McDoullet: Undocumented may face challenges, uncertainties under Trump

Although most undocumented immigrants are not criminals and would not fall under urgent deportation, they may face challenges and uncertainties under the incoming administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, according to immigration lawyer Joey McDoulett.

“No different from the current policy that’s in place. The current policy from the Biden administration was to focus on deporting criminals who are also illegally present that’s not any different. The difference for Trump is that he’s advocating large-scale roundups and detentions of people pending deportation. So, for most people of the CNMI, they’re not present with crimes like they’re not murderers, drug dealers, and rapists, but they might be present illegally, so they wouldn’t fall into that category of urgent deportation,” he said in an interview with Saipan Tribune before serving as guest at the Rotary Club of Saipan meeting last Tuesday at Crowne Plaza Resort Saipan.

McDoulett said that Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is unrealistic due to logistical challenges.

“The only thing we’ve seen so far on that plan is the general intention to deport millions of people, right? But I think it’s an unrealistic goal because he said 11 million immigrants or illegal immigrants would be deported in his first year in office. The reason I say it’s unrealistic is because of the logistics involved in a single deportation, much less collecting 11 million people and preparing to deport them.”

He added that the plan could generate fear in immigrant communities and implementing deportation on Saipan may face challenges.

“I think it will generate a lot of fear in a lot of communities…I think (Saipan) will be affected for sure, because of the fear that people will experience, and nobody knows how it will be implemented, and if you are in that position on Saipan, you only have your fear to deal with here when we talk about the real-world requirements to do a roundup and deportation. It’s hard for Saipan because facilities don’t exist, like the large-scale detention, they don’t exist. I don’t know how our local enforcement office will try to implement that policy because they don’t have facilities to house the people that they would have to pick up.”

The deportation policy may face challenges due to a lack of infrastructure and diplomatic agreements, according to McDoulett.

“They also don’t have right now a direct method to pick people up and deport them to say China, they don’t just have it in place because the diplomatic agreements don’t exist between the United States and China to allow those kinds of official actions to take place, so I don’t know how they’ll go about doing it.”

Moreover, McDoulett said that undocumented immigrants are already worried about their status and that new policies may not be vastly different, but there are more motivated individuals to enforce them.