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Trump wants 'no judges or court cases' before deporting illegal immigrants Trump stokes immigration chaos with call for summary deportations
(about 1 hour later)
Donald Trump has sharpened his call to deport people who enter the US illegally, saying they should immediately be sent back to where they came from without any judicial process. Donald Trump called on Sunday for the US to abandon its judicial system and summarily deport people who enter the country.
“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents.” The president attacked the rule of law amid sustained criticism of his administration’s handling of immigration at the southern border.
One congressional attempt to deal with the crisis over families separated at the border under a Trump administration policy would involve a dramatic increase in the number of immigration judges. Trump, who on Friday said Republicans were “wasting their time” with any reform efforts, opposes that plan. “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came,” Trump said in a tweet, while being driven to his golf course in Virginia.
Trump, who on Sunday was visiting his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, added: “Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years! Immigration must be based on merit – we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!” The statement amounted to a proposal for the suspension of law by the country’s chief law enforcement officer. Any attempt to implement such a demand would face strong opposition from political opponents and civil rights activists.
Earlier, the Trump administration said it knew the location of all children in its custody after it separated them from their families at the southern border and was working to reunite them. Trump was last week pushed to halt a policy of separating families suspected of entering the US illegally, in a dramatic political climbdown. More than 2,300 children had been taken from their parents by US officials, prompting an international humanitarian outcry.
On Wednesday, in the face of fierce international opprobrium, Trump ordered an end to the practice of separating parents and children held after entering the US without documentation. According to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fact sheet issued on Saturday, 2,053 minors who were separated at the border are now being cared for in facilities run by the Department of Heath and Human Services (HHS). The president continued to use the language of the far-right to describe immigrants on Sunday, declaring in his tweet that the US “cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country”. He warned last week that immigrants could “infest” the US.
On Saturday, groups of Democratic lawmakers toured detention facilities in Texas and elsewhere. Some said there was no clear plan for the reunification process. At the same time, his administration moved to ease fears that separated families may never be reunited, insisting that all detainees were being tracked through an identification system and that the situation was under control.
The fact sheet on “zero-tolerance prosecution and family reunification” was released that evening. It said any parent must request that their child be deported with them. In the past, DHS said, many parents have elected to be deported without their children. That may be a reflection of violence or persecution they face in their home countries. Some children have been reunited with parents. According to a release from the Department of Homeland Security on Saturday, 2,053 minors who were separated at the border were being cared for in facilities run by the Department of Heath and Human Services.
The fact sheet did not state how long it might take to reunite families. But Washington has been thrown into chaos by Trump’s erratic actions. Having created the child separation crisis with a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, Trump falsely said his administration was merely following a law Democrats in Congress needed to help to change.
How the government would do so has been unclear. The families in question were first stopped by Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), with children taken into custody by HHS and adults detained through Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). After saying he could not stop the policy by executive order, he then stopped the policy with an executive order, confirming that he had been lying. But Trump has continued to demand action from Congress. When Congress promptly produced such plans, Trump dismissed them and instructed Republicans to stop negotiating.
Children have been sent to shelters around the country, raising alarm that parents might never know where their children can be found. Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona, one of a handful of Republicans in Congress willing to criticise the president, urged Trump to stop falsely accusing Democrats of being unwilling to agree to a comprehensive immigration law unless it effectively opened the border.
The DHS fact sheet stated that Ice has implemented an identification mechanism to ensure ongoing tracking of linked family members throughout the detention and removal process. It has also, the DHS said, designated detention locations for separated parents and will enhance current processes to ensure communication with children in HHS custody. “They are on record supporting significant border control,” Flake said on ABC’s This Week. “So when the president says that, and calls them ‘clowns’ and ‘losers’, how does he expect Democrats to sit down and work with Republicans on these issues?”
The Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas has been set up as the staging ground for the families to be reunited, prior to deportation. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who like Flake is retiring from the Senate this year, also called for an end to the demonisation of immigrants, which has become a powerful political force in the party.
Ice was also said to have worked closely with foreign consulates to ensure that travel documents are issued for both the parent and child at time of removal; and to have coordinated with HHS for the reuniting of the child prior to the parents’ departure from the US. “We’ve got to realise these people are wanting to live in a place like we live,” Corker said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “We’re the most fortunate people on earth to live in this country. That’s why people are drawn to us.”
Ice officials have posted notices in all that agency’s facilities, the DHS said, advising detained parents who are trying to find or communicate with their children to call a hotline staffed 8am to 8pm, Monday through Friday. On Saturday, groups of Democratic lawmakers toured detention facilities in Texas and elsewhere. Some called for a clear plan for reunifying separated families.
The administration said any parent or guardian trying to determine if a child is in the HHS custody should contact the Office of Refugee Resettlement National Call Center at 1-800-203-7001, or via email information@ORRNCC.com. Information will be collected and sent to HHS funded facility where minor is located, the government said. Democrats also accused Trump of confecting a crisis, as illegal immigration to the US has fallen. According to US officials, 310,531 people were apprehended entering the US illegally last year, compared with more than 1.6m in 2000.
“He uses it as a issue in order to energise his political base,” Congressman Luis Gutierrez of Illinois said on ABC.
Trump confirmed in a speech on Saturday that he believes his hardline stance on immigration will be politically beneficial in November’s midterm elections.
“I like the issue for [the] election,” Trump said to a party gathering in Las Vegas, where he continued to associate Hispanic immigrants in general with MS-13, a criminal gang that operates in Mexico and central America.
Donald TrumpDonald Trump
Trump administrationTrump administration
US immigrationUS immigration
TexasTexas
US politicsUS politics
US domestic policyUS domestic policy
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