Trump says he is finalizing plan to end abuse of asylum system
President Donald Trump said he intends to take executive action next week to end the "abuse" of the US asylum system, a plan that could include "massive tent cities" at the southern border aimed at holding migrants indefinitely and making it more difficult for them to remain in the country.
But Trump offered few other details during remarks at the White House, where he reiterated unsubstantiated claims he has made in recent weeks that a caravan of migrants from Central America, travelling north through Mexico by foot, represents an urgent national security threat. He painted the group, which includes many families with children, as dangerous and akin to an "invasion".
The President's remarks, carried live on cable news, came just days before next Tuesday's midterm elections, the latest bid by Trump to make immigration the top campaign issue, reports Washington Post.Trump said the emergency steps he plans to take would protect the United States against what he characterized as rampant fraud that threatens to overwhelm the nation's immigration system.
The President offered no legal rationale for his plan, and he brushed off questions about the legality of some of the methods he suggested could be employed, such as detaining families indefinitely or refusing migrants an immigration court hearing.Such moves would likely trigger legal challenges from civil rights groups.
A lawsuit filed on Thursday in the District of Columbia federal court on behalf of six Honduran citizens argues that the President's response to the caravan violates the rights of asylum seekers by aiming to block them from entry, or else indefinitely detaining them under unsuitable conditions should they arrive.Trump also suggested that the US military at the border could fire on members of the caravan if the migrants throw rocks at soldiers.
Attorneys at the White House, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice have struggled in recent weeks to make the President's sweeping demands to suspend humanitarian protections comport with US laws that protect the right to seek refuge on US soil, regardless of how that asylum seeker arrives."These illegal caravans will not be allowed into the United States," Trump said. "They should turn back now. They're wasting their time."
In a sign that the administration is moving to carry out Trump's orders, the DHS has asked the Pentagon to provide up to 8,000 family detention beds at two sites, an administration official confirmed to The Washington Post on Thursday.The President and his Republican allies have expressed confidence that Trump's hardline immigration message will motivate his conservative base as Republicans try to maintain control of Congress.
Democrats have accused the President of fanning public fears over a group of migrant families that has dwindled and remains 1,280km from the US.Under the Refugee Act of 1980, migrants who present themselves at US ports of entry or reach American soil and state a fear of persecution in their home countries are entitled to a "credible fear" screening.
That review is typically done by a US asylum officer to determine whether the applicant should be referred to an immigration judge.If approved by the asylum officer, applicants are typically released in the US while waiting for a hearing, which could take a year or longer because immigration courts have a backlog of more than 750,000 cases.
Trump said that large numbers of migrants are being coached by immigration lawyers to make false asylum claims and that more Central American families are making the journey because US law prevents the federal government from detaining children for lengthy periods. The number of Central America families seeking asylum reached record levels this year.
