Trump administration strips schools and churches of immigration protections: NPR

President Trump appears in the Oval Office after his inauguration on Monday.

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A new Department of Homeland Security directive says immigration agents can now enter schools, health care facilities and places of worship to make arrests.

“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” the DHS said a spokesman said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our courageous law enforcement agencies and instead trusts them to use common sense.”

The directive, which applies to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection officials, repeals the directive’s guidance Biden administration This created “protected areas,” which consisted primarily of places where “children gather, disaster or emergency relief facilities, and social service facilities.”

The Biden-era directive said immigration enforcement activities should not take place in or near locations that would limit people’s access to “essential” services or activities.

A second directive announced by DHS on Tuesday also followed one of President Trump’s executive orders signed on Monday evening to “terminate all categorical parole programs that conflict with the policies of the United States set forth in my executive orders.” including the humanitarian parole program for people from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, said CNN on Tuesday that “ICE is now back to doing its job” and that agents are focusing on migrants deemed a threat to public safety.

Homan said ICE could also intercept arrests of migrants without criminal records, particularly those living in sanctuary cities: cities where local law enforcement is prohibited from assisting federal immigration agents.

He declined to provide specific information about the locations.

“There will be more collateral arrests in sanctuary cities because they forced us to go into the community and find the man we are looking for,” Homan said.