‘Take the land’: President Trump wants a border wall. He wants it black. And he wants it by Election Day.

Washington Post logoPresident Trump is so eager to complete hundreds of miles of border fence ahead of the 2020 presidential election that he has directed aides to fast-track billions of dollars’ worth of construction contracts, aggressively seize private land and disregard environmental rules, according to current and former officials involved with the project.

He also has told worried subordinates that he will pardon them of any potential wrongdoing should they have to break laws to get the barriers built quickly, those officials said.

Trump has repeatedly promised to complete 500 miles of fencing by the time voters go to the polls in November 2020, stirring chants of “Finish the Wall!” at his political rallies as he pushes for tighter border controls. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed just about 60 miles of “replacement” barrier during the first 2½ years of Trump’s presidency, all of it in areas that previously had border infrastructure.

View the complete August 27 article by Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

A Day After It Was Filed, New Trump Asylum Policy Gets Hit in Court

New York Times logoLOS ANGELES — A coalition of immigrant advocacy groups on Tuesday sued the Trump administration in federal court, challenging a new rule intended to severely restrict the ability of people fleeing persecution to apply for asylum in the United States.

The groups filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California in San Francisco, seeking an injunction to block the policy less than 36 hours after the government announced it on Monday.

Trump administration officials had announced that they would deny protection to migrants who fail to apply for asylum in at least one country they pass through on their way north, preventing virtually all Central Americans who claim asylum from entering the United States.

View the complete July 16 article by Miriam Jordan on The New York Times website here.

Trump effort to stonewall faces thorny legal challenge

President Trump’s attempt to stonewall investigations by House Democrats by preventing former aides such as White House counsel Don McGahn from testifying is an uphill legal battle.

The White House has signaled that it will assert executive privilege to block McGahn and others from testifying.

But Trump allowed McGahn to speak to special counsel Robert Muellerand permitted the release of the special counsel’s redacted report without asserting executive privilege, a decision that could make it hard to justify the new argument in court.

View the complete April 24 article by Jordan Fabian and Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.