(Headline USA) U.S. immigration authorities will limit arrests at schools, hospitals and other “protected” areas under guidelines issued Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security, reinstating radical open-borders policies that had been rolled back under President Donald Trump.
Agents and officers are being directed to avoid making arrests or carrying out searches at a range of sensitive locations “to the fullest extent possible,” according to a memo from DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas outlining the policy.
The policy is similar to one under President Barack Obama that restricted arrests at churches and schools, but even more sweeping in its scope, effectively turning the entire country into a so-called sanctuary city.
The new policy includes not just schools but medical and daycare facilities, playgrounds and recreation centers as well as demonstrations and rallies.
Guidelines issued earlier this year for immigration enforcement directed agents to focus on recent border crossers, national security threats and people who have committed serious crimes. DHS also imposed limits on arrests at courthouses when people showed up for other matters and ended mass worksite raids.
Mayorkas claimed that his agency does not have the resources to pursue all of the estimated 11 million people in the country without legal status and that it should focus on those who pose the greatest risk to society.
Many contend that his estimated number substantially lowballed the number of illegals present in the country, particularly since an estimated two million were due to arrive on his watch this year. The real number is likely to be about double his estimate.
Homeland Security’s lack of resources has not stopped Mayorkas from wasting millions of dollars by refusing to complete a border wall that had already been paid for under the Trump administration.
In announcing the new policy guidelines, the secretary said agents and officers should consider “broader societal interests” and the impact of their activities on communities.
“We can accomplish our law enforcement mission without denying individuals access to needed medical care, children access to their schools, the displaced access to food and shelter, people of faith access to their places of worship, and more,” Mayorkas said, in spite of the fact that the Biden administration appears determined not to accomplish any law-enforcement mission.
The list of protected areas includes broad categories such as “a place where children gather” and “a place where disaster or emergency response and relief is being provided.”
That marks a significant shift for an agency that includes U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which some open-borders advocates and other leftist radicals want to see abolished altogether, similar to the domestic “defund the police” movement.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a pro-immigration-enforcement watchdog, blasted the guidelines as a “handy list of safe places from enforcement.”
Supposed exceptions include when the action involves a national security threat; if there is an imminent risk of death, violence or physical harm to a person; if it involves the “hot pursuit” of someone who poses a public safety threat and someone who was personally observed crossing the border without legal authorization.
Other exceptions would be if there is an imminent risk that evidence material to a criminal case would be destroyed or if a safe alternative location does not exist.
Otherwise, agents or officers would have to get approval before taking an enforcement action “in or near” a protected area, the memo said.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
