Trump’s Immigration Order Expands the Definition of ‘Criminal’

Jennifer Medina, New York TImes, Jan. 26, 2017 - "After President Trump signed two sweeping executive orders on immigration on Wednesday, most of the attention was on his plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico and to hold back money from “sanctuary cities.” But the most immediate impact may come from language about deportation priorities that is tucked into the border wall order. It offers an expansive definition of who is considered a criminal — a category of people Mr. Trump has said he would target for deportation. Immigration agents will now have wider latitude to enforce federal laws and are being encouraged to deport broad swaths of unauthorized immigrants. ... Even if immigration officials initiated thousands of deportations immediately, court dates for those immigrants would be at least a year and a half away. ... Mr. Trump is opening the door to deporting far more unauthorized immigrants than previous administrations. “This is the largest expansion of any president in terms of who is a priority for removal,” said Steve Yale-­Loehr, a professor of immigration law at Cornell University. “Every administration has to prioritize who they will go after with their limited enforcement resources. This goes further than any other president. To make it simple: If someone is here illegally they are targets for removal.”"

[Prof. Yale-Loehr is co-author of Immigration Law and Procedure, the 21-Volume "Bible'' of immigration law, published by LexisNexis, that has been cited in over 450 federal court decisions in cases from across the U.S. circuit courts of appeals, federal district courts, and the U.S. Supreme Court.]