(KSFY-TV Reporter Carlos O. Gonzales originally reported on this story)
SIOUX FALLS, SD (KELO-AM / KSFY-TV) - Fear continues to grip immigrant communities across the country, as authorities target immigrants with criminal convictions for deportation. Federal officials say the moves are meant to make the country safer.
The memorandums ask for an increased cooperation with local police to help with immigration enforcement. "It's a sensitive balance of power," said Sioux Falls immigration attorney Henry Evans.
The Department of Homeland Security is calling for a more united effort between local law enforcement and ICE officers.
"The memorandum was addressing that to be more applied within local law enforcement agencies, which is sort of a double-edged sword," said Evans. He says instead of making a community safer, it can make immigrants an easy target for crime.
"If we have crime within our immigrant community, which may include people who are U.S. citizens and non-citizen, they may be intimated to come forward with legitimate crimes," added Evans.
The orders also give ICE officials full control of deporting anyone and eliminating the U.S. Department of Justice in the process. He says those fitting the profile "could be found anywhere in the United States and not within a hundred miles of us boarder and be applicable to people who have been here more than two years,"
"If that person that they stopped be deported without violating the civil rights because they already have rights, even if they are illegal here they have rights," said Juan Bonilla, former president of the Sioux Falls Diversity Council.
Bonilla says the government needs to help rather than punish people who are in the country, seeking a better life
"People that are coming here to work that are coming to be productive to this community, we need to help them become part of this community legally," said Bonilla, now President of the La Voz media network.
Under the memorandums, the Deferred Action For Childhood Arrivals (“DACA”) policy still remains and recipients of that will not be affected.