EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Immigration advocates are blasting a Trump administration push to criminally prosecute undocumented immigrants who fail to register with the federal government.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the plan late Tuesday and later told Fox News the administration will “help relocate” to their home countries those who sign up and get fingerprinted.
“This is yet another strategy to terrorize immigrants across the country,” activists with Chicago-based Alianza America said in a statement on Wednesday. “The Trump administration is frustrated that they have not managed to meet their outrageous and inhumane goal of mass deportations and are now pushing a campaign to scare our communities into forcibly returning to their countries of origin.”
The initiative is based on a clause in the Immigration and Nationality Act that requires anyone over 14 years old unlawfully present in the country to register with the government and report any address changes.
Advocates say they expect few of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants that think-tanks like the Pew Research Center estimate live in the United States will be registering.
“The only way that someone who is undocumented would come forward to register with the government would be with the promise there would be some kind of legalization,” said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the El Paso-based Border Network for Human Rights. “It seems they are asking people to show up, tell us where you are, where you live with nothing in exchange.”
The initiative, which critics refer to as “report to deport,” must be published in the Federal Register as an interim rule before it takes effect, The Hill reported.
The activists believe the goal of the Trump administration is to instill so much fear among immigrants that they will self-deport.
“The intention (is) to create fear within our community, to achieve some kind of deportation by attrition. We know the U.S. government doesn’t have the resources to go after everybody to deport them. So, I think they’re asking people to deport themselves,” Garcia said.
Although he doubts large numbers will comply, if they do, the U.S. economy will suffer.
“Farmers are not finding willing workers. There is a shortage of employment that used to be filled by immigrants in this country. The government should think twice about what (it) is doing,” Garcia said. “Instead of pushing this idea of deportation, they need to recognize these people are here, they are part of the economy, part of our social and economic texture and legalize them.”
Beatriz Lopez, co-executive director of the Immigration Hub, said the registry has nothing to do with making American communities safer.
“We have seen what happens when governments create lists of vulnerable communities – not to protect but to track, detain and disappear,” she said in a statement. “This is not about public safety. It is not about security. It is mass surveillance with one purpose: To fuel Trump’s deportation machine at any cost.”
Read: Read More