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February 22, 2017

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ByAliciaA.Caldwell The Associated Press WASHINGTON Manymore people living in the United States illegally could face rapid deportation — includ- ing people simply arrested for traffic violations — un- der the Trump administra- tion's sweeping rewrite of immigration enforcement policies announced Tues- day. Any immigrant who is in the country illegally and is charged or convicted of any offense, or even suspected of a crime, will now be an enforcement priority, ac- cording to Homeland Se- curity Department memos signed by Secretary John Kelly. That could include people arrested for shop- lifting or minor offenses. The memos replace the Obama administration's more narrow guidance fo- cusing on immigrants who have been convicted of se- rious crimes, are consid- ered threats to national se- curity or are recent border crossers. The new enforcement documents are the latest efforts by President Donald Trump to follow through on campaign promises to strictly enforce immigra- tion laws. He's also prom- ised to build a wall at the Mexican border — he in- sists Mexico will eventually foot the bill — and Kelly's memos reiterate calls for Homeland Security to start planning for the costs and construction. Trump's earlier immigra- tion orders, which banned all refugees as well as for- eigners from seven Muslim- majority countries, have faced widespread criticism and legal action. A federal appeals court has upheld a temporary halt. Kelly's latest plans call for enforcing a longstand- ing but obscure provision of immigration law that allows the government to send some people caught illegally crossing the Mex- ican border back to Mex- ico, regardless of where they are from. Those ac- tions would wait for U.S. deportation proceedings to be complete. This would be used for people who aren't considered a threat to cross the border illegally again, the memo says. That provision is almost certain to face opposition from civil libertarians and Mexican officials, and it's unclear whether the United States has the authority to force Mexico to accept third-country nationals. But the memo also calls for Homeland Security to pro- vide an account of U.S. aid to Mexico, a possible sig- nal that Trump plans to use that funding to get Mexico to accept the foreigners. Historically, the U.S. has quickly repatriated Mexi- can nationals caught at the border but has detained im- migrants from other coun- tries pending deportation proceedings that could take years. The memos do not change U.S. immigration laws, but take a far harder line toward enforcement. One example involves broader use of a program that fast-tracks deporta- tions. It will now be applied to immigrants who cannot prove they have been in the United States longer than two years. Since at least 2002 that fast deportation effort — which does not require a judge's order — has been used only for immigrants caught within 100 miles of the border, within two weeks of crossing illegally. The administration also plans to expand immi- gration jail capacity. Cur- rently Homeland Security has money and space to jail 34,000 immigrants at a time. It's unclear how much an increase would cost, but Congress would have to ap- prove any new spending. The American Civil Lib- erties Union said it would challenge the directives. "These memos confirm that the Trump adminis- tration is willing to trample on due process, human de- cency, the well-being of our communities, and even pro- tections for vulnerable chil- dren, in pursuit of a hyper- aggressive mass depor- tation policy," said Omar Jadwat, director of the AC- LU's Immigrants' Rights Project. However, Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republi- can who sits on the House Homeland Security Com- mittee, applauded the Trump effort, saying the memos "overturn dan- gerous" policies from the Obama administration. The directives do not affect President Barack Obama's program that has protected more than 750,000 young immigrants from deportation. The De- ferred Action for Childhood Arrivals remains in place, though participants could be deported if they com- mit crimes or otherwise are deemed to be threats to public safety or national security, according to the department. During the campaign Trump vowed to immediately end that pro- gram, which he described as illegal amnesty. The directives indicate that some young people caught crossing the bor- der illegally by themselves may not be eligible for spe- cial legal protections if they are reunited with parents in the United States. And those parents or other rel- atives that the government believes helped the chil- dren would face criminal and immigration investi- gations. Under the Obama administration, more than 100,000 children, mostly from Honduras, El Salva- dor and Guatemala, were caught at the border. Most were reunited with parents or relatives living in the United States, regardless of the adults' immigration status. The enforcement memos also call for the hir- ing of 5,000 new Border Pa- trol agents and 10,000 Im- migration and Customs Enforcement agents, but it's unclear how quickly that could take place. Cur- rently, two