US immigration under Trump: What's new?
SAN DIEGO — During his first week in office, President Donald Trump signed 10 executive orders on immigration and issued a slew of edicts to carry out promises of mass deportations and border security. Some actions were felt immediately. Others face legal challenges. Some may take years to happen, if ever, but have generated fear in immigrant communities. Much of what Trump can do will boil down to money. Congress is expected to consider additional support soon. Trump may use emergency powers to tap the Defense Department, as he did for a border wall in his first term. Here's a look at how immigration policy has changed so far under Trump and what hasn't happened yet: Immigration arrests US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it made an average of 710 immigration arrests daily from Thursday through Monday, up from a daily average of 311 in a 12-month period through September under President Joe Biden. If that rate holds, it would surpass ICE's previous high mark set in the Obama administration, when daily arrests averaged 636 in 2013. Numbers spiked starting Sunday and included highly publicized operations, including in Atlanta, Dallas and, most prominently, Chicago. The Trump administration has highlighted the participation of other agencies in ICE operations, a departure from Biden. They include the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — all part of the Justice Department — and the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol. Emile Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, observed arrests in Chicago on Sunday in a sign of the Justice Department's growing involvement. Trump expanded arrest priorities to anyone in the country illegally, not just people with criminal convictions, public safety or national security threats and migrants stopped at the border. Still, some said it was business as usual for ICE — at least so far. "There's nothing unique about it," said Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a research and advocacy group that favors immigration restrictions. He anticipates more enforcement in the next few weeks and believes Congress will approve funding for up to 80,000 beds, about double the current level. ICE needs the space to hold people while any legal proceedings play out and while it arranges deportations.
Tomas Kauer - Moderator 
SAN DIEGO — During his first week in office, President Donald Trump signed 10 executive orders on immigration and issued a slew of edicts to carry out promises of mass deportations and border security.
Some actions were felt immediately. Others face legal challenges. Some may take years to happen, if ever, but have generated fear in immigrant communities.
Much of what Trump can do will boil down to money. Congress is expected to consider additional support soon. Trump may use emergency powers to tap the Defense Department, as he did for a border wall in his first term.
Here's a look at how immigration policy has changed so far under Trump and what hasn't happened yet:
Immigration arrests
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it made an average of 710 immigration arrests daily from Thursday through Monday, up from a daily average of 311 in a 12-month period through September under President Joe Biden. If that rate holds, it would surpass ICE's previous high mark set in the Obama administration, when daily arrests averaged 636 in 2013.
Numbers spiked starting Sunday and included highly publicized operations, including in Atlanta, Dallas and, most prominently, Chicago.
The Trump administration has highlighted the participation of other agencies in ICE operations, a departure from Biden. They include the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — all part of the Justice Department — and the Homeland Security Department's Customs and Border Protection, which includes the Border Patrol.
Emile Bove, the acting deputy attorney general, observed arrests in Chicago on Sunday in a sign of the Justice Department's growing involvement.
Trump expanded arrest priorities to anyone in the country illegally, not just people with criminal convictions, public safety or national security threats and migrants stopped at the border. Still, some said it was business as usual for ICE — at least so far.
"There's nothing unique about it," said Andrew Arthur, a former immigration judge and a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies, a research and advocacy group that favors immigration restrictions.
He anticipates more enforcement in the next few weeks and believes Congress will approve funding for up to 80,000 beds, about double the current level. ICE needs the space to hold people while any legal proceedings play out and while it arranges deportations.
