Deport within 48 hours.
White House aides and Department of Homeland Security officials are working on a legislative package aimed at closing “loopholes” in the immigration system that incentivize illegal migration, senior administration officials said Monday.
The reforms would ease restrictions on who law enforcement agents can detain and for how long because, the administration officials argued, smuggling organizations know well the limits facing border patrol agents who intercept illegal immigrants. That knowledge allows smugglers to exploit the system and encourages more illegal border crossings, the officials said.
The legislative package would also address weaknesses in the asylum-seeking process that create major backlogs of asylum cases in immigration courts due to overly broad definitions of what qualifies individuals for the status.
President Trump’s team said the immigration debate in Congress has encouraged more illegal border crossings because resistance to fixing loopholes in the immigration system creates “magnets” that attract more illegal immigrants.
“What’s creating these pull factors is the belief that there’s going to be never-ending leniency from now until the end of time,” one senior administration official said.