Trump Expected to Order Mexican Border Wall

[WVU82]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/wall-border-trump.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — President Trump will order the construction of a Mexican border wall on Wednesday, White House officials said, and is mulling plans to stop Syrian refugees from entering the country and to slash immigration of refugees from “terror prone” nations, perhaps as early as this week.

During an appearance at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, Mr. Trump plans to sign an executive order to direct federal funds to be shifted toward the building of a wall on the southern border that became a signature promise of his campaign. He has argued that doing so is vital to gaining control over the illegal flow of immigrants into the United States.

But Mr. Trump is also expected to target legal immigrants as early as this week, the officials said, by halting a decades-old program that grants refuge to the world’s most vulnerable people as he begins the process of dramatically curtailing it. He is considering a policy that would temporarily freeze refugee admissions from Syria and other majority-Muslim nations that are considered “terror prone,” and would halve the number of displaced people who can be resettled on American soil.

 

[eerdoc]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/wall-border-trump.html?_r=0

WASHINGTON — President Trump will order the construction of a Mexican border wall on Wednesday, White House officials said, and is mulling plans to stop Syrian refugees from entering the country and to slash immigration of refugees from “terror prone” nations, perhaps as early as this week.

During an appearance at the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday, Mr. Trump plans to sign an executive order to direct federal funds to be shifted toward the building of a wall on the southern border that became a signature promise of his campaign. He has argued that doing so is vital to gaining control over the illegal flow of immigrants into the United States.

But Mr. Trump is also expected to target legal immigrants as early as this week, the officials said, by halting a decades-old program that grants refuge to the world’s most vulnerable people as he begins the process of dramatically curtailing it. He is considering a policy that would temporarily freeze refugee admissions from Syria and other majority-Muslim nations that are considered “terror prone,” and would halve the number of displaced people who can be resettled on American soil.

He campaigned on these planks. Glad to see he is moving forward. These moves are rational and without any degree of unkindness.

 

[WVU82]

and targeting sanctuary cities where local leaders refuse to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation, part of a multi-day rollout of his long-promised crackdown on illegal immigration, officials familiar with the decision said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Trump plans to speak to a town hall of employees at the Department of Homeland Security’s headquarters in Washington, where he is expected to sign the orders. The effort to crack down on what are known as sanctuary cities will resonate with the Republican base, which has long criticized local officials who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities. Later this week, officials said, the president plans to sign other orders restricting immigration and access to the United States for refugees and some visa holders from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, although the exact timing was being arranged late Tuesday and was subject to change. Residents from many of these places are already rarely granted U.S. visas.

Although Trump’s immigration efforts this week are widely seen inside the White House as a victory for the self-described populist wing of his inner circle — which includes Bannon, Sessions and top policy adviser Stephen Miller — there are ongoing discussions about just how far to go on some policies, in particular the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, also known as DACA. The 2012 initiative has given temporary protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of people who arrived in the United States as children. Trump vowed during the campaign to reverse it.

It was not clear late Tuesday how DACA would be addressed as part of Trump’s immigration actions, if at all, according to a White House official, because of differing views among Trump’s advisers and associates about the timing, scope and political benefits of ending the program or suspending it for new entries.

“Many options are being worked through on DACA,” the official said.

A second person close to Trump noted that Sessions remains highly influential and said during his Senate confirmation hearing this month that ending DACA “would certainly be constitutional.” The person said Sessions and Bannon are working to make sure DACA is addressed but have not finalized a new policy with Trump.

White House aides said Trump planned to meet Wednesday with several parents of children who were killed by immigrants who are in the country illegally. These activists, who refer to themselves as “angel moms,” were frequently featured during Trump’s campaign rallies and during the Republican National Convention.

Any immigration measures announced by the president will set up a fierce battle in Trump’s first week between the White House and advocates for immigrants, who were reacting with alarm Tuesday as word spread that immigration was on the table. Immigration experts said they had been told the orders later this week would include a halt to all admissions of refugees for 120 days, including from the Syrian civil war, and a 30-day pause in the issuance of immigrant and non-immigrant visas to people from some predominantly Muslim countries.

The planned visit to DHS will be Trump’s second to a Cabinet-level agency since he took office Friday. He spoke to employees at the CIA’s headquarters in Northern Virginia on Saturday.