Trump Expected to Sign Executive Orders on Immigration

Trump Expected to Sign Executive Orders on Immigration

By Julia Edwards Ainsley

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to sign several executive orders on Wednesday restricting immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern or African countries, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.


In addition to Syria, Trump's orders are expected to temporarily restrict access to the United States for most refugees. Another order will block visas from being issued to Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified.

The restrictions on refugees are likely to include a multi-month ban on admissions from all countries until the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can increase the intensity of the vetting process.


Stephen Legomsky, a former chief counsel at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Obama administration, said the president has the authority to limit refugee admissions and the issuance of visas to specific countries if it is determined to be in the public’s interest.


“From a legal standpoint, it would be exactly within his legal rights,” said Legomsky, who now is a professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. “But from a policy standpoint it would be terrible idea because there is such an urgent humanitarian need right now for refugees.”


The Republican president was expected to sign the orders at the Washington headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security, whose responsibilities include immigration and border security.

On the campaign trail, Trump initially proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States to protect Americans from jihadist attacks. Many Trump supporters decried Democratic President Barack Obama's decision to increase the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States over fears that those fleeing the country's civil war would carry out attacks.

Both Trump and his nominee for attorney general, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, have since said they would focus the restrictions on countries whose emigres could pose a threat rather than placing a ban on people who follow a specific religion.



Detractors could launch legal challenges to the moves if all the countries subject to the ban are Muslim-majority nations, said immigration expert Hiroshi Motomura at UCLA School of Law. Legal arguments could claim the executive orders discriminate against a particular religion, which would be unconstitutional, he said.


"His comments during the campaign and a number of people on his team focused very much on religion as the target," Motomura said.

To block entry from the designated countries, Trump is likely to instruct the U.S. State Department to stop issuing visas to people from those nations, according to sources familiar with the visa process. He could also instruct U.S. Customs and Border Protection to stop any current visa holders from those countries from entering the United States.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that the State and Homeland Security departments would work on the vetting process once Trump's nominee to head the State Department, Rex Tillerson, is installed.

Other measures may include directing all agencies to finish work on a biometric identification system for non-citizens entering and exiting the United States and a crackdown on immigrants fraudulently receiving government benefits, according to the congressional aides and immigration experts.

To restrict illegal immigration, Trump has promised to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and to deport illegal migrants living inside the United States. None of the orders to be signed Wednesday are expected to focus on those issues.


Trump is also expected to swear in his new secretary of homeland security, retired Marine General John Kelly, on Wednesday.


http://www.reuters.com/article/us-us...-idUSKBN1582XQ

And more will come when Sessions and Tillerson are confirmed. Tillerson will need to negotiate with the countries who are refusing to accept their citizens they don't want back when we want to deport them. And most of those are in the first priority serious criminal group. But Trump will solve it and he'll solve it fast. HURRY UP SENATE!! You're holding up our Trump Train!!!

The DACA issue was on the O'Reilly Talking Points Memo Tonight!

:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Judy

And more will come when Sessions and Tillerson are confirmed. Tillerson will need to negotiate with the countries who are refusing to accept their citizens they don't want back when we want to deport them. And most of those are in the first priority serious criminal group. But Trump will solve it and he'll solve it fast. HURRY UP SENATE!! You're holding up our Trump Train!!!

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Law would cut off aid to countries that refuse to accept illegal immigrant criminals

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By Malia Zimmerman
Published January 16, 2017 FoxNews.com

A proposed law that would punish countries that refuse to take back their illegal immigrant criminals is two years too late to save Casey Chadwick, but the Texas congressman behind it figures it’s the least Washington can do.

Chadwick was murdered in 2015 by Jean Jacques, an illegal immigrant from Haiti and one of thousands freed onto U.S. streets each year after they serve prison time because their homelands refuse deportation. But a proposal by Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, the Criminal Alien Deportation Enforcement Act, would force such countries to take back their citizens or risk losing foreign aid and travel visa privileges.

“The problem is hundreds of Americans are being robbed, assaulted, raped or murdered every year by criminal aliens who are then released back onto the streets because their countries of origins refuse to take them back,” Babin said. “I have personally met with a number of these victims, or if the victim is deceased, I have met with their families. It is heart-wrenching.”

