U.S. gears up to block migrants
Homeland chief touts new fence, says ‘everything on table’
CALEXICO, California — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Friday that “everything is on the table” as the administration considered new measures to curb illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border and send a message that a slow-moving migrant caravan bound for the United States will not be welcome.
Nielsen addressed efforts to fortify the border while standing next to a newly constructed 30-foot fence in California. Before she spoke, two workers wearing welding masks affixed a plaque to the barrier with the names of President Donald Trump and several high-ranking officials to commemorate what the administration calls the completion of the first phase of his border wall.
Nielsen’s trip to the border came after the Pentagon approved a request for additional troops at the southern border, expected to total at least 800 and possibly more than 1,000.
“We are looking at every possible way within the legal construct that we have to make sure that those who don’t have the legal right to come to this country do not come in,” Nielsen said.
The president has stepped up his focus on immigration in the days leading up to the Nov. 6 elections that will determine which party controls Congress, focusing on a caravan heading north through Mexico that is about 1,000 miles away but dwindling in size.
“I called up the military,” Trump said at a meeting of young black conservative leaders. “We’re not letting them in, they ought to go back now because we’re not.”
The federal government recently completed construction on a 2-mile section of fencing that’s 30 feet tall. Nielsen called it a significant accomplishment to keep foreigners out. The structure is separate from a concrete wall prototype that the government has built near San Diego as part of Trump’s signature promise during his 2016 White House campaign.
“Let me be clear: Walls work,” Nielsen said.
New details also began to emerge Friday about the military deployment on the border.
A Defense Department official said the mission is authorized from Tuesday to Dec. 15 and will operate in border areas of California, Arizona and Texas. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details that have not yet been publicly announced, said the troops will not be involved in detaining anyone.
In a brief written statement, the Pentagon gave several examples of assistance they would provide. These include barricades and fencing; helicopters and airplanes to move Border Patrol personnel, and medical teams to triage and treat patients and prepare them for commercial transport. It also will provide personal protective gear and temporary housing for Border Patrol personnel.
Trump earlier this year ordered the deployment of National Guard members to the U.S.-Mexico border to respond to a spike in illegal border crossings. But those members remain under the control of the governors of the states where they’re positioned, and their activities are limited to supportive roles, such as providing surveillance.
There already are about 2,000 National Guard troops on the border.
Also Friday, administration officials said Trump is considering a major speech Tuesday to announce a broad crackdown on the southern border.
Trump is expected to use the remarks to outline his plans to fortify the border, including executive actions he is considering to deny entry to Central American migrants and asylum seekers.
A bid to slash financial aid to Central American countries whose citizens are making their way north toward the border also is under discussion, according to people briefed on the discussions.
Even as the president’s advisers met Friday to nail down the details of the multipronged border operation, human-rights groups raised concerns about Trump’s plans, calling them politically motivated and potentially in violation of U.S. and international law.
The biggest source of worry is executive action that Trump is weighing to essentially make it impossible for the large group of Central Americans trekking through Mexico to be able to seek refuge in the United States.
The plan, according to people familiar with it who spoke on condition of anonymity, would include a change in the rules governing asylum eligibility along with a presidential proclamation characterizing the caravan as a national emergency and barring its participants from entering the country.
It is not clear that such a presidential directive would be legal either under U.S. immigration law or international law, both of which contain obligations to evaluate the in- dividual claims of people who present themselves to authorities and ask for asylum.
In addition, Trump would be hard-pressed to demonstrate that the caravan constitutes a national emergency. Given the complex legal issues involved, it could take months or even years for the plan to actually remove would-be immigrants from the United States.
Under the plan, which is still under discussion and could change, the Homeland Security and Justice departments would jointly issue new rules that would disqualify people who cross the border in between ports of entry from claiming asylum, according to people familiar with the discussions but who were not authorized to discuss the planning. Exceptions would be made for people facing torture at home.
Trump would then invoke broad presidential powers to bar foreigners from entering the country for national-security reasons — under the same section of immigration law that underpinned the travel ban — to issue a proclamation blocking migrants from crossing the southern border, according to the plans under discussion. It was not clear how broad the directive would be, including whether it would apply only to people from certain countries or those arriving within a certain period of time.
Meanwhile, the group of Central Americans thinned considerably from exhaustion and illness, and was about 4,000 strong Friday compared with its peak of more than 7,000.
On Friday, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto announced the start of what he called the “You are at home” plan, offering shelter, medical attention, schooling and jobs to Central Americans in the southern states of Chiapas and Oaxaca if they apply for refuge. Pena Nieto said the plan “is only for those who fulfill Mexican laws” and is a first step toward permanent refugee status.
Mexico’s government has allowed the migrants to make their way on foot but has not provided them with food, shelter or bathrooms, reserving any aid for those who present themselves to authorities.