David Nakamura Reports in the Washington Post:
“The Trump administration on Tuesday sought to allay growing fears among immigrant communities over wide-ranging new directives to ramp up enforcement against illegal immigrants, insisting the measures are not intended to produce “mass deportations.”
Federal officials cautioned that many of the changes detailed in a pair of memos from Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly will take time to implement because of costs and logistical challenges and that border patrol agents and immigration officers will use their expanded powers with care and discretion.
Yet the official public rollout of Kelly’s directives, first disclosed in media reports over the weekend, was met with outrage from immigrant rights advocates over concerns the new policies will result in widespread abuses as authorities attempt to fulfill President Trump’s goals of tightening border control.
Trump took a hard line against illegal immigration during his campaign, at times suggesting he would seek to create a nationwide “deportation force” to expel as many of the nation’s estimated 11 million unauthorized immigrants as possible.
In a conference call with reporters, a senior Department of Homeland Security official moved to avert what he called a “sense of panic” among immigrant communities.”
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Summary: Duh! So, we roll out this big new program in the first 35 days of the new Administration to great fanfare. But, nobody considered the resource and funding implications with Congress. So, it’s much ado about nothing (for now). But, don’t you dare lie about all the great things we’ve already accomplished. Watch for the biased media falsely claiming that it’s all smoke and mirrors or that we’re already rounding up some of the folks we said we’d deport. We mean what we say, but we’re not actually doing what we said we’d do. What kind of fools would panic about that?
PWS
02/22/17