Trump digs in on demands that illegals are turned back at the border without a court hearing

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his demand that illegal immigrants be turned away from the border without a hearing and that kids must be kicked back to.

‘This is the only real answer,’ the president argued in a series of tweets Monday morning.

The president first pushed the policy of sending illegals back without due process in a tweet on Sunday, which led to questions about the legality of that option and if Trump had the authority to make such a decision.

He is sticking to his guns and aggressively pushing the idea again, complaining that hiring thousands of judges and a long legal process is not the way to proceed. 

President Donald Trump is doubling down on his demand that illegal immigrants be turned away from the borer without a hearing

Trump tweeted hiring more judges to hear immigration cases isn't the answer which contradicts what some in his party want

Trump tweeted hiring more judges to hear immigration cases isn’t the answer which contradicts what some in his party want

Trump claims 'the only real answer' is to turn illegals back without a hearing

Trump claims ‘the only real answer’ is to turn illegals back without a hearing

‘Hiring manythousands of judges, and going through a long and complicated legal process, is not the way to go – will always be disfunctional. People must simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally. Children brought back to their country……,’ he wrote.

And he added: ‘….If this is done, illegal immigration will be stopped in it’s tracks – and at very little, by comparison, cost. This is the only real answer – and we must continue to BUILD THE WALL!’ 

It’s the latest plot twist in an immigration story that has become a political liability for the president, his administration and his party. 

Since Trump’s administration announced the ‘zero tolerance’ crack down on illegal immigrants in April, he and his officials have fought off criticism about the separation of migrant children from their families from both Republicans and Democrats.

The president signed an executive order last week ending the family separations but his newest push – to deny due process to illegals – is likely to gin up a new round of outrage.

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, told The New York Times via email that the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that ‘the due process requirements of the Fifth and 14th Amendments apply to all persons, including those in the U.S. unlawfully.’

‘Trump is making the tyrannical claim that he has the right to serve as prosecutor, judge and jury with respect to all those who enter our country,’ Tribe said. ‘That is a breathtaking assertion of unbounded power — power without any plausible limit.’

Justice Department lawyers under both Democratic and Republican presidents have argued that noncitizens apprehended at the border lack due process protections, Adam Cox, a law professor at New York University, told the Times, and the Supreme Court has never clearly resolved the dispute.

And Trump is digging in his heels as House Republicans prepare to vote on a comprehensive immigration package this week that some members fear doesn’t have the support for passage.

Some Republicans in Congress – in contrast to the president – have called for more judges to be in place so migrant families can have their cases heard more quickly. 

Federal immigration courts had a backlog of more than 700,000 cases in May, and the cases can take months or years to be heard.

There are less than 400 judges assigned to immigration cases, according to the website Polifact. 

Trump’s executive order calls for families to be held together until their case is heard, meaning illegals could be in government custody for years. That requirement of the president’s is expected to face legal challenges, however, as the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement says illegals can only be held 20 days.

Criminal prosecutions for illegally crossing the southwestern border jumped to 8,298 in April, the month Attorney General Jeff Session announced the zero-tolerance policy, an increase of 30 percent from March, according to data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research institute at Syracuse University.

A Guatemalan father and his daughter arrives with dozens of other women, men and their children at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. 

A Guatemalan father and his daughter arrives with dozens of other women, men and their children at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. 

Dozens of women, men and their children, many fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador, arrive at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

Dozens of women, men and their children, many fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador, arrive at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

Trump first pushed for the idea of returning illegals without due process on Sunday

Trump first pushed for the idea of returning illegals without due process on Sunday

As of June 20th, the Department of Health and Human Service has 2,053 separated minors being held in its facilities. Thus far 522 migrant children have been reunited with their families.   

In the meantime, lawsuits are plying up against the administration on the issue and some Republicans don’t expect Trump’s executive order to with stand legal challenges.

Republicans in both the House and Senate are working on legislation to solve the problem should the executive order be struck down. But even in Congress a debate is raging over the best path forward. 

In the House, a conservative immigration bill failed to get enough votes to proceed on Thursday and a vote was delayed on a compromise measure out of a similar fear by party leaders.

Neither bill has Democratic support, and prospects for the second one passing appeared dim. 

‘I did talk to the White House yesterday. They say the president is still 100 percent behind us,’ Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, a co-sponsor of the bill, said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ 

At a political rally in Nevada on Saturday, Trump Trump defended his immigration policy, accusing Democrats of backing ‘weak, weak borders,’ saying at one point: ‘I think I got elected largely because we are strong on the border.’ 

Republican Sen. Bob Corker conceded the White House was using the issue to make election-year hay.  

‘The administration obviously made a large mistake, I know that some in the White House want to use the immigration issue as a force to activate the base for elections.,’ he said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’ 

‘But obviously the president realized that was a mistake, and now it’s up to us in Congress to work with him to come up with a longer term solution.’ 

And a liberal Democrat accused the president of using the issue to rally the Republican base ahead of the 2018 midterm election.

‘He doesn’t use it as immigration policy, he doesn’t use it as border control policy, he uses it as a issue in order to energize his political base,’ Rep. Luis Gutierrez said on ABC’s ‘This Week.’ 

A large majority of Americans – 72 percent – disapprove of family separation. Republicans, however, are split on that policy, generally half support it, half oppose it. And Republicans do give the president high marks – 81 percent favor – for his handling of the matter, overall, a new CBS News poll found.

One-third of registered voters say the separation policy will be a very important matter in their congressional vote this fall, the poll found. 

Of those who say it will change, more say it will make them vote Democratic than Republican.    

Tom Bossert, who served as the president’s homeland security adviser, said on ABC’s ‘This Week’ that it hasn’t been a great past few days for the White House. 

‘This week has been just gripping imagery and terrible optics for the administration,’ he said.

 



Read more at DailyMail.co.uk