Trump orders construction of border wall, boosts deportation force
Trump signed two executive orders
directing the construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border, boosting
border patrol forces and increasing the number of immigration
enforcement officers who carry out deportations. The orders also call
for stripping sanctuary cities of federal grant funding and announced
sweeping new criteria that could make many more undocumented immigrants
priorities for deportation.
"Beginning
today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders,"
Trump told employees of the Department of Homeland Security at the
department's headquarters in Washington.
But
while Trump directed the "immediate construction of a physical wall on
the southern border," the executive orders do not cover the cost of the
wall. Trump has repeatedly promised that Mexico will reimburse US
taxpayers for the construction costs, a suggestion Mexican officials
have rejected out of hand.
The
president's moves sent alarm bells ringing in immigrant activist
circles, where questions had continued to swirl about whether Trump
would truly implement many of the hard-line immigration policies he
articulated during his campaign.
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