Trump campaign vs. Trump administration: on Immigration
ACLU:
Muslim ban cannot be reworked to be constitutional
On the Muslim ban: [The Trump administration's original January 2017 executive order reduces to 50,000 the annual number of refugees allowed from 7 Muslim countries, and zero from Syria. The March 2017 order replaced the list of 7 countries with Iran,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, & Yemen, for 90 days]. The director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project had this reaction:"The Trump administration has conceded that its original Muslim ban was indefensible. Unfortunately, it has replaced it with
a scaled-back version that shares the same fatal flaws. The only way to actually fix the Muslim ban is not to have a Muslim ban. Instead, Pres. Trump has recommitted himself to religious discrimination, and he can expect continued disapproval from both
the courts and the people. The changes the Trump administration has made completely undermine the bogus national security justifications the president has tried to hide behind. and only strengthen the case against his unconstitutional executive orders."
Source: ACLU 2017 voting records of Trump Administration
Mar 6, 2017
ACLU:
Birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th amendment
Trump is planning on issuing an executive order that would revoke birthright citizenship. An historian explained that guaranteeing automatic citizenship was the intention of the men who drafted the 14th amendment: "Read the debate in the US Senate,
Jan. 30, 1866. The framers clarified that children born in the U.S. were citizens regardless of the immigration status of their parents. They even understood this to be true for children whose parents would then have been racially ineligible for
citizenship, such as the Chinese."The ACLU has spoken out against Trump's proposed executive order. "The president cannot erase the Constitution with an executive order, and the 14th Amendment's citizenship guarantee is clear," the director of the
ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project said in a statement. "This is a transparent and blatantly unconstitutional attempt to sow division and fan the flames of anti-immigrant hatred in the days ahead of the midterms."
Source: Salon.com on 2018 Trump Administration, "Birthright"
Oct 30, 2018
Donald Trump:
Strip federal grant money to sanctuary cities
Donald Trump has already signed a dozen wide-ranging executive orders, hoping to fulfill a number of his campaign promises. Trump signed the burst of orders within just his first three weeks to undo many of President Barack Obama's regulatory policies.
Here's an overview:Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States: Signed: Jan. 25, 2017
The order outlines changes to a few immigration policies, but most notably it strips federal grant money to so-called sanctuary cities.
In addition, the secretary of homeland security is ordered to hire 10,000 more immigration officers, create a publicly available weekly list of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and review previous immigration policies.
The order also creates an office to assist the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and calls on local and state police to detain or apprehend people in the United States illegally.
Source: NBC News on 2017 Trump Administration promises & actions
Feb 14, 2017
Donald Trump:
Hire 5,000 more Border Patrol agents on Mexican border
Trump signed a burst of executive orders within just his first three weeks to undo many of President Barack Obama's regulatory policies. Here's an overview:Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements: Signed: Jan. 25, 2017
The order is aimed at fulfilling one of Trump's key campaign promises--enhancing border security--by directing federal funding to construction of a wall along the Mexico-U.S. border. It instructs the secretary of homeland security to prepare
congressional budget requests for the wall and to "end the abuse of parole and asylum provisions" that complicate the removal of undocumented immigrants.Other parts of the order call for hiring 5,000 more
Border Patrol agents, building facilities to hold undocumented immigrants near the Mexican border and ending "catch-and-release" protocols, in which immigrants in the United States without documentation are not detained while they await court hearings.
Source: NBC News on 2017 Trump Administration promises & actions
Feb 14, 2017
Donald Trump:
Melania's parents & Trump's grandparents did chain migration
Melania Trump's immigration attorney criticized the president's "unconscionable" demonizing of "chain migration." Attorney Michael Wildes praised the program of family reunification that helped family members of both the first lady and Donald Trump
settle in America.The first lady's parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, became American citizens this week thanks to the program. Trump's own grandfather, Friedrich Trump of Germany, and his Scottish-born mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, followed their
siblings into this country.
