Amid talk of NAFTA deal, Trump targets border
President Donald Trump made aggressive steps last week to combat illegal immigration, tweeting Sunday “NO MORE DACA DEAL!” before signing a proclamation Wednesday to deploy National Guard troops to the country’s border with Mexico.
Trump also proposed toughening laws to make it more difficult to apply for or be granted asylum in the United States, stripping protections for children arriving illegally without their parents so they can be turned back at the border or quickly removed, and allowing families to be detained for longer periods while they await decisions from immigration authorities about their fates.
What seemed to begin with a response to a “caravan” of Central American migrants making their way north to Mexico, and possibly trying to gain entry to the U.S., included claims by the president that “Mexico has the absolute power not to let these large ‘Caravans’ of people enter their country.”
Meanwhile, after months of fraught negotiations and stalled talks, the Trump administration is aiming to announce a preliminary deal on the North American Free Trade Agreement this month, moving to resolve one trading conflict as a separate clash with China looms. A final agreement is far from guaranteed, but the White House is revising some of its more aggressive demands, particularly related to automobiles, which had been a source of tension with Canada and Mexico.