Grassley supports Trump on removing undocumented immigrants with criminal records

Sen. Chuck Grassley firmly supported efforts to deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records but offered little clarity Friday on his reaction to President Donald Trump's more expansive enforcement plans.

 

Miryam Antunez de Mayolo, a Waterloo immigration attorney, stood to ask the Republican senator the first question at his 8 a.m. town hall meeting in front of a packed room at the Parkersburg Civic Center.

 

She praised Grassley and his staff for helping her clients with immigration issues in the past but urged him not to support Trump's directions issued this week telling federal agents to arrest any undocumented immigrants they encounter for potential removal from the country. Though the order prioritizes deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, most of the 11 million immigrants in the country illegally are subject to its contents.

 

Trump, a Republican who campaigned on a promise to crack down on illegal immigration, is also seeking to expand the use of an expedited removal process that allows a suspected undocumented immigrant to be deported before appearing before a judge. Antunez de Mayolo told Grassley that the process threatens to erode the due proces"I need to know why now you are going to hurt Iowa kids who have undocumented parents by separating them," Antunez de Mayolo asked — to applause from the audience. "Why are you supporting the deportation-only policy of President Trump?"

 

Grassley responded that he had not yet read Trump's directives, but he understood from explanations that he's been given that the highest priority for deportation is placed on people with felony records. That is similar to the immigration policies of presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, he said to Antunez de Mayolo.

 

Former immigration chiefs under both Bush and President Barack Obama have questioned the legality of Trump ramping up expedited removals. Grassley again emphasized his support for removing criminals when asked by a journalist after the town hall whether there are any enforcement activities he would oppose or believes are heavy-handed.

 

"That's where the emphasis is and then let's see after that's done who else gets affected," he said.

 

The hour-long town hall attracted a crowd of more than 100, with several people being forced to wait at the door as the event began while officials created more space by removing tables. One of the loudest points of the forum came when a man stood up and asked Grassley why he hasn't vocally opposed some of Trump's more controversial statements.

 

Grassley told the man that he did condemn then-candidate Trump when an infamous recording was published in October that revealed Trump speaking in lewd terms about women. Grassley also told journalists after Friday's event that people should not assume he has no opinions on the president's behavior or statements just because he doesn't speak out each time a controversy erupts.

 

"I think that the problem with people out here, they think that when they don't read something in the Waterloo Courier or see it on KWWL that Grassley doesn't have any views about it," he said.

 

"I'd be on television a lot more if you guys would put everything on that I say," he continued. "But, you know, you get seven seconds is all you get. So they don't get a true picture of what we do ... obviously, they don't have a way of knowing what we think. But the point is, always there's a discussion of Presidential-Congressional relationships."s rights of immigrants in Iowa.