Trump revisits migrant proposal; tweets refer to ‘sanctuary’ placements

Central American migrants, part of the caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, walk on the shoulder of a road Friday in Frontera Hidalgo, Mexico.
Central American migrants, part of the caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, walk on the shoulder of a road Friday in Frontera Hidalgo, Mexico.

President Donald Trump said Friday that his administration is giving "strong considerations" to a plan to release migrant detainees exclusively into "sanctuary cities," reviving a proposal that White House officials insisted had been rejected months ago after only informal consideration.

His comments on Twitter followed a Washington Post report that the administration had been looking at districts of political adversaries, including that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to release detainees.

"Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only," Trump tweeted. He added that, "The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy - so this should make them very happy!"

Asked about it by reporters later, Trump said he was "strongly looking at" releasing migrant families into those communities.

"We might as well do what they always say they want," Trump said. "We'll bring them to sanctuary city areas and let that particular area take care of it," he said, adding that California welcomed the idea of more people going to the state.

"We can give them a lot. We can give them an unlimited supply," he said.

His comments suggested that the plan, which immigration officials had rejected in November and February, was again viable and that the administration is now considering sending all detainees to sanctuary cities to the exclusion of other communities.

But after Trump's tweets, a Department of Homeland Security official said the agency is not drawing up plans to implement the proposal. The official requested anonymity to contradict the president.

A White House spokesman said Friday that Democrats should work with the administration to welcome migrants into their districts.

"Democrats say we must have open borders and that illegal immigrants have a right to be in this country at all costs," the spokesman, Hogan Gidley, said, adding, "so they should be working with the administration to find the best ways to transport those illegal aliens that are already set for release, into communities in their districts and states."

The proposal that had been under consideration was opposed by many immigration enforcement leaders who viewed it as unworkable, having no legal justification and likely to create strain on an agency already dealing with a crisis.

A White House official and a spokesman for Department of Homeland Security sent similar statements to The Washington Post on Thursday, indicating that the proposal was no longer under consideration.

"This was just a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion," the White House statement said.

In a separate statement late Thursday, a White House official characterized the idea of steering migrants to sanctuary cities as being "informally asked."

"The idea was briefly and informally raised and quickly rejected," the official said.

Trump's comments come as he has grown increasingly exasperated by a surge of Central American families crossing the southern border and is looking for new ways to pressure congressional Democrats to change laws that he insists are making the problem worse.

Last week, Trump urged acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan to seal the southern border and told McAleenan he would pardon him if he were to find himself in trouble for blocking legal asylum seekers, according to two people familiar with the conversation who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private exchange.

It was not clear whether the president was joking, and a Homeland Security spokesman said in a statement: "At no time has the president indicated, asked, directed or pressured the acting secretary to do anything illegal." The reported conversation came during the president's trip last week to Calexico, Calif., a day after he announced he was delaying his threat to close the border because Mexico appeared to be stepping up its enforcement efforts.

Most of the roughly 50,000 migrants in federal custody are apprehended at the southern border.

Before Trump tweeted Friday, Pelosi and other House Democrats attending a retreat blasted the idea of the U.S. government taking migrants to sanctuary cities.

"It's just another notion that is unworthy of the presidency of the United States and disrespectful of the challenges that we face as a county, as a people, to address who we are: a nation of immigrants," Pelosi said.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the proposal is "very unfortunate and to be condemned -- that you would use ICE to penalize or to [enact] retribution for political reasons."

"That's not an act of democratic government," he said.

MIDTERM ELECTIONS

The Washington Post reported Thursday that White House officials have twice tried to pressure U.S. immigration authorities to release migrants into sanctuary cities to retaliate against Trump's political foes, including Pelosi.

The White House raised the idea in November just after the midterm elections as a migrant caravan was approaching the southern border, then again in February when Democrats were demanding a reduction in detention beds in a budget standoff over the government shutdown.

Pelosi's San Francisco district was among the cities mentioned as a possible target, according to multiple Homeland Security officials. Two took their case to Congress to blow the whistle on the proposal.

The idea never came to fruition and in fact alarmed Immigration and Customs officials asked to carry it out. The immigration agency's leadership protested that busing migrants from the border to different cities in the U.S. would create an undue time and financial burden on an agency already struggling with challenges amid a border crisis, according to emails reviewed by The Washington Post.

Lawyers at the agency rejected the idea for legal reasons as well; others noted it would cause "PR risks" to target Trump's adversaries.

But the White House believed it could punish Democrats -- including Pelosi -- by releasing detainees into their districts to try to create an unstable environment and chaos, according to two Homeland Security whistleblowers who independently reported the busing plan to Congress.

In a Friday morning statement, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the fact that the idea was considered twice "serves as a reminder that the Trump administration's reckless immigration agenda is not about keeping the country safe, but about partisan politics and wantonly inflicting cruelty."

"If the administration wants to send a message to Democrats, let us send this message to the president: if your immigration policies are not fixing the problem but only cause chaos and focus on keeping people out, they will always fail," Thompson said. "Playing politics with the country's homeland security has been a mainstay of the Trump administration since day one. The American people want it to end."

Trump and other conservatives who have pushed for a crackdown on migrants have used the term "sanctuary cities" to describe jurisdictions that don't notify federal immigration agents when they have taken migrants into custody unless they have some reason to think the person poses a threat to public safety, such as an outstanding felony warrant.

Trump campaigned on ending sanctuary cities and singled out San Francisco for releasing a migrant who was later involved in the death of Kate Steinle, 32, in 2015, a case Republicans have repeatedly highlighted. The man was later acquitted of the fatal shooting and convicted on a gun charge.

Separately, a federal appeals court put a judge's order on hold Friday shortly before it would have stopped the Trump administration from forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases move through U.S. courts.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily blocked the lower court ruling from taking effect. The three-judge panel set a Tuesday deadline for civil-liberties groups to submit arguments on why the asylum policy should be on hold and a Wednesday deadline for the government to argue why it should remain in place.

Judge Richard Seeborg in San Francisco ruled Monday to halt the unprecedented change to the U.S. asylum system while the groups' lawsuit moves forward. He said the policy violates U.S. law by failing to evaluate dangers migrants face in Mexico.

The government called the ruling erroneous and said it endangers the public during a humanitarian crisis at the southern border. It wants the 9th Circuit to keep the policy in place while the lawsuit is litigated, which is expected to take months and possibly years.

Information for this article was contributed by Rachael Bade, John Wagner, Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff of The Washington Post; by Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times; and by Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Nomaan Merchant, Astrid Galvan, Lisa Mascaro, Deb Riechmann, Julie Watson, Brian Melley and Elliot Spagat of The Associated Press.

photo

AP/ISABEL MATEOS

Central American migrants, part of a caravan hoping to reach the U.S. border, rest along the shoulder of a road Friday in Frontera Hidalgo, Mexico.

A Section on 04/13/2019

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