of every three applicants for Customs and Border Protection jobs fail polygraph exams and there are about 2,000 vacancies. ENFORCEMENT POLICIES Trump targets many more immigrants for possible deportation CHARLESREED—U.S.IMMIGRATIONANDCUSTOMSENFORCEMENTVIAAP An arrest is made during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles. By Robert Burns The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's choice of an outspoken but non-politi- cal Army general as national security adviser is a nod to pragmatism, but Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster will serve a commander in chief with unorthodox ideas about for- eign policy and an inner cir- cleofadvisersdeterminedto implement them. McMaster, 54, is an in- dependent-minded soldier widely admired for his lead- ership skills, but he is short on experience in Washing- ton's trenches. His appoint- ment reinforces the more mainstream approach to security that Trump is get- ting from Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, who seems to have steered the adminis- tration toward stronger sup- port for NATO and allies in Asia, and away from the re- authorization of torture in interrogations. Still, it's an open ques- tion how McMaster, a dec- orated combat veteran, will fare in a White House that has set up what some call a parallel power structure led by Stephen Bannon and his strategic initiatives group, whose role and reach hasn't been publicly explained. As Trump's chief strategist, Bannon, the conservative media executive with out- spoken views about Islam, has a seat on the National Security Council's principals committee in a restructur- ing that puts him on equal footing with Cabinet mem- bers like Mattis and Secre- tary of State Rex Tillerson. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said Tuesday that Trump prom- ised McMaster "100 percent control" over the structure of the NSC. Peter R. Mansoor, a re- tired Army colonel who served with McMaster in Iraq during the 2007 surge of U.S. troops, said Bannon's inclusion on the principals committee shows his group "has an outsized measure of importance within the White House." What that meansforMcMasterandfel- low pragmatists Mattis and Tillerson, he said, is unclear. Mansoor said he expects McMaster to be a "voice of reason" and a natural ally to Mattis. As successor to Michael Flynn, ousted for his expla- nation of his communica- tions with Russia's ambas- sador before Trump took office, McMaster continues Trump's reliance on career military officers. Mattis and John Kelly, the homeland se- curity secretary, are retired Marine generals. Flynn was an Army lieutenant general. McMaster becomes the first active-duty officer to serve as national security adviser since Colin Powell, then a three-star general, assumed the job in President Ronald Reagan's final two years in office. Powell went on to grab the military's top job as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Robert Harward, a re- tired three-star admiral, was Trump's first choice to replace Flynn but turned down the offer. The national security adviser has a special role within the government, working directly with the president but not subject to confirmation by the Sen- ate. McMaster will advise Trump and serve as his co- ordinator of foreign and de- fense policy. He will approach matters differently than Flynn, who was a contentious figure be- fore Trump appointed him. After being fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, Flynn pub- licly lambasted the Obama administration as soft on Islamic extremism. Dur- ing the 2016 president cam- paign, he delivered a harsh, partisan denouncement of Democrat Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention. Trump says he fired Flynn for misleading Vice President Mike Pence on the nature of his pre-Inau- guration Day phone con- versations with the Russian ambassador in Washing- ton. Flynn unsettled others by asserting that Islamic ex- tremism posed an existen- tial threat to the West and that the Muslim faith was the source of the problem. McMaster comes into the job without Flynn's baggage or such controversial views. It's unclear if he will need Senate confirmation be- cause he is a three-star gen- eral taking on a new assign- ment. "He absolutely does not view Islam as the enemy," Mansoor said, adding that McMaster believes that in the war against extremism, "weneedtohaveMuslimna- tions on our side, on the side of moderation. "So I think he will pres- ent a degree of pushback against the theories being propounded in the White House that this is a clash of civilizations and needs to be treated as such," he said. McMaster will immedi- ately encounter Trump's proposed ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations, which has been sty- mied in court. ARMY GENERAL Trump pick as security adviser is nod toward pragmatism Gold Exchange 413WalnutStreet 530-528-8000 Sat.-Mon. 10am-4pm Tues-Fri 10am-5:30pm www.redbluffgoldexchange.com OPEN•OPEN Y E S W E A R E O P E N Y E S W E A R E O P E N OPEN • OPEN YES WE ARE Saturday,February25th 12– 8 pm ¦ carlino's room at rolling hills casino Don'tmisstheChowderCookofffrom12–4pm! 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