The last major overhaul of American immigration law took place decades ago and there’s been no will from Congress to revamp it since then. Instead, a string of presidents has sought to interpret the law to fit their preferred policies. What we’re seeing under President Donald Trump, though, is a federal bureaucracy abandoning the law as it exists, rewriting the rules that would constrain it from exercising maximum cruelty and dehumanization toward immigrants.
Over the last six months, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has served as the tip of the spear in the Trump administration’s mass deportation push. According to The Washington Post, acting ICE director Todd Lyons issued a memo last week that instructs officers to hold immigrants in their custody “for the duration of their removal proceedings” — however long that takes. His determination marks a major shift in the way ICE functions and threatens to transform the immigration system more broadly overnight.
This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest column. Read the full column here.
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