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The Trump administration considered a proposal to mobilize as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants, including millions living nowhere near the Mexico border, according to a draft memo obtained by The Associated Press.

Staffers in the Department of Homeland Security said the proposal had been discussed as recently as Friday.

The 11-page document calls for the unprecedented militarization of immigration enforcement as far north as Portland, Oregon, and as far east as New Orleans, Louisiana.

Four states that border on Mexico were included in the proposal California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas but it also encompasses seven states contiguous to those four Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Friday the document was "not a White House document."

"There is no effort to do what is potentially suggested," he said. Spicer called the AP report "100 percent not true, adding that there was "no effort at all to utilize the National Guard to round up unauthorized immigrants."

A DHS official described the document as a very early draft that was not seriously considered and never brought to the secretary for approval.

The AP had sought comment from the White House beginning Thursday and DHS earlier Friday and had not received a response from either.

Governors in the 11 states would have had a choice whether to have their guard troops participate, according to the memo, which bears the name of U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, a retired four-star Marine general.

While National Guard personnel have been used to assist with immigration-related missions on the U.S.-Mexico border before, they have never been used as broadly or as far north.

The memo was addressed to the then-acting heads of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It would have served as guidance to implement the wide-ranging executive order on immigration and border security that President Donald Trump signed Jan. 25. Such memos are routinely issued to supplement executive orders.

Also dated Jan. 25, the draft memo says participating troops would be authorized "to perform the functions of an immigration officer in relation to the investigation, apprehension and detention of aliens in the United States." It describes how the troops would be activated under a revived state-federal partnership program, and states that personnel would be authorized to conduct searches and identify and arrest any unauthorized immigrants.

If implemented, the impact could have been significant. Nearly one-half of the 11.1 million people residing in the U.S. without authorization live in the 11 states, according to Pew Research Center estimates based on 2014 Census data.

Use of National Guard troops would greatly increase the number of immigrants targeted in one of Trump's executive orders last month, which expanded the definition of who could be considered a criminal and therefore a potential target for deportation. That order also allows immigration agents to prioritize removing anyone who has "committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense."

Under current rules, even if the proposal had been implemented, there would not be immediate mass deportations. Those with existing deportation orders could be sent back to their countries of origin without additional court proceedings. But deportation orders generally would be needed for most other unauthorized immigrants.

The troops would not be nationalized, remaining under state control.

Spokespeople for the governors of nine of the states either declined to comment or said it was premature to discuss whether they would participate. Representatives for Texas and Arkansas did not immediately respond to the AP.

The proposal would have extended the federal-local partnership program that President Barack Obama's administration began scaling back in 2012 to address complaints that it promoted racial profiling.

The 287(g) program, which Trump included in his immigration executive order, gives local police, sheriff's deputies and state troopers the authority to assist in the detection of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally as a regular part of their law enforcement duties on the streets and in jails.

The draft memo also mentions other items included in Trump's executive order, including the hiring of an additional 5,000 border agents, which needs financing from Congress, and his campaign promise to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

The signed order contained no mention of the possible use of state National Guard troops.

According to the draft memo, the militarization effort was to be proactive, specifically empowering Guard troops to solely carry out immigration enforcement, not as an add-on the way local law enforcement is used in the program.

Allowing Guard troops to operate inside non-border states also would go far beyond past deployments.

In addition to responding to natural or man-made disasters or for military protection of the population or critical infrastructure, state Guard forces have been used to assist with immigration-related tasks on the U.S.-Mexico border, including the construction of fences.

In the mid-2000s, President George W. Bush twice deployed Guard troops on the border to focus on non-law enforcement duties to help augment the Border Patrol as it bolstered its ranks. And in 2010, then-Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced a border security plan that included Guard reconnaissance, aerial patrolling and military exercises.

In July 2014, then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered 1,000 National Guard troops to the border when the surge of migrant children fleeing violence in Central America overwhelmed U.S. officials responsible for their care. The Guard troops' stated role on the border at the time was to provide extra sets of eyes but not make arrests.

Bush initiated the federal 287(g) program named for a section of a 1996 immigration law to allow specially trained local law enforcement officials to participate in immigration enforcement on the streets and check whether people held in local jails were in the country illegally. ICE trained and certified roughly 1,600 officers to carry out those checks from 2006 to 2015.