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When Haiti refused to admit Jacques, ICE was forced to free him under a 2001 Supreme Court ruling.

Chadwick’s case is among the most egregious, Babin said. Jacques was sentenced to 60 years in prison last year for stabbing Chadwick, 25, to death in her Norwich apartment. The killer had been in the U.S. illegally since 1992, had already spent 17 years in prison for attempted murder and possession of a firearm without a permit.

He was not deported after serving time, but it was not for lack of U.S. effort. Jacques was listed as a passenger on three charter flights to Haiti in June, August and October of 2012, but each time the Haitian government refused to repatriate him.

A 2001 Supreme Court ruling, Zadvydas v. Davis, held that illegal immigrants ticketed for deportation but unaccepted by their home countries cannot be detained indefinitely. Jacques was held for 205 days, but ultimately freed less than six months before he killed Chadwick.

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Casey Chadwick was killed just over a year ago in her Norwich, Conn., apartment. (Fox 61)


“For the sake of Casey and thousands of other Americans who have been victimized, it is time we start putting the safety of our citizens first and stop this revolving door that is allowing dangerous criminals who should be deported back onto our streets,” Babin said.

A House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing in April documented that since 2013, 86,288 illegal immigrants have committed 231,074 crimes after being released from prison. Many of those illegal immigrants are ultimately deported, but some 2,166 who had served their time for various crimes were released last year when their home countries refused to take them back.

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Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, believes his bill has a great chance of becoming law.


Babin’s bill would require the Department of Homeland Security report to Congress every three months the names of uncooperative countries. The federal government would then withhold foreign aid to those countries while the State Department would suspend travel visas.

Under President-elect Donald Trump, the bill faces “renewed interest” because Trump “has voiced his strong support for punishing countries that refuse to accept deportations,” Babin said.
The problem is “getting out of hand,” agreed Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Washington-based Center for Immigration Studies.

There are now more than 20 countries that refuse to cooperate with the U.S., and more than 60 that make the process extremely difficult, Vaughan said.

“It’s not just Cuba and Cambodia anymore; now it’s China, Bangladesh, Nigeria and many others,” she said.

The State Department has imposed visa sanctions only once, on Gambia, just a few months ago, which worked right away, Vaughan said.

“All they had to do was stop issuing visas to Gambian government officials, and they suddenly started cooperating, within weeks, which is fast in the diplomatic context,” Vaughan said.
Under current law, the State Department must impose sanctions upon request of the Department of Homeland Security, but that rarely happens, said Vaughan.

Claude Arnold, a former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations, said in past administrations, DHS would raise this issue to the State Department but nothing would ever happen. He believes under this proposed bill, will be more Congressional oversight.

“The U.S. is the center of international trade. As soon as businesses are not allowed to come to the U.S. to do business internationally, that’s all it would take,” Arnold said. “Those countries would start accepting back their deportees immediately because they would get such pressure from their citizenry who would be hurt financially.”

Neither the State Department nor the Department of Homeland Security comments on pending legislation.

But a State Department official told FoxNews.com facilitating the removal of aliens subject to a final order of removal, particularly those who pose a danger to national security or public safety, is a “top priority.”

“Stepped-up diplomatic efforts by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the State Department have resulted in significant increases in cooperation among the 23 countries currently on ICE’s Uncooperative list, with nearly half of these countries improving their records of issuing travel documents, accepting charter deportee flights with deportees, and agreeing on formal arrangements for future removals in recent months,” the spokesman said.

A spokesperson for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said the agency is working through “diplomatic channels” to ensure that other countries accept the timely return of their nationals in accordance with international law.

But Babin said he will fight for tougher restrictions.

“Many of these countries are getting millions and millions of dollars from the American taxpayer, and then not taking their criminals back,” Babin said.

Malia Zimmerman is an award-winning investigative reporter for FoxNews.com focused on crime, homeland security, illegal immigration crime, terrorism and political corruption. Follow her on twitter at @MaliaMZimmerman

​http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/01/16/bill-would-cut-off-aid-to-countries-that-dont-take-back-their-illegal-immigrant-criminals.html

The first article from Reuters is now the lead on Drudge.

http://drudgereport.com/

Breaking news on CNN, Trump signing orders at DHS headquarters tomorrow and the "next couple of days" on immigration.