ST. PAUL — Minnesota immigration experts and advocates are gearing up and wondering what changes could come to an already complex immigration system under another Trump administration.

Julia Decker, policy director of the Immigrant Law Center in St. Paul, says that while it’s still unclear what might happen under a Trump presidency, she wonders about changes to programs such as status temporary protection, which allows people fleeing violence, political unrest and instability. to obtain an immediate work permit and temporary protection against deportation.

“I wish I could have a crystal ball to know exactly what will be different between the current immigration landscape and the future immigration landscape after January 2025, but unfortunately it is very, very, difficult,” he said. she declared.

Decker also says she is concerned about the future of DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows young immigrants who grew up in the United States to seek temporary protection from deportation and to have ability to work.

The first Trump administration declared DACA illegal and ended the program. However, the Supreme Court blocked the administration’s action.

Decker says that while DACA has already been threatened by the Trump administration, the Biden administration has not necessarily created a path to citizenship for DACA recipients.

“These people who have come here often for the vast majority of their lives, but are actually stuck in DACA status, unless there’s some sort of outside event, like maybe they marry an American citizen, or something like that. But if they just have DACA status, they will never be able to move out of that DACA status into a more permanent status,” she said.

Trump calls for mass deportations

As part of his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised to launch mass deportations of undocumented immigrants and said the National Guard may be needed to help carry out those orders.

In a California campaign speech, Trump promised to invoke the Alien Enemies Act. The law, enacted in 1798, was notably used to remove Japanese Americans from their homes and place them in internment camps during World War II.

Ana Pottratz Acosta, a law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, says the new Trump administration could use a newer law to carry out large-scale deportations. In 1996, Congress passed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Accountability Act.

Under the law, “the president or the executive branch has the authority to extend expedited deportation, which is much like an expedited deportation process that takes place with fairly limited regular procedural rights, and it does not There is no possibility of reviewing the decision. in federal court,” she said.

Currently, Pottratz Acosta said expedited expulsion under the law applies to people who are in the United States for 14 days or less and are within 100 miles of border areas.

However, Pottratz Acosta said the first Trump administration proposed expanding expedited removal to people found anywhere in the United States and here for two years or less.

“So my fear, and this is kind of like my worst-case scenario, is that expedited deportation will extend to the entire interior of the United States,” she said. “And basically, anyone who is arrested if they don’t have proof on them that they’ve been in the United States for more than two years, there’s a possibility that they could be drawn into a mass deportation effort with a accelerated procedure. deletion.”

Political differences

Pottratz Acosta says there are key differences on immigration policy between the Biden and Trump administrations. She says prosecutorial discretion has been emphasized under the Biden administration, reducing backlogs and creating legal pathways for asylum seekers. Trump’s potential policies could be a game-changer.

“Under the first Trump administration, they got rid of prosecutorial discretion, so it was kind of like a free-for-all, which created a lot more chaos or uncertainty in the system said Pottratz Acosta. “I think that’s one of the reasons that has led to a lot of the backlogs that we’re seeing in the immigration courts. There has been a lot of enforcement action or placing people in deportation proceedings, but not the same level of recruitment of immigration judges and some action to process people once they were in the system.

Pottratz Acosta said that under the Biden administration, “low priority” cases have been eliminated.

“A good example of this would be a long-term undocumented immigrant with no criminal record who was somehow placed at the bottom of the list and benefited from prosecutorial discretion to have their case dismissed.” , she said.

Advocates and experts keep in mind, however, that they weren’t entirely happy with Biden’s immigration policies either.

The Biden/Harris administration has been active on expulsions and removals. According to data from the Department of Homeland Security, in 2023 the agency has “repatriated” more than 1 million people. Around 361,000 of these people were deported due to coercive measures.

A return of the “Muslim ban”?

In 2017, Trump signed an executive order banning travel to the United States from seven majority-Muslim countries. This order has been expanded to also include several other countries like Venezuela and North Korea, although there are exceptions.

Biden rolled back restrictions after taking office; however, families said they remained separated for years after the ban was enacted.

During the campaign, Trump reportedly told a group of donors that he planned to reinstate the ban and expand it to prevent Gaza refugees from coming to the United States.

Also in 2017, Trump signed an executive order that would withhold federal funds from so-called “sanctuary cities” like Minneapolis. A federal judge then blocked this decree.

The city previously adopted a policy that prohibits police and other municipal employees from asking questions about people’s immigration status unless it is clearly related to a crime being investigated by law enforcement.

After Trump’s re-election, several members of the Minneapolis City Council released statements saying they would continue to support and protect the rights of immigrant and refugee communities.

An uncertain future

Jane Graupman, executive director of the Minnesota International Institute, expressed concerns about the potential effects of the new policies on legal immigration pathways and the nation’s refugee program, which she said has been crucial to many immigrants, including to Minnesota.

“We’re going to have to pay a lot of attention to the policies of the new administration, follow those policies and understand their impact on the people we serve,” she said.

Graupman says the institute is also preparing to receive more calls and help immigrants navigate an uncertain future. They recently shared a statement on their website encouraging community members to “stay informed.”