Trump Says Dreamers Shouldnt Worry. Statistics Say Otherwise.
04/21/2017 07:27 pm ET
Immigration authorities are targeting people with longstanding ties to the country and more people without criminal records.
By Roque Planas
AUSTIN, Texas ― President Donald Trump offered words of reassurance to Dreamers on Friday, telling the Associated Press that he didn’t intend to deport the undocumented youths who qualify to remain in the country.
Trump said his administration is “not after the Dreamers, we are after the criminals,” according to AP, adding that undocumented youths with permission to work legally should “rest easy.” But even as he pledged that Dreamers and law-abiding immigrants without papers should stop worrying, data released Friday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse undermined his claims.
TRAC’s preliminary review of court records under Trump’s first two months in office showed that the number of people detained while their deportation cases proceed more than doubled, from 27 percent of the total to 61 percent.
Nearly 26,000 people were served with Notices to Appear in immigration court ― the first step in deportation cases ― from Trump’s inauguration in late January through March. That figure amounts to roughly the same pace as in the final months of the Obama administration.
But unauthorized border crossings have plummeted since Trump took office. That means a larger share of the people winding up in deportation proceedings were arrested from within the interior of the country and likely lived here for years ― a major shift that’s already ensnaring more people without serious criminal records into the removal system.
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