Former Trump administration staffer Stephen Miller appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to detail the impact of President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on immigration enforcement. While Biden billed the order as a temporary halt on deportations for 100 days, it appears to include much more. Biden may not be abolishing Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE); he is just ensuring they have nothing to do.
Host Tucker Carlson began with an update on a story that broke last week. The Biden administration sent a directive to ICE detention centers instructing them to release all detainees obtained by the host. The order read:
“As of midnight tonight, stop all removals. This includes Mexican bus runs, charter flights and commercial removals (until further notice) … all cases are to be considered [no significant likelihood of removal in foreseeable future].”
The email goes on to say: “Release them all, immediately. No sponsor available is not acceptable any longer.”
DHS officials corrected this, and Carlson said operational procedures were in development. Those procedures will include the release of detainees at risk for COVID-19 who are over 55 or have diabetes or high blood pressure, according to the clarification he received.
Miller came on following the correction to explain in explicit detail what the new order means for immigration enforcement, and even Carlson seemed shocked. Carlson asked him to detail the implications. Miller said:
This is the most extreme directive, I would argue, really in the history of modern law enforcement that has ever been issued. Let me break it down for everybody. Acting Secretary [David] Pekoske issued a memorandum on the evening of January 20th, the day of the inauguration, putting into place a 100-day deportation moratorium. There’s very narrow exceptions in that memorandum that would apply to only a handful of people in a given year. It would be terrorists and spies, really extraordinary cases.”
So, what will happen to the vast majority of detainees? According to Miller’s full explanation, it sounds like many will have to be released at some point. Miller said that of the 180,000 people ICE removed last year, 92% were charged or convicted of committing a crime. ICE would not be able to remove these people now because of the moratorium. According to Miller, there is no exception allowing the removal of criminal illegal immigrants in the memo.
He went on to explain what this means operationally:
“What it means Tucker, is that the work of ICE officers will grind to a halt beginning February 1st. Why February 1st? because that is the date by which ICE has to come up with implementing guidance for the memo. And so, every sheriff’s office, every police department, every correctional facility in the country, that for years has been handing over illegal aliens to ICE to pick them up and take them home, which is the bread and butter of ICE’s work; all of those people will not get picked up anyomre.”
Miller explained that ICE detention is not a jail. ICE officers are not allowed to arrest someone whom they cannot deport according to immigration law. Last year, local law enforcement handed over about 12,000 criminals based on ICE detainers. Now they will be released into the community. ICE may not take custody if it is unable to deport them. Miller also noted the number might be higher, perhaps up to 15,000, because last year’s number was lower due to COVID-19.
Under the terms of the memo, ICE is also explicitly prohibited from removing visa overstays. So a student or foreign worker who enters the country on a temporary visa no longer needs to leave by the expiration date. Miller also noted that worksite enforcement doesn’t exist anymore.
As of January 20th, Joe Biden has declared there is no more workplace immigration law. You as a U.S. citizen do not have the protection of your laws. Your civil rights do not matter.
If ICE cannot deport anyone, the agency cannot detain illegal immigrants at a workplace or even at a courthouse. Additionally, illegal immigrants who fail to show up for immigration court will not be removed. Even if they do show up and are ordered to be removed and do not leave, ICE may not detain them.
The order eliminated the “Remain in Mexico” policy where migrants would stay on the other side of the border while awaiting their hearings. This policy and other Trump administration actions encouraged Mexico to secure its southern border adequately, stopping caravans from Central and South America. Additionally, in 2018, a poll showed that 7 in 10 Mexican citizens wanted the caravans to stop, incentivizing elected officials to act.
However, as the Biden administration imposed the moratorium on deportations and hinted that amnesty may be on the horizon, a second caravan has formed. The Guatemalan military broke up the first one, estimated to be 8,000 people, sending the caravan back to Honduas. In interviews, migrants cited economic reasons for attempting to get to the U.S. border. Guatemalan officials say 3,000 to 3,500 had made it into the country’s interior.
It is unbelievable that Americans have to rely on Mexico and our Central American neighbors to secure their borders to prevent ours from being overwhelmed. This executive order is far more radical than the Obama-era policy of catch-and-release. In practice, the new order eliminates the “catch” portion of the process and incentivizes continued migration.
In under a week, President Biden has made our country less secure and will create competition for low-wage workers in the wake of a pandemic. And this is only the beginning.
WATCH the full segment here.
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