Trump admin defends 'zero tolerance' border policy

Agencies
June 19, 2018

Washington, Jun 19: The Trump administration today defended its controversial "zero tolerance" border policy of separating immigrant parents and their children on the US border, and alleged that Democrats do not want to have a comprehensive solution to the current immigration crisis.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, under President Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their parents and guardians and placed into holding facilities between April 19 and May 31 of this year.

"This entire crisis, just to be clear, is not new. It's been occurring and expanded over many decades. But currently, it is the exclusive product of loopholes in our federal immigration laws that prevent illegal immigrant minors and family members from being detained and removed to their home countries," Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters at a White House news conference.

In other words, these loopholes create a functionally open border, she said, noting that apprehension without detention and removal is not border security.

"We have repeatedly called on Congress to close these loopholes," Nielsen said.

She said that in the last three months, illegal immigration on southern border exceed 50,000 people each month. Since last year, there has been a 325 per cent increase in unaccompanied alien children and a 435 per cent increase in family units entering the country illegally.

"Over the last 10 years, there has been a 1,700 per cent increase in asylum claims, resulting in asylum backlog to date, on our country, of 600,000 cases," Nielsen said.

Since 2013, the US has admitted more than half a million illegal immigrant minors and family units from Central America, most of whom today are at large in the US.

At the same time, large criminal groups such as MS-13 have violated the US borders and gained a deadly foothold within the US, the Homeland Security Secretary said.

Nielsen asserted that the Trump administration did not create a policy of separating families at the border.

"We have a statutory responsibility that we take seriously to protect alien children from human smuggling, trafficking and other criminal actions while enforcing our immigration laws," she said.

Asserting that there has been a long-existing policy, she said multiple administrations have followed that outline when they may take action to protect children.

"We will separate those who claim to be a parent and child if we cannot determine a familial or custodial relationship exists.

"For example, if there's no documentation to confirm the claimed relationship between an adult and a child, we do so if the parent is a national security, public or safety risk, including when there are criminal charges at issue and it may not be appropriate to maintain the family in detention together," Nielsen said.

The system also separates a parent and child if the adult is suspected of human trafficking, she explained.

There have been cases where minors have been used and trafficked by unrelated adults in an effort to avoid detention, Nielsen claimed.

"In the last five months, we have a 314 per cent increase in adults and children arriving at the border, fraudulently claiming to be a family unit. This is, obviously, of concern," she said.

The top Trump administration official said that she has not seen the photos of children in cages.

"The image that I want of this country is an immigration system that secures our borders and upholds our humanitarian ideals. Congress needs to fix it," Nielsen said.

Meanwhile, Congressman Bennie Thompson, Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, in a letter to Nielsen expressed his concern and requested more information regarding US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) recent transfer of 1,600 detainees to five federal prisons due to President Trump's zero-tolerance policy.

"The Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy punishes asylum seekers and separates children from their parents at the border. Ill-prepared for the inevitable consequences of its own misguided and inhumane policy, the administration has now begun to shuffle immigrant detainees to federal prisons and place thousands of children in one or more tent cities along the border.

"This administration's response to our broken immigration system, much to the fault of its own making, continues to be inhumane and un-American," he said.

Senator Tina Smith called on Nielsen to resign amid families being cruelly separated at the border, which is a policy she oversees in her leadership role within the Trump administration.

Democratic Leader Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who visited San Diego Immigration Detention Facilities, said that this is not an immigration issue but a humanitarian issue. It’s about the children. It’s also about people seeking asylum.

The public outcry in the wake of images and stories of the children caught in the middle of Trump's controversial immigration policy has sparked fierce debate in the US.

In a rare statement on a policy issue, First Lady Melania Trump weighed in through her spokeswoman on the immigration crisis, saying she "hates to see children separated from their families".

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
March 12,2020

Geneva, Mar 12: For the global economy, virus repercussions were profound, with increasing concerns of wealth- and job-wrecking recessions. U.S. stocks wiped out more than all the gains from a huge rally a day earlier as Wall Street continued to reel.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,464 points, bringing it 20% below its record set last month and putting it in what Wall Street calls a “bear market.” The broader S&P 500 is just 1 percentage point away from falling into bear territory and bringing to an end one of the greatest runs in Wall Street’s history.

