- Other locations include synagogues, funeral sites, weddings, marches, rallies or parades.
Immigration officials can raid churches, hospitals and schools to arrest undocumented immigrants after the Trump administration scrapped a policy that protected sensitive spaces.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a 2011 memo directed officers to avoid arrests, interviews, searches and surveillance at sensitive locations if possible.
Those locations included schools, hospitals, churches, synagogues, mosques, funeral sites, weddings, marches, rallies or parades.
This is just as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership has directed employees to refer to foreign nationals as “aliens” in all “internal and external communications,” according to an internal memo obtained by Axios.
This is in line with President Donald Trump’s anti-DEI and hardline immigration rhetoric.
Immigration advocates criticize the term for being offensive, while immigration restrictionists defend using “alien” because it’s what’s used in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The new memo is another sign of how the administration came in ready to make clear their aggressive stance on combatting illegal immigration, right away.
Acting ICE director Caleb Vitello is reverting the language guidance back, according to a memo dated Tuesday and addressed to agency leadership.
- The directive rescinds the memo from 2021, which had changed the official terminology from “alien” to “noncitizen.”
- The new directive from Vitello specifies that instead of “noncitizen,” employees are to use the term “alien.” It also replaces “noncitizenship” with “alienage.”
Trump has made clear for years that he intends an explosive and sweeping crackdown on immigration to the U.S. in his second term.
He has already signed orders to resume his Remain in Mexico policy, end birthright citizenship, declare a national emergency at the border, halt refugee admissions, among other actions.
President Trump has promised aggressive immigration crackdowns, and the latest directive signals the Department of Homeland Security will consider operations at sites previously deemed off-limits.
- “Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest,” DHS announced Tuesday.
- The policy, issued by Acting DHS Secretary Benjamine Huffman, removes prior guidance to avoid so-called sensitive areas.
Written with reports from Axios, excluding headline
