The Asian Age

Trump plans tent cities for illegal immigrants seeking asylum in US

- LALIT K. JHA

President Donald Trump has said that his administra­tion is planning to build tent cities for thousands of migrants seeking asylum in the US, rather than releasing them while they await court decisions.

In an interview with Fox News, Mr Trump asserted that his administra­tion will not let illegal immigrants come into the US as the Pentagon on Monday announced to deploy 5,200 soldiers on the south- western border to beef up security.

All such illegal immigrants would live in such a tent city till the time a decision has been taken on their applicatio­n. If denied, they would be sent across the border from where they came, Mr Trump said.

His comments come amid nationwide attention over a 3,500- member migrant caravan that has travelled through Central America and into Mexico on its way to the US border, where many people travelling in the group plan to apply for asylum after fleeing violence in Honduras.

Mr Trump said on Monday he planned to deploy 5,200 troops to the region by the end of the week, even though the caravan itself, in which people are travelling mostly on foot, is weeks away from the border.

“We’re not letting them in into this country. We’re not going to let gang members ( come in),” Mr place, he said.

“We’re going to put up… we are going to build tent cities. We’re going to put tents up all over the place,” he said when asked where these illegal immigrants seeking asylum would be kept.

Mr Trump said his administra­tion is not going to build structures and spend hundreds of millions of dollars for this.

“We’re going to have tents. They ( tents) are going to be very nice. They ( illegal immigrants) are going to wait ( in the tent cities). If they don’t get asylum, they get out,” he said.

Unlike the previous administra­tions, Mr Trump said he would not let those illegal immigrants to roam around the country and wait for the trial three years later.

“Unlike Mr Obama and unlike others, we are going to take the people ( illegal immigrants seeking asylum). We are going to put them in ( tents) and they’re going to wait,” he asserted.

As a result of this policy, he said when people find out that this happened, far few people will try to enter the US illegally.

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