raised about President Trump’s recent travel ban and other proposed federal immigration policies.
Though the travel ban was struck down by multiple U.S. judges, Muslims and immigrants in the United States are still worried by the President’s rhetoric and about the role local law enforcement may take in response to this and other policies put forth by his administration.
Arizona Muslim Police Advisory Board Vice Chairman Ammar Abed, an advocate for interfaith and cross cultural dialogue, expressed concern on behalf of the local Muslim population about what he considers to be discriminatory policies put forth by the Trump administration.
“That [executive order] created a lot of chaos, confusion and fear, number one from the Muslim community and second the Latino community,” Abed said.
Deportation returns Arizona to the center of the national immigration debate
By Isaac Windes | Arizona Capitol Times
Arizona is again at the center of the national debate over immigration enforcement, as one of the first people to be deported under President Trump’s expansive immigration policy was removed from the country last week.
Still reeling from the aftershocks of Arizona’s 2010 anti-immigration law, local and national Democratic politicians are struggling to figure out what Trump’s deportation policy will mean to local communities.
Guadalupe Garcia De Rayos, 36, an undocumented mother of two, was detained during a routine immigration check-in on Wednesday, Feb. 8, and deported the morning after according to a statement provided by ICE.
