Tag: Trump immigration policy

Trump says he is considering putting migrants in sanctuary cities

President Trump said Friday his administration is “giving strong considerations” to a controversial plan that would release migrants into so-called sanctuary cities, even though officials said the idea was never seriously considered.

In a pair of tweets, Trump accused Democrats of being “unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws” and suggested they should feel the consequences of what he has called the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“We can give them an unlimited supply [of migrants] and let’s see if they’re so happy,” Trump said later Friday at a White House event where he doubled down on the idea. “They say ‘we have open arms.’ They’re always saying they have open arms. Let’s see if they have open arms.”

Aid Cuts Won’t Slow Central America’s Exodus

Cutting aid to impoverished countries will give desperate people more reasons to leave, not to stay, experts say.

LIMA, PERU — Experts agree that U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to halt some $500 million in aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras likely won’t lessen the migration crisis at the United States’ border with Mexico.

“We were paying them tremendous amounts of money and we’re not paying them anymore because they haven’t done a thing for us,” Trump declared on March 29, when he announced the measure in retaliation for the supposed failure of the three Central American governments to stem illegal migration to the United States. “They set up these caravans in many cases; they put their worst people in the caravan. They’re not going to put their best in. They get rid of their problems and they march up here.”

But the money is actually intended to allow potential emigrants to stay at home by improving living conditions in the impoverished, violence-wracked countries, including by encouraging economic development and job creation, and helping to tackle rampant corruption and impunity.

View the complete April 9 article by Simeon Tegel, contributing author, on The U.S. News and World Report website here.

White House proposed releasing immigrant detainees in sanctuary cities, targeting political foes

White House officials have tried to pressure U.S. immigration authorities to release detainees onto the streets of “sanctuary cities” to retaliate against President Trump’s political adversaries, according to Department of Homeland Security officials and email messages reviewed by The Washington Post.

Trump administration officials have proposed transporting detained immigrants to sanctuary cities at least twice in the past six months — once in November, as a migrant caravan approached the U.S. southern border, and again in February, amid a standoff with Democrats over funding for Trump’s border wall.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district in San Francisco was among those the White House wanted to target, according to DHS officials. The administration also considered releasing detainees in other Democratic strongholds.

View the complete April 11 article by Rachel Bade and Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

Trump accuses Dems of ‘treason’ even as Mulvaney seeks a border deal with them

‘No one views the White House as credible on this issue,’ says senior House Democratic source

President Donald Trump continues accusing congressional Democrats of treason — a crime punishable by death — over their border security policies even as his acting chief of staff was on Capitol Hill Wednesday seeking a deal.

And a senior Democratic aide expressed doubt that a deal is likely over what promises to be among 2020’s most contentious campaign trail issues.

Twice on Wednesday, the president had critical words for Democrats over their ongoing dispute about his proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall and a list of other policy differences related to immigration. In a tweet as he returned from Texas on Air Force One, the president again accused unnamed Democrats of betraying their country — apparently for opposing his hardline immigration policies.

View the complete April 11 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

It’s Trump vs. Trump as immigration divides White House

The president is weighing — and reflecting — different opinions among his top advisers, including Stephen Miller and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

President Donald Trump is in a fight over immigration — with himself.

Trump denied on Tuesday that he is “cleaning house” at the Department of Homeland Security. But on Wednesday, the White House was eyeing a replacement for a senior DHS official whose job congressional Republicans are trying to save.

The president has also said he has no plans to renew the administration’s highly controversial migrant child separation policy — even as officials throughout the administration weigh a plan to make arrested border-crossers choose whether to “voluntarily” separate from their kids.

View the complete April 10 article by Eliana Johnson, Nancy Cook and Anita Kumar on the Politico website here.

Twelve days of chaos: Inside the Trump White House’s growing panic to contain the border crisis

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was a loyal soldier for President Trump and often repeated his falsehoods, but it wasn’t enough to save her job. (Video: JM Rieger/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

He had threatened to close the southern border and ordered a halt to foreign aid for three Central American nations. But as President Trump weighed his next move to respond to a mounting immigration crisis, he had another problem: His homeland security chief was in Europe on a week-long business trip.

