Trump considering border closure to prevent Central American migrants: Report

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27(APP):President Trump is considering closing the country’s southern border to prevent Central Americans migrants from crossing into the country for seeking asylum, a news report said on Friday, as he doubles down on his tough stance on immigrations ahead of crucial mid-term elections for Congress.

Since taking over the presidency, President Trump has taken a very hard position on immigration, both legal and illegal, citing national security that has alarmed human rights activists.

His latest move, reported by the Washington Post, comes as a caravan of an estimated 5,000 Central Americans is heading from Central America through Mexico to the United States to seek asylum as they find situation in their country unbearable to live. They people marching on foot are still about 1,000 away.

According to the report, President Trump is planning to use his executive authority, the one he used to implement a travel ban on certain Muslim majority countries, to prevent the Central Americans from entering the country as a matter of national security.

The report citing a draft plan said that the President has a authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to declare migrants as ineligible for asylum, if it runs counter to national interest. However, the senior administration officials said that nothing has been final as the move was one of the several among several considerations.

The caravan, that includes women and children, is walking through southern Mexico toward the US border. Under the US law, foreign nationals fleeing persecution have the right to apply for the asylum once they reach American soil.

However, the report citing officials familiar with the proposal said that under the plan the Presidential executive order that is under consideration would suspend that provision to prevent them from entering the US. Media reports said that the White House was preparing to deploy as many as 1,000 US troops to assist the border security in the anticipation of the caravan arrival.

In case the President issues such an order, it would likely face immediate legal challenges. President Trump’s executive order to ban entry of citizens from six Muslim majority countries faced legal challenges and was overturned several times by the lower court, before the Supreme Court reversed their decision and upheld the ban in June.

The caravan includes individuals from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, fleeing violence and poverty in their home countries and seek asylum in the U.S.

President Trump’s win in the 2016 presidential election is in part attributed to his tough stance on the immigrants. He is now using the caravan to once again rally his supporters ahead of the mid-term elections that will decide which party will control the Congress.

While the Democrats are unlikely to win the Senate majority, there are chances they may win enough seats to control the House of Representatives, which will make it difficult for President Trump to implement his agenda.

His critics has accused the President of making false claims that the members of the caravan were paid to come to the US and that unknown Middle Easterners had embedded themselves in the caravan.