Immigration officials said Tuesday that the Trump administration is establishing a register for all individuals who are in the country unlawfully and that those who fail to self-report may be subject to penalties or legal action.
According to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, all individuals who are in the country unlawfully are required to register, produce their fingerprints, and provide their address.
The registration process, which would be applicable to anybody 14 years of age and older, was justified by a part of the complicated immigration legislation known as the Immigration and Nationality Act.
The statement comes as the administration looks to fulfill campaign pledges to illegally deport large numbers of citizens and close the border to prospective asylum applicants.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service announced on its website that it would shortly develop a registration form and procedure.
President Donald Trump first laid out plans for establishing a registry in one of his ten executive orders on immigration issued on the day of his inauguration.
The order mandated that Homeland Security “immediately announce and publicize information about the legal obligation of all previously unregistered aliens in the United States to comply.”
The number of individuals who would willingly come forward and provide the federal government with information about their identities and residences was not immediately apparent.
However, the government has stated that individuals who have committed crimes in the United States are its first priority target for deportation, and refusal to register would be regarded as a crime.
In an article on its website prior to Tuesday night’s announcement, the immigration advocacy group National Immigration Law Center stated that “the Alien Registration Act of 1940 is the only time the U.S. government carried out a comprehensive campaign to require all noncitizens to register.”
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According to the group, the objective of that procedure was to discover “potential national security threats broadly characterized as communist or subversive,” and individuals had to register at their local post office.
The record was designed to assist in identifying possible deportation targets, the group cautioned.
“Any attempt by the Trump administration to create a registration process for noncitizens previously unable to register would be used to identify and target people for detention and deportation,” the organization said.
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