"Calling this 'chain migration' is really outside of the ethos of what was intended," Wildes said. "This whole notion of chain migration is actually a beautiful bedrock of immigration law and policy called family
reunification." The host played clips of the president calling chain migration "horrible, horrible," and a "disaster." "You bring one person in, and you end up with 32 people," the president said in one of the clips. "We have to end chain migration."
Source: Huffington Post on 2018 Trump Administration
Aug 11, 2018
Donald Trump:
End birthright citizenship, despite 14th amendment
Trump is planning on issuing an executive order that would revoke birthright citizenship, a decision that will almost certainly set off a major legal battle given that birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th amendment."It was always told to
me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don't," Trump said. "You can definitely do it with an act of Congress, but now they're saying I can do it just with an executive order. We're the only country in the world where a person
comes in, has a baby, and the baby is essentially a citizen of the US for 85 years with all of those benefits. It's ridiculous, and it has to end."
An historian explained that guaranteeing automatic citizenship was the intention of the men who drafted
the 14th amendment: "Read the debate in the US Senate, Jan. 30, 1866. The framers clarified that children born in the U.S. were citizens regardless of the immigration status of their parents."
Source: Salon.com on 2018 Trump Administration, "Birthright"
Oct 30, 2018
Eric Holder:
Feds can't force states to enforce federal immigration laws
Eric Holder traveled to California to promote a piece of legislation called SB 54 (aka. the California Values Act), which is designed to prevent the Trump administration from forcing local police departments to assist in the deportation of undocumented
immigrants. Critics have said it would transform the whole of California into a so-called sanctuary state.For the last few months, Holder has quietly been serving as outside counsel to the California legislature, working with Democrats to craft an
aggressive legal response to what they consider President Trump's most threatening policies.
Holder explained why he thinks SB 54 is constitutional ("the federal government does not have the ability to force states to do things that are inherently
federal in nature") and why, in his view, the Trump administration's threats to withhold federal funding in response aren't ("the federal government can't coerce states into doing something states don't want to do by threatening to withhold support").
Source: Yahoo News coverage of 2017 Trump transition
Jun 20, 2017
Eric Holder:
Trump Administration must change family separation policy
DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen: We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder: Who are we supposed to believe, you or our lying eyes. Laura Bush says it best "I live in a border state.
I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart."
Source: Twitter posting on 2018 Trump Administration
Jun 18, 2018
Jeb Bush:
End heartless policy of family separation at southern border
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday called on President Donald Trump to end the "heartless policy" of separating parents and children who cross the U.S. border illegally. [Under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy,
US authorities hold illegal immigrant adults in jail while their children are sent to government shelters. DHS announced that nearly 2,000 kids had been separated from their parents during a six-week period ending last month.
Many of those children are being held in juvenile detention centers.] "Children shouldn't be used as a negotiating tool. @realDonaldTrump should end this heartless policy and
Congress should get an immigration deal done that provides for asylum reform, border security and a path to citizenship for Dreamers," Bush said online in a tweet replying to Trump.
Source: Politico.com on 2018 Trump Administration
Jun 18, 2018
Jeff Sessions:
Skeptic of H1-B visa scheme that recruits skilled foreigners
There are some 11 million migrants in America without the right legal papers--a number so large that many in the Senate, from both parties, believe that not all can possibly be deported, so that law-enforcement should focus on those guilty of serious
crimes and the government should offer a path to legal status for those who have built productive lives. Sessions disagrees. He has spent the last decade leading Senate opposition to bipartisan immigration reform bills, arguing that illegal immigration
depresses wages and takes jobs from out-of-work Americans. On legal migration, he is a sceptic of the H1-B visa scheme that helps companies recruit highly skilled foreigners, such as scientists or engineers, accusing wealthy business bosses, the
government, the national press and the "cosmopolitan set" of mocking the anxieties and needs of "everyday Americans." On the campaign trail Sessions has echoed Trump's focus on immigration as a menace to national security.
