Donald Trump Immigration Policy: Kris Kobach Suggests Local Police Help Identify Illegal Immigrants

A plan proposed to President-elect Donald Trump that could help him fulfill his campaign pledge on deporting undocumented immigrants involves deputizing local police officers to implement U.S. immigration laws, USA Today reported.

The plan was found among a list of other proposals for the Department of Homeland Security carried by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who met Trump on Sunday when he was photographed with the papers. The two also discussed other campaign pledges such as cracking down on the number of Syrian refugees who enter the U.S. and the implementation of a stricter screening process for people fleeing from countries that have links to terrorists.

The plan dubbed the 287(g) program would allow the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to train local police officers and deputy sheriffs to locate and detain undocumented immigrants residing in their areas. This program was first created by Congress in 1996 and was used by former President George W. Bush. By 2010, local police officers in 24 states were trained by the ICE to respond to crime scenes, make traffic stops and inspect local jails to check suspects’ immigration status.

However, it was phased out by President Barack Obama and officers are now only allowed to check immigration status of only those already in local jails and not of people out on the street. Kobach’s proposal suggested the program cover “at least 70 cities and counties.”

Trump, during his campaign, promised to deport an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants. After his victory, however, he said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” he would concentrate on deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, an estimated two to three million people.

“What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate,” he reportedly said. “But we're getting them out of our country; they're here illegally.”