Biden’s ‘Expeditious’ Processing System for Illegal Migrants — Isn’t

On August 19, the Los Angeles Times ran an article captioned “The Biden administration remade ICE after Trump: But will it last?” To read that piece, you would conclude — wrongly — that ICE officers under Trump randomly deported mothers with infants. Pick through the facts therein, however, and you will discover that Biden’s plan to expedite the processing of cases involving illegal migrant families isn’t very expedited at all — and that aliens illegally present for years still consider their old countries “home”.

The Canard of Harsh ICE Enforcement Under Trump. The Times asserts: “True to Trump’s harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric, ICE officers in his administration were directed to make nearly every immigrant without legal status a priority for arrest — even if the person had deep roots in the U.S. and no criminal record.”

That sweeping statement does not stand up to scrutiny, but notably the removal provisions in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) do not differentiate between removable aliens with “deep roots in the U.S. and no criminal record” and aliens with serious criminal records who arrived yesterday.