I love the sound of heads popping at the NYT!
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Trump Readies Plan to Build Border Wall
Proposals would ban people from countries deemed a terror risk, suspend refugee program
By
LAURA MECKLER and DAMIAN PALETTA
Updated Jan. 25, 2017 1:01 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump is set to announce plans to expedite construction of a wall along the Mexican border, and is preparing orders that ban people from countries deemed a terror risk from entering the U.S. as well as suspend the U.S. refugee program.
Mr. Trump plans to travel Wednesday to the Department of Homeland Security, where he said he would be announcing his border-security plans. He will also include an order aimed at punishing so-called sanctuary cities where law-enforcement officials limit cooperation with federal immigration agencies and add 5,000 border agents, according to a person familiar with the planning.
“Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter Tuesday evening. “Among many other things, we will build the wall!”
Other executive actions involving the refugee program and immigration from nations deemed terror risks are expected Thursday, people familiar with the planning said.
Mr. Trump has given few details about his promise for a border wall, a project that is estimated to cost as much as $10 billion and possibly much more. Congressional Republicans have been considering appropriating funds in spending legislation that must pass by April to keep the government funded.
In hopes of beginning work sooner, Mr. Trump is expected to divert tens of millions of dollars in unspent allocations, said a second person familiar with the planning. Congressional leaders pointed Mr. Trump and his team to the money that may be available to be spent on border security, the person said.
The plan to build the wall faces numerous logistical and environmental hurdles. Experts in border security have never advocated such a project before, preferring a combination of targeted fencing with other security measures.
The timing of the announcement angered some in Mexico. It will come on the same day that top Mexican officials are due to meet with senior members of Mr. Trump’s administration to discuss bilateral security, migration and economic issues such as the Nafta free trade pact.
It will also come days ahead of a visit by Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto.
“I think Peña should cancel his trip,” said prominent Mexican intellectual Hector Aguilar Camin in a message in Twitter.
On Wednesday. Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray and Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo are expected to meet with officials including chief of staff Reince Priebus, Mr. Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The orders being announced on Wednesday also aim to tackle a range of other troublesome immigration questions, including the influx of Central Americans arriving claiming asylum, one of the people familiar with the planning. This person said the Trump administration would also prioritize border prosecutions. Details on these plans weren’t available.
In addition, Mr. Trump planned to order “aggressive” enforcement of immigration laws inside the U.S. and to triple the number of enforcement agents, the person said.
A second set of immigration actions was planned for Thursday.
The ban on entry was expected to include countries such as Iraq, Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya, one person familiar with the planning said.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump initially said he would ban entry by Muslims but later modified his proposal to call for suspending visas to people from any place “where adequate screening cannot occur.”
Mr. Trump also planned to implement new tests of those applying for visas, part of the “extreme vetting” promised during his presidential campaign, the person familiar with the plan said. The new vetting was expected to ban anyone who has persecuted people of other religions or engaged in so-called honor killing, violence against women or oppressed a member of one race, gender or sexual orientation, according to a summary of the plan.
The people familiar with planning said Mr. Trump was expected to suspend the refugee program entirely. One person said the suspension would be set for 120 days so that officials could determine which nationalities pose the least risk.
Mr. Trump plans to end the Syrian refugee program and suspend the issuance of all visas from Syria until some later date, this person said. The summary of the plan calls for prioritizing refugee admissions of people who are religious minorities in their home countries.
The president has authority to unilaterally determine how many refugees the U.S. will accept. Once the refugee program resumes, the annual cap would be set at 50,000 for this fiscal year, one person familiar with the plans said. Former President Barack Obama had set the cap at 110,000 refugees for this year.
Mr. Trump has said that to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis, the U.S. would help create safe zones in the region as an alternative to admitting refugees to the U.S. That plan was expected to be included in the Trump package.
Establishing safe zones could be difficult, likely requiring ground troops and air power to protect them, and could put U.S.-allied forces in dangerous proximity to foreign troops, including Russian- and Assad regime-backed forces.
Mr. Trump also plans to order the completion of a tracking program to make sure people leave the country after their legal visas expire. This has been ordered many times but never completed.
A few days after the December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, Calif., Mr. Trump proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S. Later, his campaign modified that to say he would insist on “extreme vetting” for people trying to enter the U.S. from countries that have higher threats of terrorism, and would ban their entry until such a system could be put into place.
One of the San Bernardino attackers, Tashfeen Malik, moved to the U.S. from Saudi Arabia, as did many of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists. If Mr. Trump makes it more difficult for people from that country to enter the U.S., he could risk souring relations with a major U.S. ally.
Another conundrum is that some of the most deadly terror attacks in the U.S. in the past two years have been carried out by people born in the U.S. Ms. Malik’s husband, Syed Farook, was also involved in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, and he was born in the U.S.
Similarly, Omar Mateen, who killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando in 2016, was born in the U.S.
Mr. Trump isn’t expected to act anytime soon on one of his most controversial promises related to immigration—ending a program that helps young people brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
During his presidential campaign, Mr. Trump said he would “immediately terminate” the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
But this week, the White House signaled that move wasn’t coming soon.
“His priority is first and foremost focused on people who pose a threat to people in our country, to criminals, frankly,” press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday. “And that’s where he wants ICE [the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency] to focus their efforts.” |
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