US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly speaks during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017. The annual weekend gathering is known for providing an open and informal... (Associated Press) 
 
 US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly speaks during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017. The annual weekend gathering is known for providing an open and informal platform to meet in close quarters. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader) (Associated Press) 
 
 US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly speaks during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017. The annual weekend gathering is known for providing an open and informal platform to meet in close quarters. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader) (Associated Press) US Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly speaks during the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 18, 2017. The annual weekend gathering is known for providing an open and informal... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department has drafted sweeping new guidelines aimed at aggressively detaining and deporting immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, according to a pair of memoranda signed by DHS Secretary John Kelly. 
 
 The memos dated Friday seek to implement President Donald Trump's broad directive to crack down on illegal immigration. Kelly outlines plans to hire thousands of additional enforcement agents, expand on the priority list for immigrants marked for immediate removal and enlist local law enforcement to help make arrests, according to a person briefed on the documents, who confirmed the details to The Associated Press. 
 
 "The surge of illegal immigration at the southern border has overwhelmed federal agencies and resources and has created a significant national security vulnerability to the United States," Kelly wrote. 
 
 He said apprehensions on the southern U.S. border had seen an additional surge of 10,000 to 15,000 per month from 2015 to 2016. 
 
 The memos leave in place one directive from the Obama administration, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which allows young people who were brought into the country illegally as children to stay and obtain work permits. The program has protected about 750,000 immigrants since its inception in 2012. Trump has previously indicated his desire to end the program, but at his press conference last week he indicated that he would "show great heart" toward the program. 
 
 The memos were reported first by The Washington Post and other news organizations. A U.S. official familiar with the documents did not dispute the accuracy of the memos signed by Kelly, which were originally scheduled for release Friday before they were postponed for White House review. 
 
 A White House official said officials there had raised objections with the documents and were working with DHS to finalize the policy. The official was not authorized to discuss the process publicly and insisted on anonymity. 
 
 Under the draft guidelines, Kelly seeks to "expeditiously hire" 10,000 more enforcement agents and 5,000 Border Patrol officers. 
 
 Seeking to fulfill Trump's campaign promise to build a wall along the Mexican border, Kelly also calls on Customs and Border Protection to "immediately begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall, including the attendant lighting, technology (including sensors), as well as patrol and access roads." He describes the wall as necessary to deter illegal immigration and calls it a "critical component" of Trump's overall border security strategy. 
 
 He says the department will also prioritize for more immediate removal those who have been convicted of a crime; charged with a crime; committed fraud in connection with a matter before a government agency; abused any program related to public benefits; or have not complied with orders to leave the country. 
 
 Joanne Lin, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, criticized the proposed guidelines as a Trump style of immigration enforcement in which "due process, human decency and common sense are treated as inconvenient obstacles on the path to mass deportation." 
 
 "The Trump administration is intent on inflicting cruelty on millions of immigrant families across the country," she said in a statement. ||||| CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Anti-Trump protestors are taking advantage of the federal holiday that celebrates Presidents to oppose the one that is currently in office. USA TODAY NETWORK 
 
 LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 18: Protesters participate in the Immigrants Make America Great March to protest actions being taken by the Trump administration on February 18, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. Protesters are calling for an end to stepped up ICE raids and deportations, and that health care be provided for documented and undocumented people. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 700004520 ORIG FILE ID: 642760812 (Photo: David McNew, Getty Images) 
 
 Immigration and border agents will be directed to more aggressively go after immigrants in the country illegally and their families, according to a leaked pair of memos from the Department of Homeland Security. 
 
 The memos, first reported by The Washington Post and other media, offer a list of sweeping new guidelines to law enforcement agencies that would implement many of the executive orders on immigration enforcement recently signed by President Trump. 
 
 The guidelines, signed by DHS Secretary John Kelly, include hiring thousands of additional enforcement agents and increasing the number of immigration judges, expanding the pool of immigrants prioritized for removal, enlisting local law enforcement to help with arrests and speeding up deportation hearings. They also propose prosecuting parents and family members in the U.S. who pay smugglers to bring over unaccompanied minors. 
 
 The memos were a draft order and still being reviewed by the White House, according to the Associated Press. 
 
 The guidelines would put into play legal tools available to presidents for years but largely overlooked by past administrations, said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, a non-profit research institute that promotes stricter control on immigration. 
 
 Expediting the removal of immigrants who have been in the country illegally for less than two years, for example, has been a legal remedy since 1996, but underused by past administrations, she said. She called the guidelines, if implemented, a “step in the right direction.” 
 
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 “What this administration is doing is using the tools available in the law to a greater extent to address problems that have been neglected the past eight years by the Obama administration,” Vaughan said. “They’re changing the message to people who are thinking about coming here illegally.” 
 
