Undocumented Immigrants convicted of any criminal offenses now being deported under Trump's new policy

For years, immigration authorities gave this Arizona mother a pass. Now she has been deported.

By Samantha Schmidt and Sarah Larimer February 9 at 2:58 PM

About eight years ago, there was a knock on Guadalupe García de Rayos’s door. Authorities had come to arrest the undocumented mother of two U.S.-born children, a Mexican native who had lived north of the border since she was 14. (She was using someone elses SS# criminal impersonation)

The Phoenix mother was detained for months and eventually ordered to be sent back to Mexico. But for the subsequent years, after she appealed her voluntary deportation, García de Rayos was allowed to remain in the United States, as long as she checked in once a year, and then every six months. Each year, she did so, and each year, immigration officials let her stay.

This year, as García de Rayos feared, was different. When she went to check in as usual at the central Phoenix offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, she was taken into custody as protests erupted outside. García de Rayos could perhaps be among the first undocumented immigrants to be arrested during a scheduled meeting with immigration officials since President Trump’s inauguration, civil rights lawyers told the New York Times.

On Thursday, Carlos Garcia, director of the group Puente Arizona, confirmed that García de Rayos was no longer in the United States.

“She has been deported,” he told a crowd. “And this has been one of the first victims of President Trump.”

ICE also confirmed the deportation, saying in a statement that García de Rayos was “removed” to Mexico on Thursday morning, shortly before 10 a.m. local time.

García de Rayos’s detention is likely to mark a shift in deportation priorities under Trump. Previously, the Obama administration prioritized the deportation of people who were violent offenders or had ties to criminal gangs. Trump’s executive order on Jan. 25 expanded priorities to include any undocumented immigrants who had been convicted of a criminal offense.

[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]