By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Princeton officials reacted with concern this week to word that the federal government intends to step up deporting people living in the country illegally, a move with implications for the illegal immigrant population in town., The Department of Homeland Security announced that it intends to hire 10,000 more agents in the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and 5,000 more border agents and issued new deportation guidelines, all in response to executive orders that President Donald J. Trump issued in January to combat illegal immigration and protect the nation’s borders. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that the “president is empowering DHS to carry out the immigration laws currently on the books.”, “Under the executive order, ICE will not exempt classes or categories of removable aliens from potential enforcement. All of those in violation of immigration law may be subject to immigration arrest, detention and, if found removable by final order, removal from the United States,” the government said this week., Councilwoman Heather H. Howard said Wednesday that she is “obviously concerned that they’re stepping up enforcement.”, “It could tear apart local families,” she said., The government, however, will not focus on illegal aliens brought into the country as children prior to June 2007, covered under a program known as the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals., The Trump administration is interested in working with local law enforcement agencies, on a voluntary basis, to help enforce immigration laws. Princeton has been adamant that the local police have no role to play in that., “We feel like our police are … already stretched in terms of doing the services we feel like we want them to provide for the community,” Mayor Liz Lempert said Wednesday. “It is not something that we want our local law enforcement to be doing because it interferes with all of the work they’ve been doing to build stronger relationships with the community.”, She added the town does not have the “resources locally to do the federal government’s job nor should we be.”, Police Chief Nicholas K. Sutter could not be reached for comment., The town, a sanctuary city, has had information sessions for illegal immigrants to educate them on what to do if they encounter immigration authorities and how to prepare in the event they are separated from their children., “When you’re talking about immigration and the executive orders, it’s affecting so many different groups of immigrants. And everyone has their specific concerns,” Elisa Neira, the municipal human services director, told the municipal Human Services Commission last week. “So it’s really difficult times to really provide concrete information or reassure people that nothing bad is going to happen.”