The location of Kirstjen Nielsen, the embattled leader of the Department of Homeland Security, on April 1 was like a bad joke for a president who vowed to curb unauthorized immigration but was now showing signs of panic as border crossings spiked to the highest levels in more than a decade. Continue reading “Twelve days of chaos: Inside the Trump White House’s growing panic to contain the border crisis”

Here are 21 facts that explain who Trump ‘puppet master’ Stephen Miller really is

The anti-immigrant Trump mouthpiece has been like this for a long time.

This story first ran in 2017.

Even among the right-wing ideologues doing the actual presidenting in this administration, Stephen Miller stands out for the copious amounts of Kool-Aid he mainlines. Speaking to the New York Times, a Trump team colleague described Miller as “fiercely loyal” to the president, “a true believer in every sense of the word.” Though he joined the campaign in its early days, penning many of the apocalyptic speeches that won fear-drunk Republican hearts and minds, Miller recently got a lot more visibility after a string of television appearances in defense of the Muslim ban. At each stop, Miller showed a flair for the dramatic: he lied, he dodged, he put on his best tyrant’s voice and proclaimed the executive branch above the law. It seemed contrived and forced, like a politically precocious, weasley teenager’s idea of how to command a crowd. According to those who know Miller’s history, that’s not so far off the mark.

Dating back to junior high school, Miller has been the unwavering right-winger now before us. Though the internet, and some of his family members, were quick to compare him to Joseph Goebbels, this reporter saw a resemblance to Roy Cohn—a Trump mentor—down to the sartorial details. Miller wears retro skinny suits, only recently ditched a chain-smoking habit and has the kind of cockiness that reads as unexamined, unsympathetic self-hatred. His barked orders and put-on baritone are all part of the package, and can strike an observer as funny. At least until you remember this guy is trying to turn the country into an all-white gated community. Continue reading “Here are 21 facts that explain who Trump ‘puppet master’ Stephen Miller really is”

Trump Ordered DHS Officials To Break Asylum Law

Trump told several officials to break federal law as part of an attempt to block immigrants from entering the United States.

CNN reports that first, Trump tried to order the port of El Paso closed, but officials objected and pointed out it would be dangerous and economically devastating to states like Texas. The network reports that chief of staff Mick Mulvaney talked Trump out of it.

So, he decided to try and break the law.

View the complete April 8 article by Cody Fenwick with AlterNet on the National Memo website here.

Stephen Miller’s influence rising amid changes at DHS

Stephen Miller’s power in the White House is on the rise with the departure of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, giving the influential immigration adviser a stronger hand in reshaping President Trump’s border security team.

The senior White House staffer’s name has been linked to recent upheaval in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the president seeks more like-minded allies in enforcing immigration law and curbing the flow of migrants into the country. Over the past four days, Trump has withdrawn his nominee to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), announced Nielsen’s resignation and ousted the head of the Secret Service.

Opponents of increased immigration hailed Nielsen’s departure and a shift in strategy as a step in the right direction. They cited Miller, a former Senate staffer to then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), as a positive presence in pushing Trump’s immigration agenda.

View the complete April 9 article by Brett Samuels on The Hill website here.

GOP fears Trump return to family separations

President Trump will be picking a new fight with Senate Republicans if he decides to renew his past policy of separating families detained at the border as a way of stopping the wave of immigrants.

Trump is expected to select a hard-liner to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who was ousted on Sunday — reportedly after she resisted returning to the policies that led to children being taken from their parents at the border.

The family separations created deep unrest among congressional Republicans ahead of the midterm elections, and Senate GOP sources warn that if Trump taps a hard-liner to replace Nielsen, it could lead to a brutal confirmation battle.

View the complete April 8 article by Alexander Bolton on The Hill website here.