Trump aides repeat threat to shut down U.S.-Mexico border on migrant crisis

By Humeyra Pamuk and Nathan Layne

 

FILE PHOTO: A person looks through the border wall towards the United States at Border Field State Park in San Diego, California, U.S. November 20, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Sunday doubled down on its threat to shut down the southern border with Mexico, a day after it cut aid to Central American countries that President Donald Trump accused of deliberately sending migrants to the United States.

 

Faced with a surge of asylum seekers from Central American countries who travel through Mexico, Trump said on Friday there was a "good likelihood" he would close the border this coming week if Mexico does not stop unauthorised immigrants from reaching the United States. (Graphic: https://tmsnrt.rs/2V59n2R)

 

Without providing evidence, he also accused the nations of having "set up" migrant caravans and sending them north.

 

Speaking to ABC's "This Week" show, White House acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said the president had few other options in the absence of any support from Democrats for more border security or legislative action to change the immigration law.

 

"Faced with those limitations, the president will do everything he can. If closing the ports of entry means that, that's exactly what he intends to do," Mulvaney said. "We need border security and we're going to do the best we can with what we have," he added.

 

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told "Fox News Sunday" that the situation at the border was at "melting point" and said the president was serious in his threat. "It certainly is not a bluff. You can take the president seriously."

 

Neither Trump aide offered any specific details or timeline for the potential border shutdown.

 

At a Saturday rally on the border in El Paso, Texas, Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O'Rourke denounced Trump's immigration policies as the politics of "fear and division."

 

Trump has repeatedly said he would close the U.S. border with Mexico during his two years in office. His latest threat had workers and students who frequently cross the border worried about the potential disruption to their lives.

 

The government says it is struggling to deal with a surge in recent days of asylum seekers from countries in Central America who travel through Mexico and on Saturday cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras - a move other Democrats warned would only worsen the situation.

 

"What we need to do is focus on what's happening in Central America, where three countries are disassembling before our eyes and people are desperately coming to the United States. The president's cutting off aid to these countries will not solve that problem," Senate minority whip Dick Durbin told NBC News' "Meet the Press".

 

He also cast doubt on the viability of shutting the border, describing the threat as "totally unrealistic."

 

March is on track for 100,000 border apprehensions, Department of Homeland Security officials said, which would be the highest monthly number in more than a decade. Most of those people can remain in the United States while their asylum claims are processed, which can take years because of ballooning immigration court backlogs.

 

Trump is expected to visit the border within the next two weeks.

 

LEGAL PRECEDENT

While some Trump critics say he is bluffing, closing the southern border is not unprecedented. Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan both shut the border over drug-related issues, while President Lyndon B. Johnson closed it briefly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.

 

Trump could turn to the section of immigration law that grants the president broad authority to prevent certain people from entering the county on national security grounds, legal experts said. That authority was upheld by the Supreme Court in a decision last year on his controversial travel ban.

 

But it is unclear what powers Trump would use to invoke that law.

 

If he were to declare a national emergency, he could face difficulty justifying that the influx of asylum seekers amounts to a "true and legally demonstrable federal 'emergency'" and warrants the "extreme measure of closure," said Geoffrey Hoffman, the director of the University of Houston Law Centre Immigration Clinic.

 

Shutting the border would likely trigger other legal challenges, including by asylum seekers whose rights to seek entry were upheld by a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals December ruling.

 

"Many of the Central American families arriving in the U.S. are asylum seekers and claim a fear of return," said Lindsay Harris, a professor at the University of the District of Columbia's law school and co-director at its Immigration and Human Rights Clinic. "This fear is warranted."

 

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Additional reporting by Howard Schneider; editing by Michelle Price, Lisa Shumaker and Dan Grebler)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-01

Has not US foreign policy meddling in these countries with its US foreign business interests there over the years - not to mention other countries in Latin America - contributed to the desperate situations now faced by people willing to walk across the expanse of Mexico with its well-known narco gangs?  This also explains, at least partly, why they travel in "caravans."

 

Yes, it is a good idea to solve this problem directly with these Central America countries.  However, simple common sense dictates that merely cutting off funding from them will only create more desperation and, thus, more people then deciding that the risk of traveling north to the US border is worth it. 

 

It does, however, create a simple and tough-sounding applause line at a Trump rally. 

How much more money to the three troubled countries is needed to stop the "Asylum" Emergency. It would seem the money (Aid) already given hasn't helped except to pad the Leader's bank books. So, the question is......Why continue the aid? Stopping the aid maybe a wake up call, maybe we ought to actually spend the aid money on the good of the people instead of wasting it.

