Trump: Bypass court process

He calls immigration system a ‘mockery’

President Donald Trump continued pressing his “zero tolerance” policy for undocumented immigrants Sunday, tweeting that the plan is fair and gives preference to those who “legally wait their turn.”

“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., visiting a processing center for immigrants on the Texas border, dismissed the implication that the immigrants should be denied due process.

A mother with a child who faced threats from gangs and asks for asylum in the USA should not be rejected without a hearing, she said.

“That’s not what our country stands for,” she said. “We do have a system of laws.”

Under zero tolerance, undocumented adult immigrants who did not cross at legal entry points were arrested and separated from their children. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to end the separations. Sunday, federal officials released a plan to reunify immigrant children with their parents at a mass detention center in Texas. The Department of Homeland Security said the reunifications may not happen until after the parents’ deportation proceedings are complete.

“Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years!” Trump tweeted. “Immigration must be based on merit - we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!”

‘Zero tolerance’ foes rally

Voto Latino and other advocates rallied in the Texas border town of Tornillo to demand the Trump administration fix the humanitarian crisis they said the president’s policies created. Hundreds of demonstrators, including director-activist Rob Reiner

and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, chanted “Free the children now” at the Marcelino Serna Port of Entry.

“This is an issue about what is right and what is wrong,” Castro said.

In McAllen, demonstrators continued a hunger strike, joined by Evan Rachel Wood of HBO’s “Westworld.”

“This isn’t our fault, but it is our problem,” she said. Other Hollywood stars including Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, LeVar Burton and CCH Pounder committed to the strike, although they did not come to McAllen.

Participants don’t eat for 24 hours, then “pass” the strike onto someone else. Organizers plan to continue the fast for 24 days to honor the estimated 2,400 kids separated from their parents.

Immigration as election issue

Trump told Republicans in Nevada that he needs a Republican Congress to pursue his agenda on immigration and other matters.

“I like the issue for election, too: Our issue is strong borders, no crime; their issue is open borders, let MS-13 (a Latin American gang) all over our country,” Trump told the state GOP convention in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

TREVOR HUGHES/USA TODAY An attendee demonstrates at a news conference Sunday in McAllen, Texas, which has been the focus of the controversy over separating immigrant families.