Trump wants "toughness" to discourage migration, but physical measures continue to fail

[Burgeoning court backlog undercuts Trump immigration agenda]

Trump needs legislative and technical solutions to remedy these "loopholes", experts say, and legal and moral obstacles to the use of physical force during a migration wave composed mainly of families and children. manifest.

"Despite all that the administration has done – send the army, separate families, the plan" Stay in Mexico ", the numbers are increasing, not decreasing," said David Lapan, a former Trump administration executive who worked under John F. Kelly when Kelly ran the Department of Homeland Security.

"The sending of troops to the border does not correct the flaws in the system and it does nothing to counter the pull factors that cause people to leave Central America and come here first." place, "said Lapan, 34. years in the US Marine Corps and is now with the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.

The White House's request for additional $ 4.5 billion at the border, which would largely cover the costs of long-term care for migrant children arriving at the border without parents, also denied in recent days the physical hardness of Trump. The White House has also begun resorting to technical deterrents, ordering amendments to tighten the asylum system, including asking for fees for asylum seekers for the first time.

[Trump tightens asylum rules, will make immigrants pay fees to seek humanitarian refuge]

Trump often describes himself, and admires others, in terms of "hard" or "loud," and ridicules his opponents by calling them "weak." His recent removal from the DHS leadership, including the dismissal of Kirstjen Nielsen as secretary, has resulted in a desire to move in a "steeper direction" in immigration matters. he stated, without indicating at that time what this might imply.

Stephen Miller, Trump's senior immigration advisor, is pushing Trump to project power at the border, and Miller questioned the courage of the DHS officials he considered insufficiently great.

[Trump ditches nominee to lead ICE, says he wants someone “tougher”]

"Hard" has often meant doing things that Homeland Security officials have considered illegal or impossible, officials of the current and former administration said. Trump did not elaborate on the details of what he hoped the agency would do – but he found that measures such as closing the border seemed "difficult" to the outside .

The increase in the number of migrants has frustrated him, officials said, according to him, because he regrets the images of migrants crossing the American border without being disturbed and scenes of US border agents providing care and comfort to the US. migrant families.

When Nielsen prepared to give a press conference at the White House last year to defend family separations from the administration's "zero tolerance," Trump told him to "go out and be firm, my darling, "according to people who have heard the comments.

He later told his associates that Nielsen was stronger than expected and that he was proud of her. However, he regularly asked if she was severe enough in terms of immigration, according to current and former assistants who spoke under the guise of anonymity to describe the behavior of the president to reporters.

Trump has made fun of experts' recommendations on controlling the use of UAVs and sensors to improve safety, insisting that he wanted a "mighty wall" guarded by troops and kilometers of concertina son.

The shadows of Central American migrants are projected against a wall in a compound where they are held by US border agents in El Paso on March 28, 2019, after entering the country from Mexico and demanding asylum. (Jose Luis Gonzalez / Reuters)

Trump felt that the difficult immigration proposals were too draconian, according to his aides. Some White House staff have resorted to legal objections to mitigate their most severe impulses.

An administration official described Trump's wish for a more physical response as an understandable response from a furious president to the arrival of more than 100,000 migrants a month. The official described this intervention as a "protracted lawless invasion" that federal courts and Democratic legislators do not consider a threat.

"In any other civilization, one million people arriving every year in your country would be taken seriously and you would use all the necessary means within the limits of humanity and dignity to put an end to it, but we do it not, "said the official on condition of anonymity to share candid views. "We are limited and I think he said that if some of the troops did some of these things, there might not be an invasion. It's incredibly frustrating for a high percentage of the population and for the president's base. "

Trump said in recent days that migrants viewed the border as "Disneyland". He described this city as a place where fearsome criminals file false asylum claims to thwart the US immigration system.

"These tough gang members are riding like innocent little lambs alongside a lawyer they come looking for," Trump told Fox's Maria Bartiromo. "Then you look at the guy and you would not want to fight him."

"This guy is scared of nothing," Trump said.

In his first year in office, Trump's harsh speeches seemed to work. He issued a series of law enforcement measures and gave immigration officers more leeway to make arrests. Border apprehensions, the main measure used to assess migration flows, have reached their lowest level in half a century.

But the smugglers quickly realized that the difficult speech on immigration had no force. The number of unauthorized migrants began to increase in mid-2017, and in March the authorities arrested more than 103,000 migrants along the border with Mexico, their highest level in 12 years.

The nature of migration has also changed dramatically, from mostly single Mexican looking for seasonal employment to families in Central America fleeing poverty, despair and rampant violence. Parents who bring children now account for 60% of arrivals, more than ever before, and border patrol posts are so crowded that officers release their families directly into the interior of the country instead of sending them to prison beforehand. .

Cecilia Muñoz, director of the White House's Domestic Policy Council, chaired by President Barack Obama, said smugglers take advantage of the lack of a coherent border policy in the United States. United.

"There is no evidence that the most punitive measures this administration can think of have been effective," she said. "All the twists and turns of the administration takes. . . help the smugglers. Every time he says something, it gives the smugglers time to say, "See, it's going to change. You better come here now.

"All the stops and the steps and the search for solutions by the administration only reinforce the schemas and contribute to the problem," she added. "By creating chaos, the administration creates excellent conditions to exploit for the smugglers."

Muñoz said the White House is considering a new separation from family separation to appease Trump's desire to be treated harshly, a program called "binary choice", giving detained parents the opportunity to remain in detention with their children or release them Guardian. She said that the plan and others are not beginners who will lead the administration into more legal battles.

Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of the CBP from 2014 to 2017 under the Obama administration, said the physical symbols of tenacity of the Trump administration – such as the razor wire – could excite Trump's political base. but would probably have little effect on border crossing.

Instead, he said, arresting migrants, deciding on their case and deporting them would send a stronger signal that illegally entering the country will fail.

This approach had a "chilling effect" on grade crossings in 2015, following the recrudescence of unaccompanied minors the previous year, Kerlikowske said. But he added that the White House must combine its efforts with increased foreign aid to alleviate the poverty and violence that migrants were fleeing.

"You can not be harsher at the border than what these people are facing at home," he said. "So if you improve things at home economically, educationally, with security, then it's better."

Kerlikowske said that too often, the White House's immigration policies are poorly designed and even poorly executed.

"Given the numbers, you are considering two full years of unsuccessful policy," Kerlikowske said. "If your goal is to reduce the number."

Lapan, the former DHS official, said the biggest rhetoric disconnect is between the president's tough border talks and calls for congressional action.

"It's almost a mantra that Congress needs to change the laws, but look at how much the administration does little to make it happen," he said. "This administration had two years of Congress controlled by the Republicans, but they could not get the desired legislative changes. You have to find a way to work with the Democrats. Otherwise, you will never succeed, because all these other measures do not reduce flows. "