Its almost comical at this point. We send billions and billions in aid to south american countries, we spend billions and billions more in support of an immigration ecosystem at the souther border thats completely bogged down, we spend billions and billions more on top of all that in peripheral expenses on illegal immigrants inside the united states, and yet somehow the Democrat Party REFUSES to acknowledge any issue, and REFUSES to do anything about it. 

 

Well, let me rephrase that. The Democrat Party REFUSES to do anything meaningful and with any actual intent on stopping this absurdly expensive problem. 

 

Build walls and change immigration policy? No, thats too expensive 10-20 billion is too much. I know! Lets send hundreds of billions of dollars to these narco-terrorist & cartel run countries over several years! They can build roads! 

 

Trump wants a few billion dollars for a barriers. No, nope. We will give a billion or so dollars but you have to remove ICE detention beds. That way you have to release more people into the US! Perfect!

 

The Democrats of the past used to at least mask their desire to change the electorate in their favor with immigration from south of the border. Now? they dont even hide it. 

 

And its shocking that nobody on the left cares. 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Without providing evidence, he also accused the nations of having "set up" migrant caravans and sending them north.

Yay - MORE imaginary evil doers. Lies to frighten the base into hating brown people even more than they already do. And it's working.

5 minutes ago, quandow said:

Lies to frighten the base into hating brown people even more than they already do.

 

And this divisive, horrible rhetoric from the left really needs to stop. 

Go Fund Me did not work

 

Mobilizing the army did not work

 

Declaring a National Emergency did not work.

 

Just something else to try.

 

Besides tweet-storming after Fox and Friends, during his morning bowel movement, its not like he is doing actually doing anything.  

Trump is building the Wall which is more sensible than what the Open Borders mob are doing. 

32 minutes ago, Thainesss said:

 

And this divisive, horrible rhetoric from the left really needs to stop. 

And so do the lies that come from BOTH sides.

2 years of Republicans dominating congress + the presidency, with no signifìcant changes in immigration laws.

Logical conclusion: It's the Democrats fault.

Sent from my crappy device using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

Joke of the day from Kellyanne. "You can take the President seriously".

2 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

How much more money to the three troubled countries is needed to stop the "Asylum" Emergency.

 

You mean these three Mexican countries?

 

2 hours ago, helpisgood said:

Has not US foreign policy meddling in these countries with its US foreign business interests there over the years - not to mention other countries in Latin America - contributed to the desperate situations now faced by people willing to walk across the expanse of Mexico with its well-known narco gangs?  This also explains, at least partly, why they travel in "caravans."

 

Yes, it is a good idea to solve this problem directly with these Central America countries.  However, simple common sense dictates that merely cutting off funding from them will only create more desperation and, thus, more people then deciding that the risk of traveling north to the US border is worth it. 

 

It does, however, create a simple and tough-sounding applause line at a Trump rally. 

 

Except for some fruits and vegetables I can't remember the last time I saw a product in the US as having come from Central America or South America. I think China is now hanging paper all over Central and South America and America has more or less abandoned these areas in an economic way. Whereas the US had a "Monroe Doctrine" to prevent European hegemony in Central and South American states, I'm not aware that we've done anything much to thwart the Chinese exploitation in these countries. There will come a breaking point and I'm pretty sure that what is happening now is not as bad as it will get.

3 hours ago, helpisgood said:

Has not US foreign policy meddling in these countries with its US foreign business interests there over the years - not to mention other countries in Latin America - contributed to the desperate situations now faced by people willing to walk across the expanse of Mexico with its well-known narco gangs?  This also explains, at least partly, why they travel in "caravans."

 

Yes, it is a good idea to solve this problem directly with these Central America countries.  However, simple common sense dictates that merely cutting off funding from them will only create more desperation and, thus, more people then deciding that the risk of traveling north to the US border is worth it. 

 

It does, however, create a simple and tough-sounding applause line at a Trump rally. 

Pouring money into the Swiss bank accounts of these corrupt leaders only emboldens them further. Cut off the aid to enemies and build the wall Donald.

1 hour ago, Boon Mee said:

Trump is building the Wall which is more sensible than what the Open Borders mob are doing. 

OK, and when will Mexico pay for it? Have they pledged the money yet?

1 hour ago, longtom said:

2 years of Republicans dominating congress + the presidency, with no signifìcant changes in immigration laws.

Logical conclusion: It's the Democrats fault.

Sent from my crappy device using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

 

Logical conclusion, is that the powers that oversee both these parties actually want undocumented immigration. Now, why would that be?

