John Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, also said there won't be military involvement in deportations.
On Thursday, secretary of homeland
security John Kelly announced that the
Department of Homeland Security
wouldn't be conducting mass
deportations of undocumented
immigrants or using military force to
aid in deportations, according to the
Associated Press.
The announcement comes roughly one
week after the AP published the draft
of a Department of Homeland Security
proposal that called for 100,000
National Guard troops to assist in
deportation measures across 11 states.
Currently, immigration and border
control positions are held by civilians
instead of military branches.
The AP reported that Kelly said U.S.
immigration policy changes will be
done legally and with respect for
human rights. He made his remarks in
Mexico City, where he and secretary of
state Rex Tillerson are discussing U.S.–
Mexico relations with their Mexican
counterparts, according to ABC News .
Kelly also offered similar sentiments
on Wednesday in Guatemala, saying
that his department wouldn't be
conducting mass deportations of
undocumented immigrants but would
be trying to speed up the deportation
process. On Wednesday, a DHS official
told CNN, "We're not going to start
changing this today, it's not going to
start happening tomorrow," adding,
"You will not see folks rounded up or
anything of the sort."
However, Kelly's words seemed to
contradict those of President Donald
Trump, who on Thursday said that
deporting undocumented immigrants
was a "military operation," according
to Politico.
“You see what’s happening at the
border, all of the sudden for the first
time, we’re getting gang members out,
we’re getting drug lords out, we’re
getting really bad dudes out of this
country,” Trump explained during a
meeting with manufacturing CEOs,
Politico reported. “And at a rate that
nobody’s ever seen before, and they’re
the bad ones, and it’s a military
operation because that has been
allowed to come into our country. And
you see gang violence that you’ve read
about like never before, all of the
things, much of that is people that are
here illegally. And they’re rough and
they’re tough but they’re not tough like
our people.” During the same meeting,
Trump also complimented Kelly , saying
he had been "unbelievable at the
border."
