Tag: Trump immigration policy

Judge halts Trump policy requiring asylum seekers stay in Mexico

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Monday to stop the Trump administration’s policy of having some asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their case is under consideration.

District Judge Richard Seeborg wrote in his ruling that while it’s unclear how much risk asylum seekers are facing under the policy, “there is no real question that it includes the possibility of irreparable injury.”

The ruling will go into effect on Friday.

View the complete April 8 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

‘Our country is full’: Trump says migrants straining system

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Declaring “our country is full,” President Donald Trump on Friday insisted the U.S. immigration system was overburdened and illegal crossings must be stopped as he inspected a refurbished section of fencing at the Mexican border.

Trump, making a renewed push for border security as a central campaign issue for his 2020 re-election, participated in a briefing on immigration and border security in Calexico before viewing a 2-mile (3.2-kilometer) see-through steel-slat barrier that was a long-planned replacement for an older barrier — and not new wall.

“There is indeed an emergency on our southern border,” Trump said at the briefing, adding that there has been a sharp uptick in illegal crossings. “It’s a colossal surge and it’s overwhelming our immigration system, and we can’t let that happen. … We can’t take you anymore. We can’t take you. Our country is full.”

View the complete April 6 article by Zeke Miller and Jonathan LeMire on the Associated Press website here.

House sues Trump administration over border wall

The House sued members of President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday over his emergency declaration to force funding for a border wall.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., asserts Trump’s emergency acts in direct disregard of Congress’ will and disputes the president’s ability to access certain funds for the wall simply by declaring an emergency. It names Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the departments they oversee. It does not name Trump as a defendant.

“The House has been injured, and will continue to be injured, by defendants’ unconstitutional actions, which usurp the House’s appropriations authority and mean that the relevant funds are no longer available to be spent on the purposes for which they were appropriated,” the complaint says.

View the complete April 5 article by Matthew Choi on the Politico website here.

At Southern Border, Trump Delivers Another Angry Anti-Immigrant Rant

Trump’s attacks on Central American migrants fleeing violence in their countries continued on Friday, when he falsely claimed that the United States is full and can no longer accept immigrants.

“The system is full. We can’t take you anymore,” Trump said. “Whether it’s asylum. Whether it’s anything you want. It’s illegal immigration. Can’t take you anymore. We can’t take you. Our country is full. Our area is full. Our sector is full. We can’t take you anymore, I’m sorry. So turn around. That’s the way it is.”

Trump made the remarks during a roundtable with Border Patrol officials in an area of California located on the U.S.-Mexico border.

View the complete April 5 article by Emily Singer on the National Memo website here.

Trump gives Mexico ‘one-year’ warning for auto tariffs, border shutdown

President Trump on Thursday retreated further from his threat to immediately close the southern border, instead saying he would give Mexico a year before taking drastic measures to address drug trafficking and illegal immigration.

Speaking to reporters in the Cabinet Room of the White House, Trump said he would slap auto tariffs on Mexico if the government has not done enough to address the problems during that time before closing the border.

“You know I will do it,” Trump said. “I don’t play games.”

View the complete April 4 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

White House studying options to shut down southern border

The White House on Tuesday said it has begun studying options to close down different parts of the U.S. southern border, but expressed hope the drastic move could be avoided.

“Eventually, it may be that it’s the best decision that we close the border,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters, while adding that “this isn’t our first choice.”

Sanders said President Trump “is not working on a specific timeline” to decide whether to close down the border with Mexico. Trump last Friday put a deadline on his longstanding threat to shutter the border, saying he would make the move “next week” if Mexico does not stop illegal crossings into the U.S.

View the complete April 2 article by Jordan Fabian on The Hill website here.

Climate change is the overlooked driver of Central American migration Living on Earth

As people from Guatemala and Honduras continue to seek sanctuary in the US for a variety of reasons, including violence and poverty, another factor driving their migration has gotten much less attention: climate disruption.

Many members of the migrant “caravans” that made headlines during the 2018 US midterm elections are fleeing a massive drought that has lasted for five years.

The drought has hit harder in some places than in others, says John Sutter, senior investigative reporter for CNN, who went to rural Honduras to report on climate change and immigration. In the area of Central America known as the “dry corridor,” for example, drought is not uncommon. But, Sutter says, some of the climate scientists he spoke with say they are seeing unprecedented effects.

View the complete February 6 article by Adam Wernick on the PRI website here.

Trump administration preparing to close international immigration offices

The Trump administration is preparing to shutter all international offices of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, a move that could slow the processing of family visa applications, foreign adoptions and citizenship petitions from members of the military stationed abroad.

USCIS Director L. Francis Cissna said in an email to staff Tuesday that he is working to transfer those duties — now performed by employees worldwide — to domestic offices and the State Department’s embassies and consulates. He wrote that if the State Department agrees, the agency would move to close its international field offices in coming months “in an effort to maximize our agency’s finite resources.”

“I believe by doing so, we will better leverage our funds to address backlogs in the United States while also leveraging existing Department of State resources at post,” he wrote. “Change can be difficult and can cause consternation. I want to assure you we will work to make this as smooth a transition as possible for each of our USCIS staff while also ensuring that those utilizing our services may continue to do so and our agency operations continue undisrupted.”

View the complete March 12 article by Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff on The Washington Post website here.

Without immigrants, Trump’s jobs numbers would be much, much worse

During the second daily news briefing of 2019 on Monday, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought, was asked how the administration rationalized adding trillions of dollars to the national debt despite President Trump’s repeated campaign-trail insistence that the debt would drop.

“He also came into office and had an economic recovery that was needed to put people back to work, get the economy going and to rebuild the military, and had historic levels of military at $700 billion and $716 billion in — in national defense dollars,” Vought said. He didn’t mention that the debt has also been driven higher by a decline in corporate tax revenue after the 2017 Republican tax bill or that Trump had repeatedly railed against the debt added under former president Barack Obama when Obama also aimed to get Americans back to work. Continue reading “Without immigrants, Trump’s jobs numbers would be much, much worse”

‘Minnesota is my home’: Liberians face deportation deadline

Faced with war and chaos in Liberia — war that stole her dreams and “took everything” from her — Louise Stevens fled to the United States in 2000, settling in Minnesota.

Over nearly two decades, Stevens has raised a family and worked for Boston Scientific, Medtronic and a firm that cares for vulnerable adults.

Now, she’s facing a looming deadline that could result in her being deported back to Liberia.

View the complete March 11 article by Martin Moylan on the MPR New website here.