WASHINGTON — Confusion over President Trump’s order to allow migrant families to remain together after they illegally enter the United States led to a tense argument at the White House late Thursday as senior officials across the federal government clashed over how to carry it out, according to several people briefed on the meeting.
The dispute continued Friday morning as Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, returned to the White House to hash out his agency’s ability to detain families with children and refer all of the adults for prosecution under the president’s “zero tolerance” policy.
The bureaucratic clash threatened to undermine Mr. Trump as his administration scrambles to escape an escalating political crisis and heartbreaking images and audio recordings of migrant children separated from their parents and dispatched to government detention facilities.
It also echoed the chaos at American airports that Mr. Trump plunged the government into, days after taking office, with his ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries that surprised Border Patrol agents and State Department consular officials.
Officials at the southwest border are struggling to obey Mr. Trump’s demand to prosecute people who illegally enter the United States — ending what the president has reviled as a “catch and release” policy — while also following an executive order he issued Wednesday to keep migrant parents and their children together as they are processed in courts.
But as with the case of the travel ban, the reality of a vastly complicated bureaucratic system is colliding head-on with Mr. Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip use of executive power.
The whiplash-inducing move caught several people by surprise. Just a day earlier, one person close to the president said, Mr. Trump told advisers that separating families at the border was the best deterrent to illegal immigration and said that “my people love it.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump repeatedly changed his mind about precisely what he wanted to do, and how, according to people familiar with the discussions. The president vacillated about whether to do it until a short time before he signed the order, one person said.
Thursday night’s meeting was held in the White House Situation Room and lasted at least 90 minutes, according to three people briefed on the discussion who described it on the condition of anonymity.
They said Customs and Border Protection officials argued forcefully that agents who are apprehending migrant families at the border cannot refer all of the adults for prosecution because the Justice Department does not have the resources to accept all of the cases.
As a result, the officials from Customs and Border Protection told White House and Justice Department officials that they have had to issue fewer prosecution referrals of adults with children despite the president’s zero-tolerance policy.
Justice officials shot back, maintaining that the department has made no changes to its hard-line stance on illegal border crossings as it continues to receive referrals for prosecutions from Customs and Border Protection agents.
Government lawyers will “prosecute adults who cross our border illegally instead of claiming asylum at any port of entry,” Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said Thursday in a statement.
The Justice Department has been combating reports about its ability or willingness to enact the zero-tolerance policy. Rumors of case dismissals forced federal prosecutors to deny that they have dismissed immigration violation cases in South Texas.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/us/politics/donald-trump-immigration-midterms.html
We need Casey Stengel:
"Can't anybody here play this game?"
How can something that worked so effectively two years ago, be botched so badly now?
Record numbers of illegal aliens were being sent back; asylum seekers were being promptly processed, and no kids were being abused. Now, it's a swamp. And the powers that be are hiring more alligators.
The dispute continued Friday morning as Kevin K. McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, returned to the White House to hash out his agency’s ability to detain families with children and refer all of the adults for prosecution under the president’s “zero tolerance” policy.
The bureaucratic clash threatened to undermine Mr. Trump as his administration scrambles to escape an escalating political crisis and heartbreaking images and audio recordings of migrant children separated from their parents and dispatched to government detention facilities.
It also echoed the chaos at American airports that Mr. Trump plunged the government into, days after taking office, with his ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries that surprised Border Patrol agents and State Department consular officials.
Officials at the southwest border are struggling to obey Mr. Trump’s demand to prosecute people who illegally enter the United States — ending what the president has reviled as a “catch and release” policy — while also following an executive order he issued Wednesday to keep migrant parents and their children together as they are processed in courts.
But as with the case of the travel ban, the reality of a vastly complicated bureaucratic system is colliding head-on with Mr. Trump’s shoot-from-the-hip use of executive power.
The whiplash-inducing move caught several people by surprise. Just a day earlier, one person close to the president said, Mr. Trump told advisers that separating families at the border was the best deterrent to illegal immigration and said that “my people love it.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump repeatedly changed his mind about precisely what he wanted to do, and how, according to people familiar with the discussions. The president vacillated about whether to do it until a short time before he signed the order, one person said.
Thursday night’s meeting was held in the White House Situation Room and lasted at least 90 minutes, according to three people briefed on the discussion who described it on the condition of anonymity.
They said Customs and Border Protection officials argued forcefully that agents who are apprehending migrant families at the border cannot refer all of the adults for prosecution because the Justice Department does not have the resources to accept all of the cases.
As a result, the officials from Customs and Border Protection told White House and Justice Department officials that they have had to issue fewer prosecution referrals of adults with children despite the president’s zero-tolerance policy.
Justice officials shot back, maintaining that the department has made no changes to its hard-line stance on illegal border crossings as it continues to receive referrals for prosecutions from Customs and Border Protection agents.
Government lawyers will “prosecute adults who cross our border illegally instead of claiming asylum at any port of entry,” Sarah Isgur Flores, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said Thursday in a statement.
The Justice Department has been combating reports about its ability or willingness to enact the zero-tolerance policy. Rumors of case dismissals forced federal prosecutors to deny that they have dismissed immigration violation cases in South Texas.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/us/politics/donald-trump-immigration-midterms.html
We need Casey Stengel:
"Can't anybody here play this game?"
How can something that worked so effectively two years ago, be botched so badly now?
Record numbers of illegal aliens were being sent back; asylum seekers were being promptly processed, and no kids were being abused. Now, it's a swamp. And the powers that be are hiring more alligators.
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