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Kopan writes: "The Trump administration is considering an executive action that could use travel-ban-like authority to block certain asylum seekers at the Mexican border, sources familiar with the discussions said Thursday."

When the caravan crossed the border into Guatemala, its members traveling by foot and vehicle, it had ballooned to more than 1,000. (photo: Orlando Sierra/Getty Images)
When the caravan crossed the border into Guatemala, its members traveling by foot and vehicle, it had ballooned to more than 1,000. (photo: Orlando Sierra/Getty Images)


Trump Administration Considers Travel-Ban-Like Order for Mexican Border, Sources Say

By Tal Kopan, The San Francisco Chronicle

26 October 18

 

he Trump administration is considering an executive action that could use travel-ban-like authority to block certain asylum seekers at the Mexican border, sources familiar with the discussions said Thursday.

The proposal is not yet final and could be cast aside, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plan is in the formative stages. If President Trump approved such a plan, it would represent a dramatic escalation in border enforcement as a migrant caravan works its way north through Mexico.

The administration is working rapidly to draft the possible executive action, which could effectively use the same legal authority that Trump invoked last year in imposing a ban against people from several mainly Muslim countries on traveling to the U.S., said a government source who has seen a working version of the plan and several sources who had it described to them.

“The administration is considering a wide range of administrative, legal and legislative options to address the Democrat-created crisis of mass illegal immigration,” a White House official said on condition of anonymity. “No decisions have been made at this time. Nor will we forecast to smugglers or caravans what precise strategies will or will not be deployed.”

The Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department did not comment.

The plan would take two steps, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

First, Homeland Security and the Justice Department would issue a rule limiting immigrants’ ability to seek asylum if they are part of a population barred by the president. The rule would take effect immediately, unlike most, and be justified as an extraordinary situation.

That would clear the way for Trump to issue a proclamation directed at a specific population, expected to target the 7,000-plus Central Americans heading toward the U.S.

None of the sources had seen a draft of the proclamation, which would ultimately dictate how sweeping or targeted the rule would be, though they had seen or heard about the draft of the initial rule.

Trump would be acting under a provision in the Immigration and Nationality Act, which provided the authority for his travel ban order. It allows the president to ban certain classes of immigrants from entering the country if they are deemed “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

The Supreme Court upheld the third version of Trump’s travel ban in June, after lower courts blocked the first two.

The government official familiar with the working version of the plan expressed opposition to it and said it would probably face legal challenges.

“This is the administration grasping at straws, pushing something through that is legally suspect,” the official said. “We’ve seen this before. We’ve seen this drives chaos ... and they don’t care.”

Advocacy groups, hearing of the potential move, were already signaling a legal showdown.

“Any attempt to block from the United States the vulnerable men, women and children who come here seeking safety is a shameful new low for this administration,” Eleanor Acer, refugee protection program director at the immigrant rights group Human Rights First, said in a statement. “This Latino ban is flagrantly unconstitutional and will not hold up in court.”

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