Trump Again Assails Court Hearings for Illegal Border Crossers

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday again assailed judicial review for illegal border crossers, contending that the migrants ought to immediately be sent back to their homelands.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Sunday that the U.S. leader’s call to end legal hearings for undocumented immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S. was unconstitutional. But Trump rejected that view in a pair of new Twitter comments.

“Hiring many thousands (sic) of judges, and going through a long and complicated legal process, is not the way to go – will always be dysfunctional (sic),” he said. “People must simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally.”

He contended that if children and their parents are sent home, “illegal immigration will be stopped in it’s (sic) tracks – and at very little, by comparison, cost. This is the only real answer – and we must continue to BUILD THE WALL!”

Trump’s latest comments echoed his thoughts Sunday when he first called for ending judicial review of asylum claims, saying “when somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”

“We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country,” he said. “Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.” Trump claimed that the U.S. immigration law is “laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years!”

The ACLU said what Trump is suggesting “is both illegal and unconstitutional. Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally.”

The United States for years has granted court hearings to migrants fleeing violence in Mexico and Central American countries and from elsewhere in the world, and who are looking for better economic fortunes in the United States.

Trump’s demand to end that legal process would face stiff opposition in Congress, which for years has been stalemated on changes to U.S. immigration policies and has been unable to enact new migration laws.

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is planning to vote this week on comprehensive immigration policy changes after last week defeating a tougher version of new immigration controls.

Also last week, Trump signed an executive order maintaining his “zero tolerance” policy of detaining and prosecuting everyone entering the country illegally, but ending the practice of separating immigrant parents and children.

Logistical questions about those being detained have sent multiple government agencies in search of solutions, including how to provide housing.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters traveling with him on a trip to China that the Pentagon is working closely with the Department of Homeland Security to build temporary camps on two military bases. Mattis said he could not yet name them, but promised to provide those details Monday.

He said military personnel do not play any enforcement role that is carried out by DHS, but have experience in supporting refugees and victims of natural disasters.

“This is something that we can do again — whether it be refugee boat people from Vietnam, people who have been knocked out of their homes by a hurricane — absolutely it’s appropriate the military provide logistics support however it’s needed,” Mattis said.

The U.S. says it knows the location of 2,053 children it is holding who were separated from their parents in recent weeks as they entered the country illegally along its southern border with Mexico. The U.S. said it is now working to reunite the families. The Department of Homeland Security said over the weekend it has returned 522 children to their parents, with many of them held together in detention centers while awaiting court proceedings to consider their bids for asylum.

But how quickly the remaining reunifications might occur remains an open question. A processing center in the southwestern state of Texas has been set up for the reunifications, which could lead to the deportation of some of the families.
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