Realistically, the point of all these “harsh” illegal immigration policies is not necessarily to round up tons of illegal and deport them, though that is a side benefit. The point is to reduce the flow of illegals, who are being put on notice that past shenanigans, such as bringing your kids to the U.S. illegally/coming illegally and having kids on U.S. soil will no longer work as a means to stay in the country
Trump administration cancels program to protect immigrant parents from deportation
Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly formally revoked a policy memo that created the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program. The revocation came on the fifth anniversary of another effort that has protected hundreds of thousands of young immigrants from deportation.
The program to protect parents was announced by President Obama in November 2014 but was never fully launched. It was intended to keep the immigrant parents safe from deportation and provide them with a renewable work permit good for two years, but it was blocked by a federal judge in Texas after 26 states filed suit against the federal government and challenged the effort’s legality.
Republicans decried the effort as “backdoor amnesty†and argued that Obama overstepped his authority by protecting a specific class of immigrants living in the United States illegally.
Because it was a backdoor amnesty. It would have rewarded people who are unlawfully present within the U.S. for their bad behavior. And the next thing would have been for Democrats to proclaim that it was not fair for these unlawfully present parents weren’t allowed to become immediate citizens (even though most don’t even speak the language) because their kids who were born here are. And for the kids who were brought illegally, they should be made citizens. It makes a mockery of those who come to this country legally, spend lots of money, and take all the time to become naturalized U.S. citizens because they want to be U.S. citizens.
Arrests of immigrants in the interior of the country have increased under the Trump administration, but deportations are slightly down as fewer people have been caught crossing the Mexican border into the United States illegally.
So, the policies are working.
Crossed at Right Wing News.