1 hour ago, alanrchase said:

Joke of the day from Kellyanne. "You can take the President seriously".

She was misquoted.  It should have been "You can take the president.  Seriously".

2 hours ago, LomSak27 said:

Besides tweet-storming after Fox and Friends, during his morning bowel movement, its not like he is doing actually doing anything.

I thought his tweet-storming was his morning bowel movement.

3 hours ago, helpisgood said:

Has not US foreign policy meddling in these countries with its US foreign business interests there over the years - not to mention other countries in Latin America - contributed to the desperate situations now faced by people willing to walk across the expanse of Mexico with its well-known narco gangs?  This also explains, at least partly, why they travel in "caravans."

 

Yes, it is a good idea to solve this problem directly with these Central America countries.  However, simple common sense dictates that merely cutting off funding from them will only create more desperation and, thus, more people then deciding that the risk of traveling north to the US border is worth it. 

 

It does, however, create a simple and tough-sounding applause line at a Trump rally. 

so, again with the "it's our fault" blather.

 

just how many millions or billions should we pour into the dysfunctional countries to attempt to appease

the guilt complex? 

 

do any of these governments have any responsibility for the dysfunction in their own countries?

 

will pouring money in actually fix the problem? is there evidence that it ever really has?

 

it is unacceptable for a country to be forced by a loophole to allow phony asylum seekers in, then be forced to let them go.

then they disappear into the country and never return to a hearing.

 

 

to keep illegal criminals, illegal welfare seekers out of the us mr. is going like bush close the border together with cutting foreign to honduras, salvador ....where most illegals are home. thereto the trump admin. will install two more repluplican judges successfully at the leftwing 9 th district court in LA to prevent dems from intervening in the correct border policy, meaning building walls against illegals instead of wasting tax payer funds on illegals. then the number will be 12 republican judges.

 

wbr

roobaa01

 

2 hours ago, longtom said:

2 years of Republicans dominating congress + the presidency, with no signifìcant changes in immigration laws.

Logical conclusion: It's the Democrats fault.

Sent from my crappy device using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

yes, it takes 60 votes in the senate. so yes you are right, the Dems would never allow a fix to immigration

^{'We’ve never seen anything like this': As Trump threatens to close border, migrants overwhelm Texas cities}

 In 2014, when a similar crush of Central American migrants strained city resources, local officials applied for $600,000 in federal disaster funds. After years of wrangling, they got just $140,000, he said.

“This is very similar to what we saw then,” Rodriguez said. “It’s real people and real time and real money.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/30/migrants-overflow-border-federal-facilities-local-strain-wall-trump/3309462002/

 

Mr. Trump must shame Congress into acting

1 hour ago, riclag said:

Mr. Trump must shame Congress into acting

 

What should Trump do that would "shame congress"?  We've already seen that temper tantrums don't work.

I was in Southern Arizona at the time of 9/11. I'm not sure if the border was closed due to 9/11 or if crossings were so slowed that it was effectively closed. In other words, no one was moving north. This persisted for a couple of days until the farmers contacted their Congress persons and asked "who's gonna pick the lettuce"? Things got back to normal within a couple of days.

16 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

What should Trump do that would "shame congress"?  We've already seen that temper tantrums don't work.

The job approval rating of Congress as a whole is 18 percent.

 

After an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll published Sunday put Trump's approval rating at 46 percent among registered voters

 

 

19 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

What should Trump do that would "shame congress"?  We've already seen that temper tantrums don't work.

Maybe he'll threaten to run as a Democrat in the next election and bring in health care for all. It's not as if he cares one way or the other.

Just now, elmrfudd said:

The job approval rating of Congress as a whole is 18 percent.

 

After an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll published Sunday put Trump's approval rating at 46 percent among registered voters

 

 

So Congress is ascendant. It wasn't too long ago that their approval rating stood at 10%.

5 minutes ago, lannarebirth said:

So Congress is ascendant. It wasn't too long ago that their approval rating stood at 10%.

wasn't the point, but thanks for the irrelevance

 

 

5 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Trump is building the Wall which is more sensible than what the Open Borders mob are doing. 

 

A monument to his own massive ego and hubris...and not good for much else including stopping the things it was supposedly intended to stop or curtail -- illegal immigration and drug imports -- which won't be stopped at all by whatever they end up building.

 

Trumps massive tax hikes (tariffs) have already resulted in an economy that is slowing down. Sealing the border, would mean cutting off trade with Mexico, and the $557 billion a year in trade, that moves back and forth. It would be typical Trump. He cannot help but shoot himself in the foot daily.