LAW & DISORDER
Trump calls for end of court hearings for illegal immigrants caught at border
President Trump slammed United States immigration laws, arguing border officials should have the ability to toss those caught at the border without any court hearings.
“We cannot allow these people to invade our Country,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”
Presently, undocumented immigrants seeking asylum can have their cases heard before a judge assigned to rule on the merits of the plea. Undocumented immigrants living in the United States are also entitled to a set of legal protections.
The President's tweet was quickly repudiated by the American Civil Liberties Union.
“What President Trump suggested is both illegal and unconstitutional,” the nonprofit tweeted. “Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally.”
In 2004, President George W. Bush enacted an expedited removal policy. Under that setup, undocumented immigrants could be deported from the U.S. without a trial if they had been in the country unlawfully for less than two weeks and were caught within 100 miles of the border.
The Obama administration kept that practice in place.
Trump has been thinking about expanding that Homeland Security Department policy since last summer, according to The Washington Post.
His administration wants to boot, without a court hearing, illegal immigrants found anywhere in the country who can't prove they've been living in
the United States continuously for more than 90 days.
That new policy would not require congressional approval and can be enacted by Homeland Security.
Earlier Sunday, the Trump administration and a GOP lawmaker said the government can identify all the parents of children separated at the southern border as part of the zero tolerance immigration policy – and urged those still separated to call a hotline.
“We know where every single child is,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla., photo) said on “Meet the Press.”
Asked if that included the location of their parents as well, Lankford responded, “We do.”
But the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has contradicted that assertion, saying it is sometimes impossible for government officials to locate the parents.
“Permanent separation, it happens,” John Sandweg, acting director of ICE from 2013-14, told NBC News last Tuesday.
Parents were given a paper detailing that they’ve been charged with a crime for illegally trying to enter the U.S. The note also said they would be separated from their children until the case was adjudicated.
In response to national outrage, Trump signed an executive order last Wednesday to stop his own administration’s policy of yanking children away from their parents at the border. But the administration said at least 2,300 children had been ripped away and placed in detention centers.
The Trump administration has yet to publicize any strategy to reunite the children with their parents or guardians. The issue is complicated because parents can be quickly deported while a child’s asylum plea may take years to make it through the court system.
Lankford said just a “small percentage” of migrants trying to enter the U.S. match Trump’s description of the “worst” of society.
"I would just say I would prefer the President would step out and say (that) a lot of these folks (are coming) for economic reasons," Lankford said. "They want to be able to flee into an area where they have greater economic opportunities."