Trump empowers deportation agents to target migrants Biden administration allowed into the U.S. legally

Washington — The Trump administration has given federal immigration authorities permission to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants the former Biden White House allowed into the U.S. and seek their deportation, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by CBS News.

The far-reaching move empowers federal immigration agencies, including U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement, to target a population of migrants who came to the U.S. with the government's permission and who expected to be shielded from deportation, at least temporarily.

Now, ICE officers can arrest, detain and deport — in some cases, in an expedited fashion — at least 1.5 million migrants who came to the U.S. in recent years under programs the Biden administration said dissuaded illegal immigration but that the Trump administration now argues were unlawful.