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There are two Thursdays, at a meeting at the Oval Office with senior officials – including Nielsen, State Secretary Mike Pompeo, senior advisers Jared Kushner, Mercedes Schlapp and Dan Scavino, the 39th. White House lawyer Pat Cipollone and others – the president, according to a participant's president was "furious and furious, saying that border security was his problem".
Senior administration officials said Trump had then ordered Nielsen and Pompeo to close El Paso harbor the next day, Friday, March 22 at noon. The plan was that in the days following the Trump administration would close other ports.
Nielsen told Trump that it would be a bad and even dangerous idea, and that the Texas governor, Republican Greg Abbott, had backed the president.
She proposed an alternative plan that would slow down entry into legal ports. She argued that if you close all entry points, all you would do would be to stop trade and legal travel, but migrants will only pass from one port to the other. # 39; other.
According to two people present in the room, the president said, "I m".
In the end, White House acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, seemed to have been able to deter the president from closing the port of El Paso. Trump, however, insisted that his administration begin another action – banning the entry of asylum seekers. Nielsen tried to explain to the president that the asylum laws allowed Central American migrants to come to the United States and enter it. She spoke to the White House lawyer to find out if there were any exceptions, but he told her that she had read the law well.
Neither the White House nor the Department of Homeland Security responded to formal requests for comment.
Told agents not to let migrants enter
Last Friday, the president visited Calexico, California, where he said: "We are full, our system is full, our country is full – we can not get in! Our country is full, what can you do? can not handle more, our country is full.I can not enter, I'm sorry.It's very simple. "
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 a room."
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.
More widespread family separation policy
Senior government officials also told CNN that in the last four months, the president has been pressuring Nielsen to implement a stricter and more widespread immigration policy – not only the initial policy launched by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions. by the president once he was criticized – this called for the prosecution of people illegally crossing the border between the entry points, resulting in the separation of the parents of the children.
According to several sources, the president wanted the families to be separated even if they entered through a legal entry point and were legal asylum seekers. The president wanted the families to be separated even though they were apprehended in the United States. He thinks separations help to deter migrants from coming.
Sources told CNN that Nielsen had tried to explain that they could not come back with this policy due to court challenges, and that White House staff had tried to explain that it would be a total disaster in public relations.
"He just wants to separate families," said a senior administration official.
Last night on the second floor of the East Wing of the White House residence – in a room called Yellow Oval – Nielsen, Mulvaney and the President met. Nielsen tried to present a legal path and complies with US laws, but the president told him, "It does not work." And Nielsen has not disagreed.
"By the end of the day," said a senior administration official, "the president refuses to understand that the Department of Homeland Security is forced by the laws."
Priscilla Alvarez from CNN contributed to this report.
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