Abbott's Border Action Has Doubled Immigrant Deaths In The El Paso Sector

The following is just a tiny part of an excellent article in The Texas Tribune:

Historically, Border Patrol’s El Paso sector — which includes all 180 miles of New Mexico’s border with Mexico and 84 miles of El Paso and Hudspeth counties in West Texas — has had among the fewest migrant deaths across the southern border.

That changed in late December 2022, according to an investigation by The Texas Tribune and Source New Mexico, when the city of El Paso joined forces with Gov. Greg Abbott to participate in his signature border mission, called Operation Lone Star.

By 2024, the El Paso sector had become the deadliest place for migrants to cross along the entire U.S.-Mexico border.

From January 2023 to August 2024, 299 human remains were reported in the El Paso sector, the most of any sector along the southern border, according to the most recent data available from federal government data. That’s more than double the number of cases reported during the 20 months prior, when 122 remains were recorded before El Paso had adopted Operation Lone Star.

Since El Paso joined Texas’ border mission in 2022, migrant remains discovered in the El Paso sector have increased every year, even as they have declined in every other part of the border. . . .

Though many factors determine where and when someone crosses an international border — including federal immigration policies, organized crime and natural disasters — experts and advocates say any policy that pushes migrants into the desert will likely cost lives.

Immigrant rights groups and researchers say more migrants are taking deadlier routes to enter the country since Texas launched Operation Lone Star in 2021 — flooding the border with state troopers, National Guard and miles of razor wire — as the federal government’s ever-changing immigration policies have delayed or blocked migrants who want to claim asylum in the U.S.

“Any state lawmaker or local leader should be aware that these policies come at a human cost,” said Aimée Santillán, a policy analyst at the Hope Border Institute, an immigrant rights advocacy group in El Paso. “So anyone that decides to approach this type of enforcement is making a decision that they can live with these deaths.”

Congress Should Cease Political Theater And Fix The Border

The following is part of an editorial by The Washington Post editorial board:

Washington needs to craft a better system to manage the mass migration of people seeking asylum in the United States, as migrants request U.S. protection at massive rates, knowing that the process for vetting their claims will drag out. That requires, above all, clear standards to determine who is entitled to protection that are enforced swiftly and certainly. Otherwise, they will not be credible. The bipartisan bill would have done some good in this respect. But its backers vastly oversold what it could accomplish.

Consider its provision to “shut the border” amid large surges of asylum seekers. There is a close precedent: Title 42, the rule deployed during the covid-19 pandemic, from March 2020 until May 2023, to summarily expel migrants on public health grounds without hearing their asylum applications. Trump adviser Stephen Miller said it could be invoked again to keep out “severe strains of the flu” or “scabies.”

Three million people were expelled under the rule. But it didn’t stop the flow. Border Patrol encounters with migrants increased sharply, largely because, under Title 42, they didn’t face consequences for repeat illegal entries, including criminal prosecution. So those kicked out would turn around and try again, hoping to sneak through undetected. Recidivists rose from 7 percent of encounters in fiscal 2019 to 27 percent in 2021. Unauthorized migrants whom U.S. agents detected but failed to catch — “gotaways” in Border Patrol parlance — also soared as migrants kept trying until they made it.

That was hardly the only glitch. Washington soon discovered it couldn’t apply Title 42 to everyone showing up at the border because often there was nowhere to send people back to. Overall, only 41 percent of those encountered at the border were expelled using the rule. The United States could expel single adults coming from Mexico and Central America, because Mexico would accept them. But countries such as Venezuela, Cuba and China would not take back their citizens. Only 8 percent of single adults not from Central America or Mexico got kicked out under Title 42.

Beyond political showmanship, “fixing” the border requires sending a credible signal around the world that the United States can enforce its rules. Today, it can’t. The country doesn’t have the agents to conduct interviews to find out whether migrants meet the standard to request asylum, the judges to rule on whether asylum is warranted, or enough beds to house migrants until these things are determined.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, for instance, reports 1.3 million immigrants scattered around the country who have been denied permission to stay and face removal orders. ICE cannot detain 1.3 million people — it has only 40,000 beds. Nor can it deport them quickly, even if their home country would take them back. It has 11 planes. . . .

To be fair, the bipartisan Senate deal included provisions to boost the credibility of the United States’ rules. It would have funded more than 4,300 new asylum officers and support staff, 100 additional immigration judge teams, 1,500 Border Patrol agents and customs officers, 1,200 ICE staff to help with deportations. It would have increased detention capacity and added deportation flights.