 Notably missing from the guidelines is any change to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program, which allows young people brought to the USA illegally as children to stay and obtain work permits. Trump harshly criticized the program on the campaign trail last year but said at a recent press conference that he would “show great heart” toward the program. The program, initiated by the Obama administration in 2012, has protected about 750,000 immigrants. 
 
 Mark Silverman, senior staff attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, a pro-immigrant rights group based in San Francisco, said the guidelines outlined in the memo were “very disturbing” and “draconian,” particularly the section about prosecuting parents trying to bring their children to the USA. Recruiting local law enforcement to help identify and remove undocumented immigrants would also result in widespread violations of civil liberties, he said. 
 
 “Essentially, this memo is implementing the inhumane and nonsensical scapegoating of immigrants, especially Latinos, for problems in this country which they did not create,” Silverman said. 
 
 The guidelines also call for the border wall to begin construction, instructing U.S. Customs and Border Protection to “immediately begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall, including the attendant lighting, technology (including sensors), as well as patrol and access roads,” although funding for the wall’s construction and maintenance still needs approval by Congress. 
 
 In a statement, Joanne Lin, American Civil Liberties Union senior legislative council, called the enforcement plans a breach of “due process, human decency and common sense” and vowed to fight them. 
 
 “The Trump administration is intent on inflicting cruelty on millions of immigrant families across the country,” she said. 
 
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 Two memos written by the Department of Homeland Security would expand federal authorities’ powers to detain and deport undocumented immigrants within the United States. 
 
 Obtained by NBC News, the new directives signed by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly provide greater detail about two of President Donald Trump’s executive orders relating to his campaign promises of building a border wall with Mexico and increasing deportation efforts. 
 
 The memos were to be filed on Friday, but are still not final. Currently, they await interagency and White House review. 
 
 Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly testifies before the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday. Andrew Harnik / AP 
 
 If approved, the memos would order officials to end the release of people captured at the borders while they await hearings, and direct officials to hire additional ICE and Border Patrol agents, as well as send more immigration judges and asylum officers to the border. The documents would also order officials to work with agreeable local police and sheriffs to enforce the new regulations, and allow for expedited removal proceedings for detained immigrants who have been in the U.S. for two years or less. 
 
 The memos would also allow authorities to criminally prosecute parents who are undocumented immigrants if they paid smugglers to bring their children to the United States. 
 
 "Many of these children fall victim to robbery, extortion, kidnapping, sexual assault and other crimes of violence by the smugglers and other criminal elements along the dangerous journey through Mexico to the United States," the memo obtained by NBC News alleges. 
 
 In line with Trump’s executive order, one draft memo directs the hiring of 5,000 additional Border Patrol agents and 500 “Air &Marine Agents/Officers.” ICE, meanwhile, would be able to hire 10,000 additional agents “as well as additional operational and mission support and legal staff necessary to hire and support their activities.” 
 
 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are pictured. LM Otero / AP 
 
 Those hirings would greatly expand ICE, and the memos would allow for Customs and Border Protection to “begin planning, design, construction and maintenance of a wall” — seemingly fulfilling many of Trump’s campaign promises, especially those within his Aug. 31, 2016, address on immigration. 
 
 "The White House has raised objections to some aspects of these memos and we are working with DHS to finalize the policy," a Trump administration official told NBC News, emphasizing that the White House did not have problems with some of the language. 
 
 Related: Lawmakers, After Meeting With ICE, Say All Undocumented Immigrants at Risk of Deportation 
 
 "We are not going to offer specific areas where we have concerns. We're not going to litigate this in the open," a White House official told NBC News. 
 
 Briefing and supporting materials for the memos will be available “soon.” 
 
 The White House has acknowledged the memos as they have circulated in media reports. They said the documents are real, but again stressed that they are not final.
– "The surge of immigration at the southern border has overwhelmed federal agencies and resources and has created a significant national security vulnerability," Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly writes in sweeping new guidelines on immigration policy. According to draft guidelines seen by the Washington Post, Kelly plans to hire 10,000 more enforcement agents and 5,000 Border Patrol officers, speed up deportation hearings, prioritize more people for immediate removal, and prosecute parents who pay to have their children smuggled into the US. Kelly's guidelines also call for Customs and Border Protection to "immediately begin planning, design, construction, and maintenance of a wall," the AP reports. The guidelines, which also enlist local law enforcement personnel to help with immigration arrests, are still awaiting White House approval. "The White House has raised objections to some aspects of these memos and we are working with DHS to finalize the policy," an administration official tells NBC News, adding that they're not going to "litigate this in the open." Critics are calling the proposals "draconian" and "inhumane," especially the plan to prosecute parents who pay smugglers to bring minors across the border. USA Today, however, notes that the guidelines don't include any changes to Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals plan, which Trump recently said he would "show great heart" toward.