Trump pledges crackdown on asylum seekers
WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday he plans to sign an order next week that could lead to the large-scale detention of migrants crossing the southern border and bar anyone caught crossing illegally from claiming asylum — two legally dubious proposals that mark his latest election-season barrage against illegal immigration.
“This is an invasion,” Trump declared as he has previously on a subject that has been shown to resonate strongly with his base of Republican supporters. He made his comments at the White House in a speech that was billed as a response to groups of migrants currently walking toward the U.S. border.
U.S. immigration laws make clear that migrants seeking asylum may do so either at or between border crossings. But Trump said he would limit that to official crossing points. The U.S. also doesn’t have space at the border to manage the largescale detention of migrants, with most facilities at capacity. But Trump said the government would erect “massive tents.”
“We’re stopping people at the border,” he said firmly.
His announcement marked Trump’s latest attempt to keep the issue of immigration frontand-center in the final stretch before next Tuesday’s elections. Notably, he said his executive order would come next week, which means it could be after Election Day.
At the same time, some Democrats and Republicans are denouncing a video that Trump tweeted out on Wednesday as a racist campaign tactic.
Luis Bracamontes, an immigrant living from Mexico in the country illegally, sports a shaved head and long chin hair and speaks in accented English in the video, and his words are clear: He’s killed cops and he’s “gonna kill more cops soon.”
The video alleges without evidence that Democrats were responsible for allowing Bracamontes into the U.S. It comes amid a frenzy of hardline immigration proposals, including sending troops to the border and revoking birthright citizenship.
“This is a sickening ad. Republicans everywhere should denounce it,” said Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, a frequent Trump critic.
Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, called the new ad the “dog whistle of all dog whistles.”
Bracamontes, a twice-deported immigrant from Mexico, was sentenced to death in California for the 2014 killings.
The ad was reminiscent of the infamous “Willie Horton” ad used against Democratic presidential candidate Michael Dukakis in 1988 and condemned as racist. Horton, who was black, raped a woman while out of prison on a weekend furlough. As Massachusetts governor, Dukakis supported the furlough program. Dukakis went on to lose to Republican George H.W. Bush.
The video did not immediately appear to be running on television, and has received extensive coverage on cable news networks. As of Thursday afternoon, it had received 3.51 million views in less than 24 hours and was the “pinned” tweet atop Trump’s profile, meaning it was the first thing any visitor to his Twitter page would see.