This, but at a grander scale, would offer the best shot at bringing the border under control. After the political skirmishing is done, lawmakers ought to work on a solution. 

Trump And MAGA Republicans Now Own The Border Mess

Republicans have been shouting about the "open border" for months. They have called undocumented immigration an "invasion". They have claimed that other countries are dumping their undesirables on the U.S., and blamed the border mess for drugs like fentanyl entering the country. 

Most of that is nonsense, but it has worked with the general public. Over half of the public now considers the southern border to be a crisis. Republicans had hoped to use that "crisis" to march to victory in the 2024 election.

The idea was to claim they had solutions for the border crisis, and those solutions were opposed by Democrats and President Biden. They thought they had cleverly laid a trap for Democrats (who they assumed would oppose the GOP border solutions). But the GOP has fallen into its own trap!

In a negotiation with some Senate Republicans, the Democrats gave Republicans nearly everything they had been asking for. The negotiated bill would impose severe restrictions on those immigrants trying to enter, would give money to the Border Patrol for more employees and equipment, and even contained provisions to completely close the border. And President Biden said he would sign the bill.

The immediate reaction was that this was victory for Republicans. The very conservative Wall Street Journal called it a good bill and urged Republicans to pass it. The Border Patrol Union (which endorsed Trump is the last election) agreed and came out in support of the bill's passage.

But then something happened. That something was Donald Trump. Trump's main campaign issue was the border issue. If a bill passed that made the situation at the border much better, he thought that would hurt him in the election by taking his best campaign issue away. He ordered his congressional cohorts to kill the bill. 

Now enough Senate Republicans oppose the bill (even though it gave them most of what they've been demanding). It turns out that their fear of a reprisal from Trump was more important than a solution to the border mess.

The GOP-controlled House is also following Trump's orders. House GOP leaders said if the bill somehow passed the Senate, it would die in the House. They wouldn't even give it a vote. Instead, they planned a bit of political theater.

They wanted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas. They thought that would help place blame on Democrats for the border and keep their base happy. But even that failed. The impeachment vote failed by a 214 to 216 vote.

Thanks to this failed bit of political theater and the opposition to a border bill (which contained the provisions they had been clamoring for), congressional Republicans have given up the moral high ground and exposed themselves as hypocritical liars.

Trump and his MAGA Republicans now own the border mess. And you can bet the Democrats will make sure the voters know that!

Mayorkas Impeachment Is Just More Republican Hypocrisy

 

The following is part of a response by Rep. Dan Goldman (D-New York) to the Republican's attempt to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas.

On Tuesday, House Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee completed their rushed, baseless and legally flawed impeachment “investigation” of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for trumped-up, never-used charges relating to the secretary’s efforts to secure our southern border. The irony here, of course, is that the ones who have failed to secure the southern border are, in fact, those same Republicans, operating at the behest of Donald Trump. 

As one senior congressional aide recently put it: “It’s very clear that a large group of Republicans in the Senate and the House no longer want to do border security. … Trump wouldn’t have his issue to run on. That’s what’s going on here: They don’t want to give up that issue.”

Keep in mind, that aide who so succinctly summed up the ongoing border legislation negotiations is a Republican, not a Democrat. 

Democrats, led by Mayorkas and President Joe Biden, have been working around the clock for the past two months with a bipartisan group of senators to address the issues at the border through bipartisan legislation — which Republicans have insisted on as a condition for providing aid to our democratic allies around the world. As Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has recognized, the border policy package that is near agreement in the Senate would include more Republican priorities than have ever been passed or would ever be achieved under a Republican administration.

In a recent closed-door meeting with his Senate Republican colleagues, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky reportedly shared “that the party used to be united in finding a solution” but that the politics “have changed” and Trump “wants the issue [of border security] for his 2024 campaign more than an actual solution.”

This goes beyond your regular election-year political cynicism. For the entire 118th Congress, I have witnessed firsthand House Republicans on the Homeland Security Committee using security concerns at the southern border as a political cudgel without making any effort in a divided government to reach across the aisle to actually solve problems through bipartisan legislation. And make no mistake, legislation — not executive action — is the only way to fix our broken immigration system.  

Even within its limited executive authority, the Biden administration has taken several actions to address the situation at the border by streamlining the asylum process while expediting eligibility decisions, preventing unlawful entry between ports of entry and reducing the pressure on the system by allowing people from specific countries suffering from acute humanitarian problems to gain lawful access under certain limiting conditions.   

