Express Deportation: A Step Forward in Customer Service?
This file photo shows a group of foreigners held at the Krome Detention Center in Miami-Dade County. José A. Iglesias jiglesias@elnuevoherald.com
The Miami Herald reports on the development by the Trump administration of a new-and-improved express deportation system.
Until recently, foreign nationals convicted of a crime in federal court were told that immigration authorities would put them in deportation proceedings upon completion of their prison terms. Under orders from Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a champion of hard-line immigration enforcement, federal prosecutors are asking district judges to issue what are known as “judicial orders of removal,” which ensure that a convicted foreign national will be deported on completion of the sentence instead of being sent to an immigrant detention center to await proceedings in immigration court and then a deportation order from an immigration judge.
The new legal tactic shortens the wait time for deportation, bypasses backlogs in immigration court, saves the federal government money in housing and food in immigrant detention centers, frees up space in those centers for other detained foreign nationals and sends a message to immigrant communities that under President Donald Trump immigration enforcement is real.
Stay tuned.
KJ