The "New York Times" reports that the US president has asked his team to close the borders overnight at a meeting in March. A recurrent obsession of Mr. Trump, embellished with fanciful and illegal proposals.
In March, Donald Trump was able to provoke the amazement of his advisers, though accustomed to his eccentricities, when he ordered them to close the entire US border with Mexico before noon tomorrow. His obsession with immigration, on which he campaigned and was elected in 2016, led him to push his advisers to their limits, to make whimsical and illegal proposals and to purge his team in the hope to achieve progress on this topic, the New York Times Start of the week.
The US daily, quoting a dozen White House officials, reports from a meeting in the Oval Office in March. Supposed to end after half an hour, it lasted more than two hours as the debates were heated. The president's advisers then tried to convince him to abandon his idea of closing the 3,200-kilometer border that separates the United States from Mexico overnight: the economy could be seriously affected, or the American tourists could get stuck in Mexico, they protested.
Shoot in the legs of migrants
After several days of negotiations, they finally won. But "The president was frustrated", reports Thomas D. Homan, former Director of Immigration and Customs. At the March meeting, Donald Trump would have blown away and shouted: "You make me look like an idiot, I campaigned on this subject! That's my problem. " The tenant of the White House is indeed a matter of principle: he promised that immigration would cease under his mandate and he is ready to do anything to achieve his ends. Quit making ubiquitous proposals.
Already in November 2018, the US president had publicly suggested that soldiers shoot live bullets at migrants who throw stones at them, before retracting. His advisers had explained to him that it was not legal. Later, during a meeting, he proposed to shoot them in the legs to slow them down. But it is not legal either, repeated his advisers.
In private, Donald Trump even went so far as to propose, on several occasions, to fortify the border with moats filled with snakes and alligators, even asking for a quantified estimate of this possibility, reports the New York Times. He also wanted the " Wall ", a promise launched on the first day of its campaign in June 2015, electrified and surmounted by peaks that can pierce human flesh.
Mr. Trump publicly denied having made these comments on Twitter then in front of the cameras. "The press is trying to sell the idea that I wanted a ditch filled with alligators and snakes with electric gates and sharp peaks on the southern border."he wrote. "I may be hard on border security, but not at this point. The press went crazy. Fake News! " he added, mistaking the news outlet for the news. He did indeed Washington Post and its owner, Amazon's founder, Jeff Bezos, who should " to be ashamed " of the article in question. Wednesday, the New York Times indicated that the Washington Post did not have " nothing to see " with the article in question.
Now I'm looking for something with alligators and snakes, with an electrifi … https://t.co/vzjHlA3wMe
"Our soldiers can not do anything"
Frustrated at regular contradictions and mixed results on the subject, Donald Trump purged his team, starting with Homeland Security Minister Kirstjen Nielsen, who had told her that a wall would not to stop immigration.
The dismissal marked a turning point in Trump's immigration program and gave rise to a team whose policy is tougher on these issues and, above all, more in line with the presidential goals. Mid August, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, who replaced L. Francis Cissna Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced that the government would refuse green cards to migrants who risk becoming "Public burdens". The Supreme Court authorized the use of $ 2.5 billion from the Pentagon's budget for the construction of the wall at the end of July. And Mr. Trump uses these victories, modest in comparison to his original ambitions, to campaign.
Still, Donald Trump's advisers continue to contradict him. After the resignation of Mme Nielsen, the president asked the border police officers who came to the White House that day, to deny all asylum seekers who would show up. As soon as he left the room, the new Minister of Internal Security, Kevin MacAleenan, would have, according to the Times, ordered the agents to ignore the president, reminding them that they had not "The necessary authority" To do that.
In an interview with the daily newspaper during the summer, Donald Trump explained that he had seriously considered closing the border in March, but acknowledged that it would have been " very severe ". "The problem with the laws as they are is that we can have 100,000 of our soldiers standing up there – they can not do anything, then regretted the president.