The memo describes the program as a "highly successful force multiplier" that identified more than 402,000 "removable aliens."

But federal watchdogs were critical of how DHS ran the program, saying it was poorly supervised and provided insufficient training to officers, including on civil rights law. Obama phased out all the arrest power agreements in 2013 to instead focus on deporting recent border crossers and immigrants in the country illegally who posed a safety or national security threat.

Trump's immigration strategy emerges as detentions at the nation's southern border are down significantly from levels seen in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Last year, the arrest tally was the fifth-lowest since 1972. Deportations of people living in the U.S. illegally also increased under the Obama administration, though Republicans criticized Obama for setting prosecution guidelines that spared some groups from the threat of deportation, including those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Last week, ICE officers arrested more than 680 people around the country in what Kelly said were routine, targeted operations; advocates called the actions stepped-up enforcement under Trump.

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AP: Trump admin considered proposal that would use National Guard to round up illegal immigrants - WCVB Boston

Yesterday's national anti-Trump protest was billed as "a day without immigrants." More importantly, it was a day without broken glass, burnt cars or busted skulls. White liberal millennial protestors should take note.

Both groups oppose Trump but only the immigrants understand the difference between American civil disobedience and anarchy. More specifically, they're capable of making a cogent argument without any kind of violent coercion.

Though largely undocumented, the immigrants who walked out of work in the nation's capital and other metropolises have assimilated. They haven't lost faith in America, they haven't repudiated our civil society, and they haven't concluded that those who oppose them are incorrigible. Unlike the liberal protestors who chucked rocks at cops on Inauguration Day, the immigrants took a page out Dr. Martin Luther King's playbook.

And it paid off.

In protest of Trump's immigration policies, the majority of the service industry went on strike. Across the country, cooks didn't bake, carpenters didn't frame and maids didn't clean. And while most noticeable in the nation's more liberal cities, it was impossible not to notice. In one indicative episode, the Pentagon's cafeteria shut down as baristas skipped work at Starbucks and fry cooks boycotted Burger King.

The owner of Chicago's Frontera Grill shut down his restaurant before summing up the point of the protest. "What really makes our country great is the diversity we experience here," Mr. Bayless told the New York Times. "I can't say enough about the lack of respect and the fear-mongering and hate-mongering that I'm sensing around us these days."

You might disagree with that sentiment, think it's wrongheaded, and reject the premise of the protest altogether. But it's hard not to prefer that demonstration to the tantrum that occurred on Inauguration Day. In Washington, D.C., those rioters destroyed private property and engaged in violence. Somehow they thought that by trashing the second most liberal city in America, they'd win converts to their cause.

Of course, many of Thursday's protesters were illegal immigrants, and by definition, had already broken the law, but their protest proved that they weren't interested in destruction or disorder. More importantly, they seemed much more in touch with the American concept of civil disobedience than many protestors of the occupy ilk. The next four years will have constant demonstrations of various levels of credibility.

If I get my choice, I'd pick the most American one. I'd choose immigrants over the black-clad local college and high school kids any day.

Also from the Washington Examiner

Senator was then asked if he thought Trump was acting like a dictator with his tweet.

02/18/17 2:51 PM

Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.

Top Story

Senator was then asked if he thought Trump was acting like a dictator with his tweet.

02/18/17 2:51 PM

Link:
Yesterday illegal immigrants taught white liberal millennials how to protest - Washington Examiner

DETROIT/SAN DIEGO Businesses shut their doors, students skipped class and thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the United States on Thursday to protest President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

Activists called "A Day Without Immigrants" to highlight the importance of the foreign-born, who account for 13 percent of the U.S. population, or more than 40 million naturalized American citizens.

Trump campaigned against the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, playing on fears of violent crime while promising to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border and stop potential terrorists from entering the country.

While the number of participants in Thursday's protests could not be determined, many sympathetic business owners closed shop and working-class immigrants forwent pay for the day.

"I told my English teacher that I wasn't going to school, and she said she understood," said Rosa Castro, a 13-year-old U.S. citizen in Detroit, who marched with her 26-year-old sister, one of several undocumented family members whose future she is concerned about.

