DHS opens immigration hotline

A hotline has been set up to deal with tips relating to undocumented immigrants by the Department of Homeland Security. The expectation is that the newly established hotline will lead to more immigration raids by the Obama administration, and the subsequent deportation of many families, primarily from Central America, that are often apprehended during these raids.

The immigration agenda of the Obama administration is to identify and deport any men, women and minors that have illegally crossed into the United States since the beginning of 2014. The new hotline will be open seven days a week and 24 hours a day and brings with it the possibility of rapid response teams to arrest any undocumented immigrants who are identified from the tips of callers, Philly News has reported.

In response, however, various religious, spiritual and humanitarian groups have been rallying to protest against the news of the immigration hotline, and the increase in deportation raids that are likely to be the result. They feel the hotline is just one more development in the battle over immigration being waged by the federal government, which in 2014 faced a crisis over the arrival of tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants who illegally crossed the southernmost border of North America, with most coming from Central America.

Despite this, Jennifer Elzea, from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, says that that only those undocumented immigrants who have failed to lodge a claim for asylum are at risk of being targeted by the deportation raids, as well as those who have already received a judge order to leave.