President Trump keeps doing what he was elected to do, thereby sending his opponents into a frenzy. He has rescinded Barack Obama’s rule mandating that transgender students must be allowed to go to the bathroom of their chosen gender, rather than their biological sex. And he has started enforcing immigration laws.
So far he is only following Obama’s policy of deporting resident illegal immigrants who have committed crimes. But if border control officials catch new arrivals, define as being here for less than two years, they must be sent back immediately. Trump has ended the “catch and release” policy, in which illegal immigrants caught crossing the border are released, pending a court date, which hardly any one bothers to attend. Instead, they will be put in jail or detention camps until their hearings.
These new policies follow existing law, which, however, has seldom been enforced over the last few years. But pro-immigrant groups are outraged, calling the measures a preparation for mass deportations.
As for transgender bathrooms, the Trump administration is turning the issue over to the states.
From News from The Associated Press:
The Trump administration on Wednesday ended federal protections for transgender students that instructed schools to allow them to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their gender identities.
Stepping into an emotional national debate, the administration came down on the side of states’ rights, lifting federal guidelines that had been issued by the Obama administration and characterized by Republicans as a legal overreach.
Without the Obama directive, it will be up to states and school districts to interpret federal anti-discrimination law and determine whether students should have access to restrooms in accordance with their expressed gender identity and not just their biological sex.
[Keep reading. . .]
The Trump administration’s latest immigration enforcement rules intend to speed up court hearings and introduce “expedited removal” of illegal immigrants. Enforcement would focus on “criminal aliens” rather than mass deportations, the White House said.
The rules, outlined in two memos released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday, states that the Department’s personnel have “full authority to arrest or apprehend an alien whom an immigration officer has probable cause to believe is in violation of the immigration laws.”
A plan to establish more detention facilities is also outlined.
The new rules would also subject immigrants who cannot show they have been in the country for more than two years to “expedited removal.”
[Keep reading. . .]
Photo by Makaristos (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
President Trump keeps doing what he was elected to do, thereby sending his opponents into a frenzy. He has rescinded Barack Obama’s rule mandating that transgender students must be allowed to go to the bathroom of their chosen gender, rather than their biological sex. And he has started enforcing immigration laws.
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