Trump news: President hints he will shut down asylum process during California border visit
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Your support makes all the difference.Donald Trump has attacked the late former first lady Barbara Bush in a newspaper interview a day after posting a satirical alt-right meme of ex-vice-president Joe Biden on Twitter.
“I see that you are on the job and presidential, as always,” Mr Biden responded to the tweet, which sits pinned to the top of the president’s Twitter profile. The video in question sends up Mr Biden’s apology after he was accused of inappropriate conduct towards women while on the campaign trail, and was circulated by Donald Trump Jr earlier on Thursday.
Mr Trump then made a stop in Calexico, California, to inspect construction work on his US-Mexico wall after rowing back on his threat to close the border, the trip providing a timely change of focus for the president after thousands of protesters campaigned outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square to demand the release of the Mueller report in full.
While in southern California, Mr Trump heard from officials who praised his leadership and promised to build some 400 miles of border wall in the next year and a half.
Mr Trump, during a round table with Border Patrol officials, said that the US has no more room for immigrants — and thanked Mexican officials for what he described as new efforts to stop migrants from making it to the US-Mexico border.
The White House, prior to Mr Trump's visit to the border, hailed the 2-miles of fencing there as the first completed section of the president's border wall.
But, Mr Trump cannot take full credit for the construction: Border barriers have existed there for decades, and plans for the recent renovations first began to develop during the presidency of Barack Obama.
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Just before Mr Trump began speaking, the White House released this information on the situation at the border:
OVERWHELMING SURGE AT THE BORDER: President Donald J. Trump has warned repeatedly that our border is being overwhelmed and, as the numbers show, that is exactly what is happening.
- United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) engaged in more than 100,000 border enforcement actions in March – the most for one month in more than a decade.
- Total enforcement actions were 516 percent higher than in March 2017.
LEADING AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE: President Trump is doing everything within his lawful authority to secure our border and address this growing crisis.
- President Trump has deployed troops to assist with the situation at the border and is fulfilling his promise to build the wall.
- The Department of Homeland Security has reassigned CBP officers from ports of entry to assist with the response.
- The Secretary of Homeland Security has directed immigration agencies to return the maximum possible number of aliens each day to Mexico to await immigration proceedings.
- Hundreds of aliens can now wait in Mexico while their immigration cases are adjudicated.
- The Administration secured the first-ever agreement with Northern Triangle countries to help stop caravans from flooding across our border and to combat human smuggling and trafficking.
THE BROKEN SYSTEM DRIVING THIS CRISIS: Congress must act immediately to fix the broken immigration system and address the root causes of the crisis at our border.
- The broken immigration system is driving more and more unaccompanied alien children and families to make the dangerous trek to our border.
- In the past, illegal immigration across our southern border was primarily committed by single adult males from Mexico who could be quickly removed, but now most are families and minors from Central America.
- Currently, we cannot promptly return unaccompanied alien children who arrive at our border from countries other than Mexico and Canada.
- The Flores settlement agreement and subsequent court rulings have effectively forced the Government to release aliens traveling with a minor after approximately 20 days.
- Our asylum laws need to be tightened in order to prevent rampant abuse of the system while protecting legitimate asylum seekers.
Mr Trump just said that he "inherited this stuff" referring to immigration issue he is seeing on the US-Mexico border.
He has also said that people aren't suing the president over the issue at the border anymore.
Mr Trump has thanked Mexico, reasserting that he is "totally willing to close the border".
He says that Mexico has been apprehending thousands of migrants at the southern Mexico border, and that it is cutting own 70 or 80 per cent of the flow to the US border.
Mr Trump is now blaming the "crisis" at the US-Mexico border on Democrats, and suggested that some Democrats are coming around to his way of thinking on the border crisis.
"It's a colossal surge and its overwhelming our immigration system and we can't let that happen."
"The system is full. We can't take you anymore. Whether its asylum whether its illegal immigration. We can't take you anymore," Mr Trump said.
"Turn around, that's the way it is."
Mr Trump is now asking Lieutenant General Todd Semonite with the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the construction at the US-Mexico border.
Mr Semonite says that they have put into ground "over 82 miles that is up to date" and that there will be another 97 miles that will be put in by the end of the year.
He says that they will put in the ground another more than 200 miles after that.
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