Source: The Economist newsmagazine coverage of 2016 Trump transition
Nov 18, 2016
Jeff Sessions:
Protect our communities with commitment to deport aliens
On the campaign trail Sessions has echoed Trump's focus on immigration as a menace to national security. On the eve of the election he called for a president willing to enforce immigration laws, saying that "without a commitment to deport aliens who
violate our immigration laws, we lose our ability to protect our communities from criminal aliens, terrorism, and cartel-related crime and violence." As attorney-general it is safe to assume he will put intense pressure on so-called "sanctuary cities"--
mostly Democratic-run cities, including some of the country's largest, which typically instruct police officers or city officials not to ask people about their immigration status, and in some cases limit co-operation with federal immigration authorities.
Such cities call it vital for immigrants to feel able to report crimes to police or interact with social services and schools without fear, and will resist federal pressure to turn their municipal officers into de facto immigration agents.
Source: The Economist newsmagazine coverage of 2016 Trump transition
Nov 18, 2016
Joe L. Kennedy:
Trump Administration must change family separation policy
DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen: We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy: If this isn't the White House policy,
please tell the officials who I spoke with in Tornillo today who believe it is. Either own it or change it. Scratch that--just change it. #KeepFamiliesTogether
Source: Twitter posting on 2018 Trump Administration
Jun 18, 2018
Kirstjen Nielsen:
No apology for separating illegal immigrant parent from kids
[Under the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy, US authorities hold illegal immigrant adults in jail while their children are sent to government shelters.] Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pushed back at the growing
condemnation of her agency's practice of separating migrant families at the border, telling a gathering of law enforcement officers, "We will not apologize for the job we do.""This department will no longer stand by and watch
you attack law enforcement for enforcing the laws passed by Congress," Nielsen said. "We will not apologize for the job we do, or the job law enforcement does, or the job the American people expect us to do."
Releasing parents who bring children across the border would be tantamount to giving them "a get out of jail free card," Nielsen said.
Source: Politico.com on 2018 Trump Administration
Jun 18, 2018
Kirstjen Nielsen:
FactCheck: Falsely claims no policy of family separation
DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted, "This misreporting by members, press and advocacy groups must stop, It is irresponsible and unproductive. As I have said many times before, if you are seeking asylum for your family, there is no reason to break
the law and illegally cross between ports of entry. We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period."The Huffington Post contrasted Nielsen's comments with the fact that "last week, DHS announced that nearly 2,000 kids had been
separated from their parents during a six-week period ending last month. Many of those children are being held in juvenile detention centers."
How can both of these statements be true? Simple: the press is ignoring the MEANING of Nielsen's tweet.
Nielsen says that families who present themselves for asylum at LEGAL border crossing will not be separated. She intends to confuse voters between THAT non-separation policy with the OTHER policy for separating families who cross the border illegally.
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2018 Trump Administration
Jun 18, 2018
Pope Francis:
Separating immigrant parents from children is immoral
Pope Francis has criticized the Trump administration's policy of separating migrant families at the Mexican border, saying populism is not the answer to the world's immigration problems. The Pope said he supported recent statements by US Catholic
bishops who called the separation of children from their parents "contrary to our Catholic values" & "immoral".One of his most pointed messages concerned Pres. Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy, in which US authorities hold illegal immigrant
adults in jail while their children are sent to government shelters.
US Catholic bishops have joined other religious leaders in the US in condemning the policy. "I am on the side of the bishops' conference," the pope said, referring to two statements
from US bishops this month. "Let it be clear that in these things, I respect the bishops conference."
"It's not easy, but populism is not the solution," Francis said. The pope said populists were "creating psychosis" on the issue of immigration.
Source: Reuters on 2018 Trump Administration
Jun 20, 2018
Ted Lieu:
Trump Administration is lying about family separation policy
DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen: We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu: Dear @SecNielsen: You are lying. Period.
How do we know you are lying Sec Nielsen? Because Stephen Miller pushed for the policy change & AG Sessions gleefully announced it.
Also, 2000 kids didn't voluntarily decide to leave their parents. You forced the separation. Get it?
Source: Twitter posting on 2018 Trump Administration
Jun 18, 2018
Page last updated: Nov 02, 2024