Immigration Nation, Con't

I've long said that the endgame of the Trump regime's immigration policy is to effectively end immigration, legal or otherwise, and begin mass deportation procedures of undocumented immigrants as the infrastructure to detain and process millions of people as enemies of the state is created to do just that.

We took yet another step towards that reality this week with new edicts from Dear Leader.

The Trump administration announced two measures late Friday to further restrict illegal border crossings.

The president issued a presidential memorandum ending a policy commonly called "catch and release," which released illegal immigrants from detention as they awaited an immigration court hearing.

The memo directs various government agencies, the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Justice and Defense to report within 45 days on measures they are taking to end "catch and release."

For example, the Defense Department is instructed to identify all existing facilities, including military sites, that can be "used, modified, or repurposed to detain aliens for violations of immigration law" at or near U.S. borders.

Within 60 days, the Departments of State and Homeland Security will report on diplomatic efforts to force countries to accept the repatriation of their nationals.

Within 75 days, the attorney general and secretary of homeland security will submit a report identifying additional resources needed to "expeditiously end catch and release practices."

Considering illegal border crossings are actually at a near 50-year low, all that new infrastructure will have to be turned inward.

Earlier in the day, Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered federal prosecutors to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy toward people trying to enter the United States from Mexico illegally by targeting first-time offenders. Traditionally, people who were caught trying to cross the border for the first time were charged with misdemeanor crimes.

Now Sessions says, under a "zero tolerance" policy, illegal entry should be prosecuted to the "extent practicable." The order contained few specifics on how that policy will be implemented.

As The Associated Press reports:

"A conviction for illegal entry carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison for first-time crossers and two years for repeat offenses. In practice, many are deported after pleading guilty and spending a few days in jail. ...

"Smugglers and frequent offenders are usually charged with more serious crimes."

Sessions' order comes on the heels of his instruction to immigration judges, who are employees of the Justice Department, to meet a quota of 700 completed immigration cases each year. That order is being opposed by the president of the immigration judges' union.

None of this is accidental, guys.  The Trump regime is constructing the means to round up, detain, process and deport millions of undocumented immigrants in the US.  This infrastructure will be used, and used in brutal fashion sooner than you think.  Some of it is already being used, and when the last logistical, social, and legal barriers to full implementation are removed over the next weeks and months, the storm will come with startling alacrity.

How much we can do in order to stop it depends largely on November's elections.