Trump administration expands deportation efforts with new ICE tactic

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have recently announced a new initiative to start arresting illegal immigrants at their immigration and asylum hearings, according to a report by Fox News. This nationwide effort is specifically targeting illegal immigrants who have been in the United States for less than two years. The Department of Homeland Security’s strategy involves dropping the immigration cases of these migrants, arresting them, and placing them into expedited deportation proceedings.

One of the key aspects of this initiative is that the DHS must drop the cases against these individuals because migrants with pending cases cannot be put forward for expedited removal. ICE sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, have indicated that we can expect to see “a lot more” of these types of arrests in the future.

This new policy is expected to result in an increase in deportations of migrants who have not committed crimes beyond entering the U.S. illegally. Previously, the Trump administration had focused on deporting illegal immigrants with prior convictions for serious offenses.

The announcement of this initiative comes at a time when the Department of Homeland Security is embroiled in multiple legal battles over its deportation practices. A federal judge recently ruled that the DHS had violated a court order by deporting eight illegal immigrants to South Sudan without conducting proper “credible fear interviews.” These interviews are meant to allow migrants being deported to a third-country to argue that returning there would put them in danger.

Judge Brian Murphy is currently investigating whether the deportees can have their credible fear interviews in South Sudan rather than being immediately returned to the U.S. This ruling follows previous findings by Murphy that deporting individuals to certain countries without notice would violate his orders regarding third-party deportations.

For more information on this developing story and other major news events, you can follow Anders Hagstrom, a reporter with Fox News Digital covering national politics. You can reach out to him with any tips or information at Anders.Hagstrom@Fox.com or connect with him on Twitter at @Hagstrom_Anders.