U.S. troops that are confronted by the illegal migrant caravans now in Central America that are approaching the nation’s southern border will be authorized to use force to defend themselves, President Trump said Thursday as he promised a new executive order next week that will prevent those entering the country illegally from making asylum claims.
Trump’s comments came the day after he released a hard-hitting video reminding voters of Democrat shortcomings on immigration policy. The ad features an expletive-spewing Luis Bracamontes, an illegal alien who was sentenced to death for murdering two cops in 2014 in Sacramento, California, when Barack Obama was president. “I’m going to kill more cops soon,” the smiling, remorseless killer is shown saying in the video.
“It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country,” Trump wrote Oct. 30 in a tweet that included the video.
Meanwhile, there are now four caravans of thousands of border-busting foreigners from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that are headed for the United States. Many are violent or reportedly are suffering from communicable diseases. The first is currently near Matias Romero in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. The second is around Huixtla in the Mexican state of Chiapas. The third and fourth caravans are near Escuintla, Guatemala, and Ahuachapan, El Salvador, respectively.
“Migrants seeking asylum will have to present themselves lawfully at a port of entry,” Trump said Nov. 1 at the White House, according to The Epoch Times. “Those who choose to break our laws and enter illegally will no longer be able to use meritless claims to gain automatic admission into our country.” Trump also called human traffickers “the lowest scum on earth.”
“These migrants are not legitimate asylum seekers,” he said. “They’re not looking for protection because if they were, they’d be able to get it from Mexico.”
Trump is right, of course. Legitimate refugees fleeing persecution in their homelands are obligated under international law to seek the protection of the first country they enter, not the country they like the most. Refugee claimants who ignore this rule risk having their claims rejected and being deported. Some caravan marchers have reportedly been offered asylum in Mexico but have rejected it.
The day before Trump’s big announcement he said up to 15,000 troops could be deployed to the border. “We’ll go up to anywhere between 10 and 15,000 military personnel—on top of Border Patrol, ICE and everybody else at the border,” the president said.
“These illegal caravans will not be allowed into the United States and they should turn back now,” Trump said. “We are stopping people at the border. This is an invasion.”
Those in the caravans who throw rocks at authorities will be treated the same as if they brandished a gun, Trump vowed.
“We will consider that a firearm,” Trump said.
“We will consider that the maximum we can consider that, because they’re throwing rocks viciously and violently. …. We’re not going to put up with that. They want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back. I told them to consider it a rifle. When they throw rocks, like they did at the Mexico military and police, I said, consider it a rifle.”
These caravans present a significant threat to American sovereignty, Trump said. “If these caravans are allowed into our country, only bigger and more emboldened caravans will follow … and you see that’s what’s happening now.”
The people in the caravans must be “pretty tough people when they can blast through the Mexican military and Mexican police.” Trump continued: “They’re pretty tough people. Even Mexico said, ‘Wow. These are tough people.’ I don’t want them in our country.”
It has been reported that left-wing groups have been involved in organizing and assisting the caravans.
Trump said:
They understand the law better than the lawyers understand the law. You have a lot of professionalism there, you have a lot of professionalism involved with setting up the caravans. You take a look at the way that’s happening. Even the countries – you look at Honduras and El Salvador. And you look at what’s happening at the different levels and different countries, or what’s happening on the streets. There’s a lot of professionalism taking place. And there seems to be a lot of money passing. And then all of a sudden, out of the blue, these big caravans are formed and they start marching up. They’ve got a long way to go.’
Trump said the government would construct tent cities to hold would-be asylum claimants. “We’ll be holding the family and the children together” in the tents, he said.
‘We have other facilities also. But what’s happened is, we are holding so many facilities, so many people that our facilities are overrun. They’re being overrun. And we are putting up temporary facilities. Eventually people will not be coming here anymore when they realize they cannot get through.”
The latest statements from Trump, which are part of a larger immigration policy enforcement overhaul, have been welcomed by conservatives and other patriotic Americans as long overdue.
President Trump has also vowed to get rid of so-called birthright citizenship, which some say comes out of a misinterpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Under the birthright citizenship theory, American-born children of non-citizens and illegal aliens are automatically American citizens. This policy stance provides incentives to foreigners to have “anchor babies” in the U.S.
Trump said he was “finalizing a plan to end the rampant abuse of our asylum system” and has vowed to issue an executive order on birthright citizenship that he promises will “be quite comprehensive.” Many conservatives support this goal in principle but question the ability of the president to effectuate such a major policy shift by decree. Republican lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) say they will introduce legislation to implement such a policy change.
Trump is also moving ahead with a long-awaited regulatory overhaul aimed at encouraging financial self-sufficiency among prospective immigrants to the United States.
The plan consists of a move to enforce the largely ignored public-charge provisions of the nation’s immigration laws that require would-be immigrants to be able to support themselves without relying on government aid. The administration wants to enact a new regulation in the form of a 183-page draft rule that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) unveiled on Sept. 21.
No doubt the president has more positive changes to immigration policy waiting in the wings.
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