Dreamers serving in the military or who have served honorably will not be deported, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Thursday. He’s spoken to the head of Homeland Security, it’s not going to happen. Unless …
There are only two exceptions in which someone could be deported, Mattis noted: if he or she committed a serious felony, or if a federal judge signed a final order of deportation.
Okay, fine a serious felony … or if a federal judge signed an order. So, in other words, people won’t be deported without some form of due process, like ICE won’t just grab them off the streets and hurl them over Trump’s border wall without asking a judge, but deportation is not off the table.
Military and veteran Dreamers can doubtless take some comfort in Mattis’s insistence that “We would always stand by one of our people,” but it doesn’t sound like he’s the last word here.