Tag: Trump immigration policy

Acting secretary blocked Stephen Miller’s bid for another DHS shake-up

An attempt by President Trump’s senior adviser Stephen Miller to engineer a new shake-up at the Department of Homeland Security was blocked this week by Kevin McAleenan, the department’s acting secretary, who said he might leave his post unless the situation improved and he was given more control over his agency, administration officials said.

The closed-door clash flared over the fate of Mark Morgan, the former FBI official the president has picked to be the new director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

With Morgan eager to move into the top job at ICE, Miller on Wednesday urged the president to have Morgan installed as the new commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) instead.

View the complete May 18 article by Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Trump‘s latest immigration plan came with no Democratic outreach

Proposal appears going no further than White House Rose Garden

President Donald Trump unveiled his latest immigration overhaul plan Thursday, but given its lack of outreach to Democrats, it likely will go little further than the Rose Garden setting where it first saw light.

Trump used the White House backdrop to also reiterate some of his familiar hard-line immigration stances that may ingratiate him to his conservative base, but usually only repel Democrats and many independents.

“Democrats are proposing open borders, lower wages, and frankly, lawless chaos,” the self-described “America first” president said, adding: “We are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages and safety of American workers first.”

View the complete May 16 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

Trump rolls out ‘pro-American’ immigration plan

President Trump on Thursday rolled out a new immigration plan that would move the U.S. toward a “merit-based” system favoring highly skilled workers over migrants with family members living here, saying it would make the nation “the envy of the world.”

But the president made it clear he views the plan, which has little chance of passing Congress, as a political cudgel against Democrats as much as a serious legislative proposal.

“Today we are presenting a clear contrast,” Trump said during a speech in the Rose Garden of the White House. “Democrats are proposing open borders, lower wages and, frankly, lawless chaos. We are proposing an immigration plan that puts the jobs, wages and safety of American workers first.”

View the complete May 16 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Toddler apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border dies after weeks in hospital

NOTE:  Lest we forget the impact of Trump’s racism and policy on real people, especially children.  

A 2½-year-old Guatemalan boy apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border died Tuesday night in El Paso after several weeks in the hospital, according to the Guatemalan Consulate and another person with direct knowledge of the case.

The boy, who was not identified, arrived at the border with his mother days after now-acting homeland security secretary Kevin McAleenan held a news conference near a crowded holding facility in El Paso on March 27 to warn that a surge of Central Americans was pushing the system to the “breaking point.”

The boy is the fourth migrant child to die since December after being apprehended at the southern border and taken to the hospital. All have been from Guatemala, a Central American nation experiencing severe drought and poverty, and where smugglers have been offering discounted trips to families traveling to the United States.

View the complete May 15 article by Maria Sacchetti and Robert Moore on The Washington Post website here.

New HUD Directive Will Leave 55,000 Migrant Children Homeless

One of the Trump administration’s retaliatory policies against undocumented immigrants would have a horrible unintended consequence.

Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban development plans to evict undocumented immigrants from public housing. And according to HUD’s own analysis, that plan would also toss those immigrants’ children out into the streets — 55,000 of whom are either legal permanent residents or American citizens, according to a report from the Washington Post.

Under current rules, those children are legally entitled to federal housing subsidies, according to the Post.

View the complete May 11 article by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.

In Minnesota counties losing population, immigrants slow the decline

New arrivals are helping slow, halt or even reverse falling census counts in 15 Minnesota counties.

MORRIS, MINNESOTA – Juan Cid opened his downtown restaurant, Mi Mexico, five years ago after noticing that many residents of this western Minnesota city were willing to drive 25 miles to eat at another Mexican restaurant he owned.

He imported brightly colored tables and chairs from Guadalajara and took over the ethnic grocery store downstairs, stocking it with piñatas, Mexican breads and sweets, and a medley of beans, chiles and spices. Cid advertised long-distance mailing and packing services for customers who hail from Mexico and Central America. Now he’s looking at expanding his business further.

“I saw the Hispanic community was going to be growing,” said Cid, who came to the U.S. from Mexico in 2002.

View the complete May 12 article by Maya Rao on The Star Tribune website here.

U.S. asylum screeners to take more confrontational approach as Trump aims to turn more migrants away at the border

The Trump administration has sent new guidelines to asylum officers, directing them to take a more skeptical and confrontational approach during interviews with migrants seeking refuge in the United States. It is the latest measure aimed at tightening the nation’s legal “loopholes” that Homeland Security officials blame for a spike in border crossings.

According to internal documents and staff emails obtained Tuesday by The Washington Post, the asylum officers will more aggressively challenge applicants whose claims of persecution contain discrepancies, and they will need to provide detailed justifications before concluding that an applicant has a well-founded fear of harm if deported to their home country.

The changes require officers to zero in on any gaps between what migrants say to U.S. border agents after they are taken into custody and testimony they provide during the interview process with a trained asylum officer.

View the complete May 7 article by Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

White House asks Congress for $4.5 billion in emergency spending at border

The White House sent Congress a $4.5 billion emergency spending request on Wednesday, citing an unfolding “humanitarian and security crisis” at the U.S.-Mexico border as record numbers of Central American families and children seek entrance to the United States.

The request includes $3.3 billion for humanitarian assistance and $1.1 billion for border operations, and it represents a dramatic escalation of the administration’s efforts to address the situation at the border.

The money would be in addition to the more than $8 billion that President Trump asked for in his 2020 budget request to build border barriers, as well as some $6 billion in funding he sought as he declared a national emergency at the border earlier this year.

View the complete May 1 article by Erica Werner, Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

At Trump golf course, undocumented employees said they were sometimes told to work extra hours without pay

HILLSDALE, NEW YORK — His bosses at the Trump country club called it “side work.”

On some nights, after the club’s Grille Room closed, head waiter Jose Gabriel Juarez — an undocumented immigrant from Mexico — was told to clock out. He pressed his index finger onto a scanner and typed his personal code, 436.

But he didn’t go home.

Instead — on orders from his bosses, Juarez said — he would stay on, sometimes past midnight. He vacuumed carpets, polished silverware and helped get the restaurant at Trump National Golf Club Westchester in Briar­cliff Manor, N.Y., ready for breakfast the next day.

View the complete April 30 article by Joshua Partlow and David A. Fahrenthold on The Washington Post website here.

Trump tightens asylum rules, will make immigrants pay fees to seek humanitarian refuge

President Trump ordered major changes to U.S. asylum policies in a White House memo released Monday night, including measures that would charge fees to those applying for humanitarian refuge in the United States.

Trump’s directive also calls for tightening asylum rules by banning anyone who crosses the border illegally from obtaining a work permit, and giving courts a 180-day limit to adjudicate asylum claims that now routinely take years to process because of a ballooning case backlog.

The order, announced in a presidential memorandum, comes as the president is seeking to mobilize his supporters with a focus on illegal immigration ahead of his 2020 reelection campaign.

View the complete April 30 article by Maria Sacchetti, Felicia Sonmez and Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.