WHO officials said they thought long and hard about labeling the crisis a pandemic — defined as sustained outbreaks in multiple regions of the world.

The risk of employing the term, Ryan said, is “if people use it as an excuse to give up.” But the benefit is “potentially of galvanizing the world to fight.”

Underscoring the mounting challenge: soaring numbers in the U.S. and Europe’s status as the new epicenter of the pandemic. While Italy exceeds 12,000 cases and the United States has topped 1,300, China reported a record low of just 15 new cases Thursday and three-fourths of its infected patients have recovered.

China’s totals of 80,793 cases and 3,169 deaths are a shrinking portion of the world’s more than 126,000 infections and 4,600 deaths.

“If you want to be blunt, Europe is the new China,” said Robert Redfield, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With 12,462 cases and 827 deaths, Italy said all shops and businesses except pharmacies and grocery stores would be closed beginning Thursday and designated billions in financial relief to cushion economic shocks in its latest efforts to adjust to the fast-evolving crisis that silenced the usually bustling heart of the Catholic faith, St. Peter’s Square.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 24,2020

Jun 24: The coronavirus tally in Pakistan reached 188,926 with the detection of 3,892 new cases in the last 24 hours, the health ministry said on Wednesday.

Sixty more people died due to the viral infection, taking the death toll to 3,755.

As many as 3,337 patients are in critical condition across the country, the ministry said.

With the detection of 3,892 new cases in the last 24 hours, the coronavirus tally in the country now stands at 188,926, it said.

Sindh reported the maximum number of 72,656 cases, followed by 69,536 in Punjab, 23,388 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 11,483 in Islamabad, 9,634 in Balochistan, 1,337 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 892 in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok).

Health authorities have so far conducted 1,150,141 coronavirus tests, including 23,380 in the last 24 hours.

A total of 77,754 patients have recovered so far from the disease.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 29,2020

Washington, May 29: US President Donald Trump while speaking with reporters at the White House on Thursday said that he is more liked in India than the media in his own country --the United States.

"I know. And they like me in India. I think they like me in India certainly more than the media likes me in this country, " Trump told reporters at his Oval office.

"And I like Modi (Prime Minister Narendra Modi). I like your prime minister a lot. He's a great gentleman. A great gentleman," he added further while briefing the reporters.

But when asked over ties between India and China, the US President said, "They have a big conflict going with India and China. Two countries with 1.4 billion people. Two countries with very powerful militaries. And India is not happy, and probably China is not happy."

Reiterating his offer to mediate between India and China on the border issue, Trump said that he spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is not in "good mood" about the ongoing situation with Beijing.

However, informed sources from the Ministry of External Affairs told ANI on Friday that there has been no recent contact between Prime Minister Modi and the US President. The last conversation between them took place on April 4, 2020, on the subject of hydroxychloroquine.

Asked about his Wednesday's tweet regarding his offer to mediate between India and China, Trump said, "I would do that. If they (China and India) thought it would help." However, Trump did not clarify when did he speak to Modi.

Trump on Wednesday tweeted that he is "ready, willing and able to mediate" between India and China."We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute," the US President said.

In response to Trump's mediation offer, India said on Thursday that it is engaged with the Chinese side to resolve the border issue peacefully.

India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that the two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations that may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and "continue to remain engaged through these channels."

Indian and Chinese field commanders have been holding talks on de-escalating the tensions.

China has also struck a conciliatory tone on the border issue with India, saying the two countries pose no threat to each other and should resolve their differences through communication, while not allowing them to overshadow bilateral relations.

"We should never let differences overshadow our relations. We should resolve differences through communication. China and India should be good neighbours of harmonious coexistence and good partners to move forward hand in hand," said Chinese Ambassador to India, Sun Weidong, on Wednesday.

The tensions escalated between India and China following a number of confrontations between soldiers of both armies.

Troops of India and China were engaged in two face-offs in Eastern Ladakh and North Sikkim along the disputed Line of Actual Control (LAC), where troops from both sides suffered injuries early this month.

Studies over the anti-malarial drug, which is believed to cure the highly contagious coronavirus, have shown side-effects, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organisation. But Trump continues to defend his decision to take hydroxychloroquine saying he believes that it gives an additional level of safety.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.