Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have launched a nationwide initiative to begin arresting illegal immigrants at their immigration and asylum hearings, Fox News has learned.
The effort targets illegal immigrants who have been in the U.S. fewer than two years. The DHS strategy is to drop their immigration case, arrest the migrant, then place them into expedited deportation proceedings.
The initiative requires the DHS to drop the cases because migrants cannot be put forward for expedited removal if they have a pending case.
ICE sources who spoke with Fox News Digital on condition of anonymity say Americans should expect to see "a lot more" of these kinds of arrests.
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The new policy is likely to lead to a spike in deportations of migrants who have not committed crimes aside from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally. The Trump administration has so far focused its efforts on deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of other serious crimes.
News of the policy comes as the Department of Homeland Security is in multiple court battles regarding its deportation efforts.
A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the DHS had violated a court order in sending a plane full of eight illegal immigrants to South Sudan this week.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy ruled that the migrants - all of whom are convicted of crimes ranging from homicide to robbery - were not properly given "credible fear interviews." The interviews allow migrants being deported to a third-party country to argue that being sent there would endanger them.
Murphy said he is investigating whether the deportees can conduct their interviews in South Sudan rather than returning to the U.S. immediately.
Murphy previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would "clearly" violate his ruling regarding third-party deportations, which also applies to people who have otherwise exhausted their legal appeals.
