Trump Ordered Part Of Border Closed His Administration Pushed Back: Sources
His order reportedly came a day before he tweeted a threat to close the border.
President Donald Trump came far closer to closing the border than previously understood, ordering his top aides nearly two weeks ago to shut down a portion of the border with Mexico within 24 hours, ABC News has learned from two sources familiar with the matter.
The order came during a tense Oval Office meeting on March 28, just one day before the president publicly threatened to close the border the following week.
The president grew frustrated during the meeting, which ended with an order for the Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to shut down a portion of the border the next day, with plans to possibly expand the closures, according to the sources.
The president’s order sent White House aides scrambling to convince him not to close it, and that day they were able to convince him to keep the border open for a week so that the administration could craft an emergency plan.
The aides were successful. By Friday the presidenttweeted“If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United State through our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week.”
Cambodia Introduces Entry Bans
Cambodia has become the latest country to ban entry of visitors from Italy, Germany, Spain, France and the US. to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The 30-day ban on foreigners will come into effect on March 17, the Ministry of Health said in a statement on Saturday as Cambodia recorded two new cases, bringing its tally to seven.
Minister of Health Mam Bunheng said in the statement:
The Kingdom of Cambodia has subsequently detected the Covid-19 virus on different foreign nationals, which requires immediate measures to prevent the spread and importation of the Covid-19 virus into Cambodia.
Therefore, the Ministry of Health takes measures to ban foreigners from Italy, Germany, Spain, France and the United States from entering the country for 30 days, effective March 17, 2020.
Cambodia, which recorded two new cases of the virus on a 49-year-old Canadian teacher and a 33-year-old Belgian man on Friday, hasnt banned travellers from China, where the outbreak was first detected.
Read more: Tables turn on Europeans in Asia, Nicola Smith reports.
Recommended Reading: Did Donald Trump Graduate From College
How Much ‘new Wall’ Trump Has Built Is Up For Debate
Any calculation of the miles of new wall constructed by Mr Trump and his administration depends very much on the definition of the words “new” and “wall”.
Before he took office, there were 654 miles of barrier along the southern border – made up of 354 miles of barricades to stop pedestrians and 300 miles of anti-vehicle fencing.
Now, according to US Customs and Border Protection in its 6 October status report, the southern border has 669 miles of “primary barrier” – the first structure people heading from Mexico to the US will encounter – and 65 miles of “secondary barrier” – which usually runs behind the primary structure as a further obstacle.
This means that in areas where no barricades existed before, they have built 15 miles of new, primary barrier or “border wall system”, as it is called by CBP.
ââAbout a further 350 miles of barrier has been built, according to CBP, made up of replacement structures and some new secondary barrier.
More is planned, too, with 378 miles of new and replacement barrier either under construction or in the “pre-construction phase”. Less than half of this will be in locations where no barriers currently exist, according to CBP.
However, Mr Trump himself doesn’t make a distinction between these new stretches of barrier and replacement structures, regarding both as new wall.
This is because, he says, replacements involve “complete demolition and rebuilding of old and worthless barriers”.
Recommended Reading: Watch Patriots Preseason Game Online
Claim: New York Hospital Staff Are Stealing Lots Of Ppe There’s No Evidence Of This
During multiple news conferences, Trump has questioned the rate at which a hospital in New York is using personal protective equipment , suggesting that theft is why the unnamed facility needs 300,000 masks a week.
At one point, he claimed a distributor told him that a New York hospital’s mask purchases were far too high to reflect actual need.
“There’s only a couple of things that could happen is it going out the back door? And I’ve reported it to the city and let the city take a look at it. But when you go from 10,000 masks to 300,000 masks … there’s something going on,” Trump said during a coronavirus task force briefing at the White House on March 30.
While there were anecdotal reports of mask theft, theres no indication this has driven up supply needs dramatically and officials from New York state and the city, as well as hospitals, strongly disputed Trump. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo skewered the suggestion of rampant theft, explaining that the state has been preparing for the apex of the pandemic that is coming soon. The state is the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., with 83,712 confirmed cases as of April 1.
Disrupting Wildlife Refuges And Parks
Proposals under consideration would locate the wall through seven Texas wildlife conservation areas, including the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge and Big Bend National Park, prized among national parks as a place so remote it is considered to be one of the best place in the Lower 48 to view the night sky.
In Mission, Texas, the National Butterfly Center, where more than 200 butterfly species live near the banks of the Rio Grande, has been notified that the wall will divide the 100-acre sanctuary, placing almost 70 percent of it on the Mexican side. Plans also call for bisecting a wildlife refuge and state park, placing most of the land on the Mexican side.
After ferocious objections, Homeland Security shelved plans to build the wall through the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge in Alamo, Texas, where more than 400 species of birds, banded armadillos, and endangered wildcats live.
