Trump moves on border wall plan
‘Sanctuary cities’ also targeted
— President Donald Trump signed two immigrationrelated executive orders Wednesday, including efforts to build a wall on the Mexican border and to clamp down on socalled “sanctuary cities” that shield migrants in the country illegally.
Calling illegal immigration a “clear and present danger,” Trump’s executive orders are the most detailed of the 12 presidential edicts he’s issued in the first six days of his presidency. They call for the immediate building of a southern border wall, new public or private detention facilities, the hiring of 5,000 new border patrol agents and 10,000 immigration officers, and shutting off federal funds for cities that refuse to inform federal officials about undocumented immigrants in their custody.
The order doesn’t explicitly say how the wall will be paid for, but
Trump has required a report on all foreign aid given to Mexico, with the implicit threat to withhold that funding. Mexico received $59 million in U.S. foreign aid in 2016. Trump has said the wall would cost $8 billion, though independent estimates are as much as three times higher.
Trump signed the orders at a ceremony at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, where he later rallied rank-and-file law enforcement officers, declaring, “A nation without borders is not a nation. Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control, as it gets back its borders.”
In an interview with ABC News, Trump said construction of the wall will begin “in months,” and that the United States will soon commence talks with Mexico over his demand that it pay for the structure — a demand the Mexican government has consistently rejected.
“We’ll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we make from Mexico,” Trump told ABC in his first television interview as president. “I’m just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form.”
Trump is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto next week, the first faceto-face meeting with a foreign leader after British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday.
A senior government official says Mexico’s president is “considering” canceling next week’s visit to Washington following Trump’s order to begin construction of a wall between the two countries.
The decision to rethink the visit comes amid growing outrage in Mexico, and a sense among many that Peña Nieto has been too weak in the face of Trump’s tough policy stance.
Former Mexican President Vicente Fox Quesada on Wednesday resumed his profane assault on the plan.
White House press secretary “Sean Spicer, I’ve said this to @realDonaldTrump and now I’ll tell you: Mexico is not going to pay for that (expletive) wall,” Fox tweeted.
House Speaker Paul Ryan said Congress will front the money for Trump’s newly announced wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
He confirmed in an interview on MSNBC that a suggested price tag between $8 billion and $14 billion is “about right.”
Ryan also said there are different ways to get Mexico to pay.
Trump is expected to wield his executive power again later this week with the directive to dam the refugee flow into the U.S. for at least four months, in addition to an open-ended pause on Syrian arrivals.
The president’s upcoming order also is expected to suspend issuing visas for people from several predominantly Muslim countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — for at least 30 days, according to a draft executive order obtained by The Associated Press.
In other action Wednesday, Trump declared he believes torture works as his administration readied a sweeping review of how America conducts the war on terror. It includes possible resumption of banned interrogation methods and reopening CIA-run “black site” prisons outside the United States.
In an interview with ABC News, Trump said he would wage war against Islamic State militants with the singular goal of
keeping the U.S. safe. Asked specifically about the simulated drowning technique known as waterboarding, Trump cited the extremist group’s atrocities against Christians and others and said: “We have to fight fire with fire.”
Trump said he would consult with new Defense Secretary James Mattis and CIA Director Mike Pompeo before authorizing any new policy. But he said he had asked top intelligence officials in the past day: “Does torture work?”
“And the answer was yes, absolutely,” Trump said.
Beyond reviewing interrogation techniques and facilities, the draft order would instruct the Pentagon to send newly captured “enemy combatants” to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, instead of closing the detention facility as President Barack Obama had wanted.
A clip of Trump’s interview was released after The Associated Press and other news outlets obtained copies of a draft executive order being circulated within his administration.
The AP obtained the draft order from a U.S. official, who said it had been distributed by the White House for consultations before Trump signs it. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.