President Donald Trump asserted on Twitter Friday that he is indeed “giving strong considerations” to settling illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities after multiple media reports on Thursday indicated that the idea had been shot down.
The president tweeted that even Democrats now recognize that there is an ongoing crisis on the Southern border.
Even the Democrats now say that our Southern Border is a Crisis and a National Emergency. Hopefully, we will not be getting any more BAD (outrageous) court decisions!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
Due to the fact that Democrats are unwilling to change our very dangerous immigration laws, we are indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing Illegal Immigrants in Sanctuary Cities only….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
Trump added that since the radical left embraces open borders, “this should make them very happy!”
….The Radical Left always seems to have an Open Borders, Open Arms policy – so this should make them very happy!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 12, 2019
The plan, first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday, would target cities that do not cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. There are dozens of such sanctuary cities throughout the United States, including San Francisco, New York City, and Denver, where left-wing city officials openly defy Trump’s immigration policies.
A White House official and a spokesperson from the Department of Homeland Security reportedly shot down the idea when questioned by the media.
“This was just a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion,” the White House statement said, according to PBS News Hour.
The president doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo, because he indicated in his tweet that the idea is still under consideration.
CNN’s Chris Cillizza pounced, writing: “Donald Trump Just Showed How Low He’ll Go on Immigration.”
The cynicism here is towering. Trump — and top aide Stephen Miller — pushed this idea on two occasions under the belief that if they could put undocumented immigrants in the backyards, quite literally, of opponents of the administration’s hard-line immigration plans that they would change some minds among those opponents. Or at the very least, make their lives harder.
“Mental health expert” Jeffrey Guterman simply tweeted: “You are a heinous bastard!”
Trump supporters also weighed in on Twitter:
“They should welcome them with open arms unless they’ve been lying all along,” tweeted Arthur Schwartz, a Republican operative.
“Don’t threaten. Too many empty threats. Just DO IT! Dont wait. Send them all to SanFran, L.A., NYC, Chic, Miami, Portland & DC for starters,” Speaker and filmmaker Dennis Michael Lynch tweeted. “And I say this being a NYer. Drown these liberal mayors/governors w/illegals. The mass exodus of taxpayers will send a very clear mssg.”
The Trump administration has been struggling to get a handle on the continuous flow of Central American migrants flooding the U.S.-Mexico border.
The president said earlier this week that he would direct more American troops to the border after hearing some graphic stories about illegal immigration in San Antonio.
“I’m going to have to call up more military,” said Trump, during a roundtable event with a small group of local officials and ranchers.
“We start talking and the first person gets up and says, ‘Sir, we have many people dying. Coming across the border,’” Trump said. ”‘They’ll be dropped off and they start walking and they’ll say Houston’s right down the road. But it’s actually 300 miles away. And we find dead people from Guatemala, from Honduras, from El Salvador, From Mexico. All over.’”
Trump also took that occasion to slam Democrats: “They have all these horrible laws that the Democrats won’t change, they will not change them. And I think they will pay a very big price in 2020 for all of the things, whether it is the fake witch hunt they start out, or whether it is a situation like this. I think the border is going to be an incredible issue,” he said.
(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)