Today, January 25th, U.S. President Donald J. Trump signed two executive orders (EO) related to federal immigration policy. IACP staff is still in the process of reviewing the full text of the executive orders and assessing their potential impact on state and local law enforcement agencies.

However, an initial review identified several key provisions of interest to the IACP membership. These include:

• Termination of the Priority Enforcement Program (PEP): The EO directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary to take immediate steps to terminate the Priority Enforcement Program which was established on November 20, 2014. For more information on PEP, please click here.
•  Reinstitute the Secure Communities Program (SCP): The EO directs the DHS Secretary to immediately take steps to reinstitute the Secure Communities Program. For more information on SCP, please click here.
• Sanctuary Cities: The EO establishes the policy of the Federal Government to ensure that states and/or political subdivisions shall comply with federal immigration law. The EO directs the following actions to be taken:
  • Directs the Attorney General (AG) and DHS Secretary to ensure that sanctuary cities are ineligible to receive federal grants (The AG and Secretary are authorized to provide exemptions to this ban for law enforcement activities at their discretion);
  • Provides the DHS Secretary with the authority to designate a jurisdiction as a sanctuary city;
  • Directs the Attorney General to take appropriate enforcement action against any jurisdiction/entity that has in effect a statute, policy or practice that hinder the enforcement of federal immigration law;
  • Requires the DHS Secretary to issue a weekly report on the number of crimes committed by aliens and any jurisdiction that ignored or failed to comply with any detainers related to those aliens.

• Information on Incarcerated Aliens: The EO directs the Attorney General and the DHS Secretary to collect information and provide quarterly reports on the number of criminal aliens incarcerated in federal and state prisons.

The full text of the Executive orders can be found HERE.

This blog post will be updated as additional information becomes available.