Read Also: Us Patriot Tactical Oak Grove Ky
Trump Defends Closing Borders To Travelers To Fight Coronavirus
In an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News, President Trump insulted his potential 2020 rivals, lamented impeachment and defended his administrations coronavirus policies.
-
Send any friend a story
As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Anyone can read what you share.
Give this articleGive this articleGive this article
By Katie Rogers
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. President Trump defended a decision that would bar foreign nationals who had recently visited China from entering the United States as his administration continued to assess the growing threat of a coronavirus outbreak.
Sitting with the Fox News personality Sean Hannity, Mr. Trump used a roughly nine-minute interview taped on Saturday evening at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida, and broadcast on Sunday as an opportunity to condense his usual rally-speak into Super Bowl pregame chatter. The topics included the virus, his impeachment and quick-paced insults of his potential 2020 rivals.
We pretty much shut it down coming in from China, Mr. Trump said of the coronavirus. But we cant have thousands of people coming in who may have this problem, the coronavirus. Were going to see what happens, but we did shut it down, yes.
There have been seven confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, but no deaths.
Ending ‘catch And Release’
Trump’s comments:“Through landmark reforms we have put into place we have ended the immigration chaos and reestablished American sovereignty. Our most important reform was ending catch and release … which is the functional equivalent of open borders, but even worse. It’s catch and release them and it means release into our country.
Fact check: The term, which some consider to be derogatory towards migrants, refers to the process by U.S. officials who apprehended certain migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border and released them into the custody of relatives already living in the U.S., and giving migrants a notice to appear in court several weeks later.
The Trump administration had sought to end the practice following 2019’s massive spike in the number of Central American families seeking asylum in the United States. At several points during the height of the crisis, border officials released migrant families directly into the streets of border communities because they ran out of holding space.
Since then, the practice of releasing migrants after they are apprehended has largely ended, in great part because most migrants are immediately sent back to Mexico after agents apprehend them at the border due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Additionally, Trump claimed Tuesday that the migrants who are released failed to show up to their scheduled court hearings and “disappear into the country,” he said.
Recommended Reading: Do Republicans Or Democrats Give More To Charity
Who Will Close The Border
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
Twitter/@BillFOXLA
More than 1,000 illegal migrants openly walked across the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas Sunday night, capping a record-breaking 3-day weekend in which 2,460 illegal migrants were processed there by federal agents. El Paso is just one of nine sectors defined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the 2,000-mile border between the United States and Mexico.
About 500 miles downriver from El Paso, two large groups totalling 1,000 migrants crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, in the Del Rio Sector, last Friday, after 700 migrants had crossed the day before. On Saturday, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin tweeted that CBP sources tell us more than 4,800 migrants have crossed illegally in just these two sectors in the last 24 hours.
From his first day in office, Joe Biden has signaled his administrations policy and promise not to enforce our nations immigration laws. The predictable result is that a relentless human tide of uninvited people from around the world have been entering our country from the south, after first passing through the lawless narco-state of Mexico.
Five million is greater than the population of half of the 50 states. Its greater than all but one of our cities and all but two of our counties.
Tags:
Pence Ordered Borders Closed After Cdc Experts Refused
NEW YORK Vice President Mike Pence in March directed the nations top disease control agency to use its emergency powers to effectively seal the U.S. borders, overruling the agencys scientists who said there was no evidence the action would slow the coronavirus, according to two former health officials. The action has so far caused nearly 150,000 children and adults to be expelled from the country.
The top Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doctor who oversees these types of orders had refused to comply with a Trump administration directive saying there was no valid public health reason to issue it, according to three people with direct knowledge of the doctors refusal.
But Stephen Miller, a top aide to President Donald Trump who has been a vocal opponent of immigration, pushed for the expulsion order.
You May Like: Big And Tall Patriotic Shirts
Claim: The Obama Administration Ignored Swine Flu Thats False
Take a look at the swine flu. It was a disaster, 17,000 people died, the other administrationits like they didnt even know it was here, Trump claimed during an April 6 news conference.
Swine flu killed an estimated 12,469 people in the U.S. during the Obama administration. The first case was detected on April 15, 2009. Within two weeks, according to archived CDC records, the federal government had declared a public health emergency, begun work on a vaccine, started releasing PPE from the federal stockpile and purchasing antivirals, and had rolled out a test.
What Do The Migrants Want
The migrants say they are leaving their respective countries in the hope of building a better future for themselves and their families.
Some say they have been threatened or mistreated by criminal gangs operating in their home towns. Many are travelling with their children whom they say they do not want to fall prey to the gangs.
Others hope to get jobs abroad which will pay enough for them to send money to their relatives who stayed behind.
You May Like: Jeep Patriot Tail Light Cover
The Barrier Is Unlikely To Stop Most Kinds Of Drugs Coming Into The Us
Mr Trump has claimed in the past that 90% of heroin in the US comes across the southern border and that a wall would help the fight against drugs.
