Two new memos were issued by Homeland Security secretary John Kelly.
Both memos are guidelines on how Homeland Security will implement President Trump's executive order on immigration.
The orders are instructions on how customs, border protection and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) are going to execute the executive orders.
One deals with internal enforcement, one how enforcement actions will be conducted within the United States. It is also discussed that an additional 10,000 ICE agents will be hired.
"I think those 10,000 agents will be largely stationed near the southern border, that means that Kern County is going to see a significant uptick in the number of enforcement agents we have here in Kern County, and I think there will be a great effort to round up as many people as possible," Win Eaton, a local immigration attorney said.
That full memo can be read here.
The other memo deals with customs and border protection hiring 5,000 additional agents on the border.
That full memo can be read here.
In these guidelines it outlines how agents will prioritize the deportation of illegal immigrants.
Eaton said although at first the guidelines can sound like they focus on deporting only convicted criminals, the language is very broad.
"This is so broad that I think it's very lively to be struck down," Eaton said. "They're defining a removable alien as anyone that an ICE agent has any reason to believe, it's a very low standard, might be in the country undocumented."
When it comes to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Eaton said it it still unknown what will happen this it at this time.
"There is suppose to be an exception in these memos for people who are on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, DACA, program. In the enforcement memo it's described that DACA recipients are excluded from this enforcement priority, but in reality we know that's not the case. Any DACA recipient who falls within any of these categories of suspected crime, reasonable suspicion to be in certain circumstances, is still going to be subjected to removal," Eaton said. "The DACA recipients are as vulnerable as anyone else, under the broad language of this memo."
Eaton said he still suggests undocumented immigrants to apply for DACA if they are eligible.
"DACA is still good law, DACA has not been rescinded by this president, and the congress is working on a bill to protect those young people," Eaton said.
However, he said anyone who is undocumented is vulnerable to removal under President Trump's executive order on immigration.
"How a person conducts their lives and keeps families together are personal decisions they need to make, but I think the community needs to know that anyone who does not have proper documents is at risk right now," Eaton said. "Each person needs to evaluate their circumstances and how they are going to respond if ICE knocks on their door or comes to their work place."
Eaton said that undocumented immigrants have rights, and they do not need to answer all of the questions asked and disclose their status to ICE agents. Instead he suggests they consult a lawyer.
"There's a presumption in the law of the United States that if a person is physically present in the United States that they are here legally," Eaton said. "If a person answered to an immigration officer one of those two questions, where are you from and how long have you been here, that shifts the presumption, now the burden is on the non-citizen to demonstrate their legal status. Don't make it easy, don't shift the presumption to the individual. Let's keep the burden on the government to prove a person is undocumented," he said.
Eaton said he and other legal experts are calling on congress to take action.
"This is a problem that's been created by congress and I think we need to focus the light back on congress because that's where it all gets resolved," Eaton said. "All of this is temporary, the DACA program was very temporarily designed to bridge the gap between immediate need and protecting vulnerable young people in our society from deportation."
As for these two memos, Eaton said they are what agents will follow for now.
"These are their actions, these are being enforced right now as we speak, so where it goes next? As soon as someone is injured wrongfully here I'm sure there will be litigators that will tie these up in courts, it's just a matter of time," Eaton said.