Since taking office last month, the Republican president has signed an executive order temporarily banning entry to the United States by travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and all refugees. That order was put on hold by federal courts.

Immigrant rights groups have also expressed alarm after federal raids last week rounded up more than 680 people suspected of being in the country illegally.

In San Diego's Logan Heights neighborhood, a 44-year-old undocumented business owner who identified herself only as Lucia for fear of deportation told Reuters she closed her nutrition shop for the day, costing her $200.

"Our community is frightened and cannot speak out," she said. "Things are very bad for us with the new president."

Advocates have called attention to cases such as one in El Paso, Texas, where federal agents arrested a transgender woman as she left a courthouse where she was seeking a protective order for domestic violence.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe wrote Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly to express concern over immigration enforcement in his state, citing an NBC Washington report that agents arrested people outside a church that operates as a shelter from the cold.

Sympathy marches and rallies were held in cities including Raleigh, North Carolina, and Austin, Texas. Thousands joined demonstrations in Chicago and Detroit.

In the Los Angeles Fashion District - comprising some 4,000 apparel outlets, showrooms and manufacturers covering about 100 blocks of downtown - about half the shops in the area's retail core were closed, along with about 40 percent of one of the large flower markets in the area, said district spokeswoman Ariana Gomez.

A Southern California grocery chain, Northgate Gonzalez Markets, said it gave employees at 41 stores and the corporate headquarters permission to use paid personal time off to participate.

In Washington, more than 50 restaurants were closed, including high-end eateries.

"As far as I'm aware, all of our immigrant employees chose to take the day off," said Ruth Gresser, 57, who owns four pizza restaurants in the District of Columbia area. "We have three relative novices and an old lady making pizza," she said, referring to herself.

At the Pentagon, about half a dozen food outlets were forced to close after staff members joined the protest, a Defense Department spokesman said.

The National Restaurant Association criticized the walkouts, saying in a statement that the organizers "disrupt the workplaces of hard-working Americans who are trying to provide for their families."

In Austin, hundreds chanting "Say it loud, say it clear, immigrants are welcome here" marched from City Hall to the State Capitol, where lawmakers in the Republican-controlled body are considering a measure to punish sanctuary cities that shield immigrants from federal agents.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax, Gina Cherelus and Yahaira Jacquez in New York, Robert Chiarito in Chicago, Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas, Serena Maria Daniels in Detroit, Timothy McLaughlin in Chicago, Lisa Baertlein and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles, Sharon Nunn in Raleigh, N.C., Marty Graham in San Diego and Idrees Ali, Liza Feria, Lacey Ann Johnson and Ian Simpson in Washington; Writing by Joseph Ax and Daniel Trotta; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Andrew Hay)

WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate is expected to approve President Donald Trump's pick to run the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday over the objections of Democrats and green groups worried he will gut the agency, as the administration readies executive orders to ease regulation on drillers and miners.

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's choice for national security adviser, retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, has turned down the offer, a senior White House official said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON The U.S. Supreme Court will decide three cases in coming months that could help or hinder President Donald Trump's efforts to ramp up border security and accelerate deportations of those in the country illegally.

Originally posted here:
Immigrants across the US skip work, school in anti-Trump protest - Reuters

CENTENNIAL, Colo. A Mexican woman trying to avoid deportation took refuge in a Denver church Wednesday after U.S. immigration authorities denied her request to remain in the country, the latest case to rattle the immigrant community as the White House promises to boost enforcement.

JeanetteVizguerraskipped her scheduled check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in the suburb of Centennial. About 100 supporters demonstrated outside the building as her attorney, Hans Meyer, and a minister went inside.

ICE AGENTS REPORTEDLY ARREST ALLEGED DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICITM AT TEXAS COURTHOUSE

They said they were met by a lobby full of agents, a few of them armed, and were toldVizguerrawould not get another extension as she tries to obtain a U visa, sometimes given to crime victims.

ICE spokesman Shawn Neudauer saidVizguerrawas an "enforcement priority" because she had two misdemeanor convictions and a judge originally issued final deportation orders for her in 2011.

