Jan. 21 (UPI) — The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday it has rescinded the Biden administration’s guidelines, which banned federal immigration authorities from making arrests near so-called sensitive areas, and instead will allow arrests at schools and churches, provided agents use “common sense.”
DHS acting secretary Benjamine Huffman issued the directive Monday to “end the invasion at the U.S. southern border and empower law enforcement to protect Americans.”
“This action empowers the brave men and women of Customs and Border Protection and ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens — including murderers and rapists — who have illegally come into our country,” DHS wrote Tuesday in a statement.
“Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump administration will not tie the hands of our law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense,” according to DHS.
The Biden administration issued the guidelines, similar to an ICE directive established in 2011, that prevented agents from making arrests of suspected undocumented immigrants in schools, churches or hospitals. Immigrant advocates have argued that without the ban, people would avoid seeking medical care or sending their children to school.
Schools, churches, hospitals, funerals, weddings and public demonstrations were all ordered off-limits. Federal immigration authorities are now allowed to target those locations with “common sense.”
A second DHS directive, issued Monday, will end the broad abuse of humanitarian parole and return the program to a case-by-case basis, in accordance with the law.
“The Biden-Harris administration abused the humanitarian parole program to indiscriminately allow 1.5 million migrants to enter our country,” according to DHS. “This was all stopped on day one of the Trump administration.”
“This action will return the humanitarian parole program to its original purpose of looking at migrants on a case-by-case basis.”
