Trump touts immigration crackdown despite concerns about due process
World
Trump touts immigration crackdown despite concerns about due process
(Reuters) - US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday touted the early results of his immigration crackdown despite concerns over due process, displaying photos of alleged criminal offenders on the White House lawn and preparing to target cities and states that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement.
Trump plans to sign an executive order on Monday directing top officials to identify within a month the cities and states failing to sufficiently comply with federal immigration laws, a White House official said.
Trump launched an aggressive enforcement campaign after taking office, surging troops to the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the US illegally.
The Republican president — who made immigration a major campaign issue in 2024 — said the actions were needed after years of high illegal immigration under his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.
At a press briefing, White House officials touted a steep decline in illegal crossings at the border during Trump’s first three months in office — even as concerns have emerged over the due process rights of immigrants and US citizens swept up in the dragnet.
“We have the most secure border in the history of this nation and the numbers prove it,” Trump border czar Tom Homan said at the briefing.
Democrats and civil rights advocates have criticised Trump’s heightened enforcement tactics, including the cases of several US-citizen children recently deported with their parents, including one with a rare form of cancer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Homan blamed the parents for putting their children at risk of deportation by remaining in the US. “If you choose to have a US-citizen child, knowing you’re in this country illegally, you put yourself in that position,” he said.
In his first hundred days in office, Trump has moved to strip legal immigration status from hundreds of thousands of people, increasing the pool of those who can potentially be deported.
While arrests of immigrants in the US illegally have spiked, deportations remain below last year’s levels under Biden, when there were more people illegally crossing the border who could be quickly returned.
