A federal judge on Friday sided with the Trump administration on a major move to track the location of every single illegal immigrant in the United States, much to the dismay of Democrats everywhere.
The ruling paves the way for authorities to establish a registry of all illegal immigrants. Under the system, failing to register would qualify as an additional crime.
Judge Trevor Neil McFadden wrote in his decision that the administration was simply enforcing previous legal provisions when it ordered all non-citizens to register with the federal government.
The requirement goes into effect on Friday.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced on February 25th its intention to mandate that all U.S. residents living in the country illegally self-report their statuses, including their residential addresses, or face additional charges on top of deportation proceedings. Penalties for those who do not comply include potential fines and imprisonment.
After registering, non-citizens and illegal immigrants would be required to carry registration documents with them at all times or face prosecution.
The mandate affects any qualified individual over the age of 14. In addition to providing their home address, illegal immigrants would be required to appear in person to submit their fingerprints for a national database.
Registration will also apply to so-called snowbirds from Canada who enter the U.S. for more than 30 days at a time.
Federal law, beginning with the Alien Registration Act of 1940, has maintained that illegal immigrants must register with the federal government, though it has been decades since those provisions were enforced. Current requirements date back to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, according to NBC News.
Opponents challenged the Trump administration’s authority to enforce the law, arguing in court that it hasn’t been uniformly applied since first appearing on the books. They also stated that the government should be required to go through a more formal public notification process, which could take weeks or months.
The law was utilized in a limited fashion following the September 11th, 2001 attacks when all non-citizen males aged 16 and older from 25 countries were required to register with the government.
Trump officials have argued that the law always existed and that they are simply enforcing it for the first time in decades.
The decision to self-report is rife with conflicts: Do non-citizens and illegal immigrants risk deportation by reporting themselves, or do they stay in the shadows and risk being charged with additional crimes if caught?
Previously, DHS has ordered all illegal immigrants and non-citizens affected by the law to create an account on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.
White House border czar Tom Homan has vowed to focus the brunt of his authority on arresting criminals, though he has stated publicly that illegal immigrants without criminal records who are present during a raid will be taken as well.
Authorities with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement completed 33,242 arrests in the administration’s first 50 days. Of these, 14,111 — nearly half — were convicted criminals, while 9,980, another third, have pending criminal charges, according to the department’s website.
