The chairman of the National Governors Association says the Trump administration promised only criminals will be deported and ICE agents will not perform random spot checks for people living in the United States illegally.
As the Department of Homeland Security moves ahead with plans to hire thousands of new agents and take a more aggressive approach to deportation, 46 governors came to Washington over the past three days to meet their federal colleagues for the NGA’s winter meeting.
Virginia’s Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe, who is chair of the group, said he was “emphatically” assured by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly that only people involved in criminal enterprises will be targeted for deportation.
He said Kelly also assured him that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will not start conducting random spot checks of individuals to see if they are in the country legally.
