Wall, refugees on Trump’s list
UNITED STATES: President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders starting today that include a temporary ban on most refugees and a suspension of visas for citizens of Syria and six other Middle Eastern and African countries, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.
Trump is expected to order a multi-month ban on allowing refugees into the United States except for religious minorities escaping persecution, until more aggressive vetting is in place. Another order will block visas being issued to anyone from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified.
The sources have said the first of the orders will be signed today. But Trump is also considering measures to tighten border security and could turn his attention to the refugee issue later this week. The border security measures could include directing the construction of a border wall with Mexico and other actions to reduce the number of illegal immigrants living inside the United States.
And yesterday, the White House reiterated Trump’s false contention that he lost the national popular vote because of 3 million to 5 million illegal votes, as yet another untruth swelled into a distraction that threatens to undermine his first week in office.
Trump repeatedly has claimed there was widespread voter fraud in the November election, most recently telling congressional leaders on Tuesday that he thinks it is why he lost the popular vote to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Although the president’s theory has been broadly discredited, White House press secretary Sean Spicer held up debunked research yesterday to support it, and left open the possibility of a federal investigation. ’’The president has believed that for a while based on studies and information he has,’’ Spicer said.
When pressed, Spicer would not state whether he agrees with Trump, only that it is the president’s ‘‘long-standing belief’’.
If Trump is worried that losing the popular tally by nearly 3 million votes could snarl his legislative agenda, his allies say he need not be concerned: His party controls Congress and Trump’s legislative agenda is being treated by Republicans as if he had won a sweeping mandate and enjoyed high approval ratings.
But Republican strategists argue that Trump has not psychologically adjusted to becoming president and that he risks damaging his credibility if he continues to assert falsehoods under the microscope of the White House.
On Tuesday at a White House reception for congressional leaders, Trump privately told lawmakers he would have won the popular vote had it not been for 3 million to 5 million illegal votes, according to people familiar with the conversation. But elections officials in most states – many of them Republican – have reported no instances of widespread election problems, including fraud.
Democrats fear Trump’s allegations of voter fraud are about more than his personal ego. They say he might be signalling support for a systematic Republican effort in the states to suppress voting rights.
Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Centre for Justice at the New York University School of Law, accused Trump of pushing ‘‘fake news about our democracy. It is unprecedented . . . for the president and the White House spokesman to push a lie of this magnitude about voting. These are not random conspiracy theorists on the internet. These are the highest officials in the land.’’
– Washington Post