[ad_1]
The request follows a letter sent Monday by three House committee chairs requesting documents related to Trump's proposal to release immigrants to "sanctuary" cities.
In recent weeks, the president continued to criticize the country's immigration laws, suggested a border closure and tariffs on auto imports and forced the minister of the Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, to resign.
Two officials informed of the exchange said the president had told McAleenan, since he had been appointed interim secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that he would "forgive him if he ever went in prison for refusing the entry of migrants to the United States, "according to one of the officials.
In its letter, the committee, led by Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler, requests a list of DHS employees present at the McAleenan meeting with Trump in Calexico; a list of employees who attended the Trump meeting with Border Patrol agents at about the same time; and documents and communications related to the Nielsen meeting with Trump "around March 21, 2019 to discuss the reinstatement of the zero tolerance policy and the closure of the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas".
The deadline is April 30th.
"The discussion that would have taken place between you, President Trump and other ministry staff is a result of troubling behavior over the past two years, which seems to show that President Trump sees the power of rehabilitation as a political tool, or even worse mechanism to circumvent the law or avoid the consequences of his own conduct ", we read in the letter of the judicial college.
Asked about the pardon comments, the White House referred CNN to the Department of Homeland Security, where a spokeswoman told CNN: "The President never indicated, asked, ordered or pressured the secretary Acting for it to do anything illegal – Secretary takes action that does not comply with our responsibility to enforce the law. "
Trump has denied information that he would have forgiven in a tweet Friday night.
The exchange took place as the president threatened to close the border in response to a sharp rise in the number of migrants at the border. In March, there were about 92,000 arrests of undocumented migrants for illegal entry on the southern border, up from 37,390 in March, according to CBP.
Behind the scenes, two sources told CNN, the president told border officials not to let migrants in. "Tell them we do not have the capacity," he said. "If the judges are causing you trouble, say," Sorry, judge, I can not do it. We do not have the room. "The letter from the Judiciary Committee of the House quotes the exchange in its letter to McAleenan.
After the president had left the room, the officers sought advice from their leaders, who told them that they were not giving them that direction and that if they did what the president told them, they would assume personal responsibility. . You must follow the law, they told them.
CNN's Jake Tapper contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link