Meyer saidVizguerrahad been granted several previous extensions under the Obama administration because officials realize it can take two or three years to obtain the visa.

PHOENIX OFFICIALS TURN DOWN PETITION TO ADOPT SANCTUARY CITY STATUS

"This is a big, huge red flare that the Trump administration has plans to deport as many people as possible," said Meyer, who declined to disclose details of the crime to whichVizguerrawas a victim.

Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a priority, declaring plans to build a border wall, threatening to cut funding to cities that don't cooperate with federal immigration authorities and issuing an executive order making it clear that just about any immigrant in the country illegally could be a priority for deportation, particularly those with outstanding deportation orders.

ICE's Neudauer would not say whether denyingVizguerra'srequest for an extension was a change in policy.

Vizguerratook refuge in the church, a common tactic to avoid deportation because authorities generally don't enter places of worship, as immigrant advocates called for the release of 23-year-old in Washington state who was detained despite participating in a federal program to protect those brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

'DAY WITHOUT IMMIGRANTS' PROTESTS BEING HELD ACROSS US

She said she was thinking of Daniel Ramirez Medina as well as Guadalupe Garcia de Rayos, an Arizona woman arrested during a routine ICE check-in and deported to Mexico the next day, before taking sanctuary.

Vizguerra, crying at first, spoke in Spanish by phone through a bullhorn to supporters outside the ICE building and later in person at the First Unitarian Church not far from the state Capitol.

With three of her four children joining her on the altar, the former union organizer and house cleaner said her only crimes were related to working in the country illegally to support her family.

She said she was arrested for not having a driver's license or current vehicle registration. Officers also discovered that she had a forged identity document, which she said had a Social Security number made up of digits from her birth date, not one that belonged to an actual person.

Vizguerrasaid she told her children last week of her decision to stay in a basement room of the church that they had painted in 2014 in preparation for any immigrant who might need to seek sanctuary.

"You can see the reasons behind me why I am fighting so hard to win my case," she said of her family.

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Illegal immigrant takes refuge in Denver church to avoid deportation - Fox News

A suspected illegal immigrant from Mexico has been charged with drunk driving in a collision that killed another driver a 66-year-old former missionary returning to his Noblesville, Indiana, home after a long night at work.

Elizabeth Vargas-Hernandez, 35, was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death,WRTV-TV reported, adding that she also was cited for operating a vehicle without ever receiving a drivers license.

State police told WRTV that Vargas-Hernandez, of Indianapolis, is believed to be an undocumented Mexican national.

The suspect was traveling at a high rate of speed on Interstate 465 around 2:30 a.m. Monday when she slammed her SUV into David Kriehns car, which careened off the highway and rolled over several times into a ditch, police told WTHR-TV.

Kriehn, who was ejected from his vehicle, was taken to a hospital where he later died, WRTV added.

Investigators told WTHR that Vargas-Hernandez smelled of alcohol and failed a field sobriety test, adding they believe she and her three passengers had just left a bar. None of them were injured, WRTV added.

WRTV said it found a 2015 accident report identifying Vargas-Hernandez as Elizabeth Ornelis-Hernandez, who was driving without a drivers license but the station said Metro Police didnt believe an arrest was warranted in that instance.

The Marion County Sheriffs Office doesnt usually notify federal authorities when suspected illegal immigrants are arrested and jailed for serious crimes unrelated to their immigration status, WTHR said.

Regarding Vargas-Hernandezs immigration status, a sheriffs spokesperson noted in an email to WTHR that arrests are public record. ICE has access to the arrest records. MCSO does not address immigration status/issues.

Kriehn was a manager at a Famous Daves Bar-B-Que and was working late after closing the restaurant to complete an inventory, the companys operations manager told WTHR.

Dave was a gentle, caring man, coworker Harry Straut told WTHR. A good person. The guy you liked to hang out with as well as work with.

Straut added to the station that Kriehn was an inspirational leader and spent much of his life before entering the restaurant industry being a missionary.

Kriehns coworkers set up aGoFundMe page to help his family.

(H/T: Todd Starnes)

Link:
Suspected illegal immigrant accused of drunk driving in collision that ... - TheBlaze.com