Trump Purge: an even more ambitious immigration program

WASHINGTON – The elimination by President Trump of the country's highest security officials is a sign that he is preparing to launch an even harder assault on immigration, including the possible return from its controversial decision last summer to separate migrant children from their parents, from their current or past government. officials said Monday.

Mr. Trump has shaken the ranks of his top immigration officials after spending months demanding that they take tougher action to end the increase in the number of families in the country. migrants at the border and what he considers necessary their refusal, too legalistic, to do what he said.

This anger was highlighted on Monday when a judge blocked Trump 's efforts to force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while processing their case – a practice that advocates for asylum seekers. Immigration have described it as inhuman and illegal. Judge Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the current law did not give Trump the power to enforce the policy, known as protection of migrants ".

Immediate targets of the President's growing fury at the border were the officials he considered insufficiently hard-headed: Kirstjen Nielsen, who resigned Sunday as Secretary of Homeland Security, and Ron Vitiello, whose appointment to the permanent leadership of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement was withdrawn after Trump had said: "We want to go in a harder direction ".

But the long-term effect of the frustration created by the creation of Oval Office will likely result in a wave of uncompromising policies that will stand out even within an administration that has implemented an unprecedented series of executive actions and changes to the rules to reduce legal and illegal immigration to the United States.

In addition to urging Trump to reconsider the idea of ​​family separation, several of the president's closest confidants in the immigration field prompted him to consider even tougher measures.

These include additional limitations on who can apply for asylum; strengthening measures to close entry points along the Mexican border; a decree to end citizenship; more aggressive construction of a border wall and reinforcement of active duty troops to secure the border against illegal immigration.

In an administration known for its chaos and last-minute decision-making, it's hard to determine which of these policies the president might choose to go forward. But by dismissing Ms. Nielsen, Mr. Vitiello, and perhaps other people, the chair rid himself of the voices that sometimes warned him to take action that they thought was illegal or reckless.

"There was a perception that Secretary Nielsen was not so attached to the kind of firm approach that was sought by other members of the administration, including the White House," he said. Seth Grossman, Deputy General Counsel, Homeland Department. Security from 2011 to 2015.

He said that the departure of Ms. Nielsen and Mr. Vitiello a little backward "indicate that there is an intention to pursue more aggressive policies."

Three senior government officials familiar with the president's conversations in recent months have confirmed that Trump has repeatedly told his staff that he wants to restart the family separation policy. One of the officials said the president had made it clear to his associates that he personally loved Ms. Nielsen, but that he was critical of his work. The three officials talked about internal discussions under the condition of anonymity.

Stephen Miller, architect of Mr. Trump's immigration program and one of the president's closest advisers to the White House, has made himself the lawyer of a modified version of the family separation policy known as the "binary choice".

Others, including former Secretary of State of Kansas and informal immigration adviser Kris Kobach, and Stephen K. Bannon, former chief strategist of the president, have also called for tougher measures.

In the context of a binary choice policy, highly controversial, migrant parents would have the choice to voluntarily allow the separation of their children or to renounce the humanitarian protections of their child so that the family can be detained together. , indefinitely, in prison. -like conditions. Immigration advocates said the idea was inhumane and that the courts would have found it illegal.

Nielsen headed the department during the Trump Administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which led to the separation of thousands of families last year.

At the border, more than 2,700 children were separated from their parents at the border as part of this policy to prosecute people who crossed the border illegally, even those whose families had sought asylum for humanitarian reasons. In December, the ministry identified 2,737 children separated from their parents because of the policy and scheduled to be reunified by a federal court order issued in June 2018.

Mr. Trump eventually ceded to family separations and a California federal judge arrested them in June. But in January, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Social Services reported that thousands of additional families may have been separated, as previously announced.