Trump targets migrants in Biden programs, paves way for more help in crackdown

25/1/2025 6:08

The Trump administration is powering ahead with efforts to ramp up immigration enforcement, opening up the possibility of targeting migrants who entered through Biden-era programs and invoking an obscure immigration statute to make it easier to deputize state and local law enforcement to arrest and detain

immigrants in the U.S. illegally.



Acting Homeland Security Secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a memo made public on Friday that immigration officials could consider whether to strip temporary legal status from migrants who entered through former President Joe Biden's signature "parole" programs. The memo provides guidance for the

use of a fast-track deportation process that the Trump administration reinstated earlier this week, suggesting officers focus on migrants who failed to request asylum within a one-year deadline after arriving in the U.S.



The process, known as "expedited removal," had been applied only to people apprehended within 14 days of entering the country and within 100 miles (160 km) of the border under Biden. On Tuesday, it was expanded nationwide and applied to all those who entered within two years.