A memo from the Department of Homeland Security is giving us a comprehensive glimpse, at how the president's aggressive immigration policies could be enforced.
"I think it's appropriate to call this a crackdown on unauthorized immigration," Ben Snyder said.
Snyder, Charlotte immigration attorney, went through the memo with Channel 9.
"What this does is it significantly broadens the category of foreign nationals that are now targeted for deportation," Snyder said.
He said that includes people with and without a criminal record, although the memo does say aliens engaging in criminal conduct are priorities.
"You'll see a lot more deportation, which will have a devastating affect on a lot of families in our area, on businesses, on the economy," he said. "The point is they want to deport more people and they want to deport people at a higher rate."
The memo also directs the hiring of more border patrol and ICE agents.
But Snyder said that could actually slow down the removal of criminals.
"Immigration courts are going to get backed up and is going to slow down, ICE is going to be focusing on someone who has no serious record equally as someone who does have a serious record," he said.
The order from DHS does leave what's known as "DACA" intact, which gives protection to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
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