“With all attention on the Muslim ban and building The Wall, the Trump Administration seems to have diverted our attention from their other plans to roll out the January 25, 2017 Executive Order on Border Security. Although that Executive Order includes a lot of language regarding The Wall, there’s also other troubling language that the Administration already appears to be implementing. Two of my students and I spent all of Friday at a detention facility with students and a faculty member from another area law school. We were amazed by the number and diversity of folks in detention. Our students did know-your-rights presentations to different groups, intakes, and talked with as many folks as we could. I would summarize my observations about what we saw as follows. While the Executive Order on border security appears to authorize immediate construction of the wall, it also does the following:
Calls for the expansion of expedited removal to anyone not in U.S. for the last two years
Build and expand use of detention facilities and contracts with local law enforcement Detain Central American asylum seekers with pending claims, even those who’ve been released on parole and passed credible fear
Dramatically limit use of parole to humanitarian situations
Use ICE/ERO and alternatives to detention to round up parolees
Use local law enforcement to arrest and detain immigrants and asylum seekers
This implementation is bound to affect many of the women and children we served at Karnes, Texas last December, both those women who passed their CFIs as well as the women who were released on their own recognizance. It also affects many other immigrants in our community without secure immigration status.”
***************************
PWS
02/15/17