However strengthening and extending the border barrier is unlikely to do much to reduce illegal drugs – such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine – because most come through established border checkpoints, known as ports of entry.
While the majority of the heroin in the US does come from Mexico, the Drug Enforcement Administration says most of it is hidden in privately owned vehicles or transporter lorries, mixed with other goods, and smuggled through legal entry points.
CBP figures for drugs – excluding marijuana – seized on the southern border also show most come through ports of entry, although a report by the Congressional Research Service does state that border barriers can serve to push people to cross in places where they are more likely to be “detected, intercepted, and detained”.
Rodney Scott, chief of the US Border Patrol, agrees – and gives the example of San Diego, where he says cartel lorries used to drive across the border “three or four at a time on an almost daily basis, with high-speed pursuits throughout town”.
Smugglers also appear increasingly to be using boats to try to land drugs on the beaches of southern California – with the numbers intercepted by CBP’s air and marine operations jumping 82% last year.
Design by Zoe Bartholomew and Gerry Fletcher
Claim: There’s An Approved Treatment For Covid
The president has promoted an anti-malaria drug as an approved treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“The hydroxychloroquine and the Z-pack, I think, as a combination, probably, it’s looking very, very good,” Trump said during a news briefing March 23. He called the pair of medicines a “drug that got approved in record-setting time.”
There’s some early evidence that chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine decades-old drugs used to prevent malaria and treat rheumatic diseases might help patients fight off the virus, particularly when paired with the antibiotic azithromycin, commonly known as a Z-Pack.
But it’s not an “approved” treatment for the coronavirus, according to the Food and Drug Administration, or even a fully vetted option, according to one of Trump’s top scientists.
“The information that you’re referring to specifically is anecdotal. It was not done in a controlled clinical trial. So, you really can’t make any definitive statement about it,” the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said during the same news conference.
Dr. Stephen Hahn, commissioner of the FDA, also said in March that the agency wants “a large, pragmatic clinical trial” to see whether the drug “actually benefits patients.”
A nationwide trial to determine whether hydroxychloroquine can prevent the disease in exposed persons is underway, NPR reported March 31.
You May Like: 2011 Jeep Patriot Transmission Replacement
Donald Trump The Migrant Caravan And A Manufactured Crisis At The Us Border
Save this story for later.
Since last weeks midterm elections, Donald Trump has spoken less frequently about the migrant caravan, but the subject is still plainly on his mind. On Friday, he signed a Presidential proclamation , which suspended the possibility of asylum for anyone entering the country between officially designated ports of entry. By U.S. and international law, migrants are allowed to seek asylum whether or not they do so at an official checkpoint along the border Trumps measure, which was immediately challenged by advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, aims to override explicit provisions of an existing federal statute in order to thwart the entry of tens of thousands of Central American migrants. As Lee Gelernt, the A.C.L.U.s lead litigator in the case, told me, It would mean the President could literally sit down with a copy of the immigration act that Congress wrote and cross out any provision he didnt like.
Trump scared us, Mejía told me. But we got to Tijuana, and it wasnt like what Trump said on TV. The border was limpia, he told meby which he meant, free of American troops. As part of a dramatic, preëlection gambit, the President sent fifty-six hundred soldiers to south Texas, hundreds of miles from where the caravan was headed. Since then, the soldiers had very little to do other than set up a patchwork of wire fencing along the border.
You May Like: Why I Support Donald Trump
How It’s Being Paid For Remains Controversial
Despite Mr Trump’s pledge on the campaign trail in 2016 to get Mexico to pay for the wall, it is the US government that has spent billions of dollars to expand and reconstruct it.
Just over $5bn in funding has come via traditional means through the CBP, but Mr Trump has also ordered almost $10bn in Department of Defense funding to be diverted – a move that has sparked legal action.
Back in 2019, after his request for a further $5.7bn for the wall was rejected and Congress allotted only $1.4bn, Mr Trump declared border control a national emergency and used powers under the National Emergencies Act to move cash from DoD budgets.
Some $6.3bn of counter-drugs funding and £3.6bn of military construction funding has so far been diverted to the wall project, according to the CBP.
But Mr Trump’s decision to bypass Congress in this way has triggered a number of legal challenges – one from a number of environmental groups, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, along with the states of California and New Mexico.
Two lower US courts have ruled in favour of these groups, concluding that the diversion of an amount of $2.5bn from DoD to construct barriers in California, New Mexico and Arizona was unlawful.
However, the Supreme Court – the highest federal court in the US – has allowed barrier construction using the funds to continue pending the appeals process. It will hear a challenge by President Trump’s administration against the lower courts’ decision next year.
Don’t Miss: Why Are Patriots Tickets So Expensive
