Trump could prevent the entry of almost all asylum seeker migrants to the southern border

WASHINGTON – The Trump administration is drafting a bill that would make it extremely difficult for Central American migrants seeking asylum to enter the US-Mexico border, according to three sources close to the proposed measures.

Precise details have not yet been finalized, the sources said, and some of the more extreme ideas are a source of internal debate within the administration.

They have been named President Donald Trump and his National Security Advisor, John Bolton, increasingly frustrated by the growing number of undocumented immigrants crossing the southern border and by the caravan of Honduran migrants currently heading to the United States. United.

The details should be finalized early next week, the three sources said, and plans for the proposals to be unveiled by Trump in a speech on immigration.

The proposed executive action has been reported for the first time by the San Francisco Chronicle.

A White House official said: "The administration is considering numerous administrative, legal and legislative options to address the massive illegal immigration crisis created by the Democrats." No decision has yet been made. We also do not plan for smugglers or caravans – what specific strategies will be used. "

One element of the proposed action would use an authority similar to that invoked by the travel ban, which would prevent unauthorized immigrants who are not yet in the United States from entering, said the three sources. However, if these immigrants crossed the US-Mexico border and applied for asylum, they would be able to apply for asylum.

To solve this problem, a senior administration official said that the White House was also considering invoking an element of the law on immigration and nationality under which immigrants are required to wait in an adjoining territory, Mexico, for example, during the processing of their asylum application.

Among the other more extreme measures envisaged include the ban on apprehended immigrants between entry points to seek asylum, said the head of the administration.

Click here for data on border apprehensions

To counter the caravan of Honduran migrants now headed to the United States, the official said the administration is also considering plans to temporarily close entry points on the southern border. But the plan was rejected in the White House where officials have said it would hurt trade between states, according to the official.

"This is going to affect a lot of people who are part of the caravan, other people who are applying for asylum or other forms of visas," said Marielena Hincapie, executive director of National Immigration Law Center. . "A lot of people just come to do business."

Two sources close to the project expect that a lawsuit will be brought to enjoin the action of the executive, but indicated that the administration employed it. always to speed up the regulatory process in order to introduce an "interim final rule" that would be immediately subject to public comment.

"We are pursuing all the options," said the senior manager of the administration. "The only problem is that it's a poorly coordinated mess – we do not know what the caravan will do, which makes it difficult to know what we're going to do."

Julia Ainsley

Luciana Lopez

Luciana Lopez is a producer at MSNBC.

Hallie Jackson contributed.