By Ted Hesson and Hannah Lang
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration is powering ahead with efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement, opening up the possibility of targeting migrants who entered through Biden-era programs and invoking an obscure immigration statute to make it easier to deputize state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a memo made public on Friday that immigration officials could consider whether to strip temporary legal status from migrants who entered through former President Joe Biden’s signature “parole” programs. The memo provides guidance for the use of a fast-track deportation process that the Trump administration reinstated earlier this week, suggesting officers focus on migrants who failed to request asylum within a one-year deadline after arriving in the U.S.
The process, known as “expedited removal,” had been applied only to people apprehended within 14 days of entering the country and within 100 miles (160 km) of the border under Biden. On Tuesday, it was expanded nationwide and applied to all those who entered within two years.
In a separate memo, Huffman invoked an immigration statute to make it easier to deputize U.S. state and local law enforcement to assist with immigration enforcement and detention due to a “mass influx” of immigrants in the U.S. illegally. The scope of that move remained unclear.
President Donald Trump issued a series of executive orders after returning to the White House on Monday intended to deter illegal immigration and position the U.S. to deport millions of immigrants without legal status.
The Republican president says the moves are necessary after millions of immigrants entered the U.S. under Biden, both crossing illegally and through Biden’s legal entry programs.
Some Democrats and advocates counter that Trump’s aggressive enforcement could target non-criminals, disrupt businesses and split apart families. Immigrant rights group Make the Road New York sued on Wednesday to block Trump’s expansion of the fast-track deportation process.
Some 1.5 million migrants entered the U.S. from 2022 to 2024 through two Biden legal entry “parole” programs aimed at reducing illegal crossings, according to U.S. government statistics. One program allowed migrants waiting in Mexico to schedule an appointment to request asylum at a legal border crossing. Another allowed Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans outside the U.S. to enter by air if they had U.S. sponsors and underwent vetting.
Trump ended those programs on Monday, leaving some migrants in Mexico stranded and unsure of next steps. Migrants who might have entered legally could face riskier routes if they cross illegally and higher prices from smugglers.
The latest guidance allowing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to consider stripping active parole from people who entered in the past two years could face legal challenges, one former Biden official said.
ICE made some 500 arrests on Thursday, Fox News reported, about a third of which were people without criminal records. The agency’s daily average for arrests was 311 in fiscal year 2024 and 467 in fiscal year 2023.
Ras Baraka, the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey, criticized ICE last night for an enforcement action in his city that involved detaining U.S. citizens and a military veteran.
“It’s a slippery slope when we think it’s okay to suspend the Constitution of the United States in order to make a political point or statement,” Baraka said at a press conference on Friday, adding that ICE entered the business without a warrant.
New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice Executive Director Amy Torres said the ICE officers were heavily armed and “terrified” employees at the business. Officers banged on bathroom doors to make sure no one was hiding inside, she said.