In response to these efforts, Republican attorneys general around the country sued the Biden administration to prevent the implementation of these policy changes designed to stop the unlawful entry of migrants across the southern border and stem the flow of migrants seeking asylum.

Think about that: The Republicans are working to create and perpetuate the very problems upon which they are basing their impeachment effort of Mayorkas. . . .

To put it simply, Republicans would prefer to have chaos at the border than actually solve our border problems —because they care more about winning elections than finding solutions for the American people.

Trump's Big Lies About The Border And Immigration

Donald Trump thinks his best chance to be re-elected is to frighten voters about the border and immigration. He demanded that congressional Republicans kill a bipartisan Senate bill that would fix the border crisis to keep the issue for his campaign. But while the border does need some help, Trump is not telling the truth about it. Instead, he's telling a series of lies -- designed to frighten voters.

Robert Reich gives us the biggest lies Trump is telling about the border and immigration:

Here are Trump’s biggest lies, followed by the truth.

Trump claims Biden doesn’t want to stem illegal immigration and has created an “open border.”

Rubbish. Since he took office, Biden has consistently asked for additional funding for border control.

Republicans have just as consistently refused. They’ve voted to cut Customs and Border Protection funding in spending bills and blocked passage of Biden’s $106 billion national security supplemental that includes border funding. 

Trump blames the drug crisis on illegal immigration.

Bull. While large amounts of fentanyl and other deadly drugs have been flowing into the United States from Mexico, 90 percent arrives through official ports of entry, not via immigrants illegally crossing the border. Research by the conservative Cato Institute found that more than 86 percent of the people convicted of trafficking fentanyl across the border in 2021 were U.S. citizens.

Trump claims that undocumented immigrants are terrorists.

Baloney. America’s southern border has not been an entry point for terrorists. For almost a half-century, no American has been killed or injured in a terrorist attack in the United States that involved someone who crossed the border illegally.

Trump says undocumented immigrants are stealing American jobs.

Nonsense. Evidence shows immigrants are not taking jobs that American workers want. The surge across the border is not increasing unemployment. Far from it: Unemployment has been below 4 percent for roughly two years, far lower than the long-term average rate of 5.71 percent. It’s now 3.7 percent.

Trump claims undocumented immigrants are responsible for more crime in America.

More BS. In fact, a 2020 study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, cited by the Department of Justice, showed that undocumented immigrants have “substantially” lower crime rates than native-born citizens and legal immigrants. Despite the recent surge in illegal immigration, America’s homicide rate has fallen nearly 13 percent since 2022 — the largest decrease on record. Local law enforcement agencies are also reporting drops in violent crime.

Abbott Defies U.S. Supreme Court - Denies Feds Border Access

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has decided to play politics with the situation at the Texas border. He has ordered the Texas National Guard and state troopers to take over a park in Eagle Pass, and put up razor wire to stop immigrants. This has already resulted in the deaths of 3 immigrants (two of them children) as they denied Border Patrol entrance so they could try to save the people.

The Supreme Court has ruled that Texas must allow the Border Patrol to access the border and remove the razor wire. Abbott has refused, and continues to order the installation of the razor wire. He also continues to allow Border Patrol officers access to the border.

This amounts to sedition. No state has the right to ignore federal law or Supreme Court decisions about that law. Sadly, the Constitution doesn't mean much to today's Republican Party. Many Republicans in Washington have encouraged Abbott to continue his actions. And 25 Republicans governors have signed a statement backing Abbott's shameful, dangerous, and illegal actions.

The crazy part of this mess is that a bipartisan Senate bill could reach the Senate floor this week -- a bill that would solve the crisis at the border. But House Republicans, at the behest of Donald Trump, are saying they will refuse to pass the bill. It seems that Republicans want the border crisis to continue so they can keep playing politics with the issue.

Here is a list of the Republican governors supporting Abbott's illegal defiance of the Supreme Court:

• Governor Kay Ivey, Alabama
• Governor Mike Dunleavy, Alaska
• Governor Sarah Sanders, Arkansas
• Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida
• Governor Brian Kemp, Georgia
• Governor Brad Little, Idaho
• Governor Eric Holcomb, Indiana
• Governor Kim Reynolds, Iowa
• Governor Jeff Landry, Louisiana
• Governor Tate Reeves, Mississippi
• Governor Mike Parson, Missouri
• Governor Greg Gianforte, Montana
• Governor Jim Pillen, Nebraska
• Governor Joe Lombardo, Nevada
• Governor Chris Sununu, New Hampshire
• Governor Doug Burgum, North Dakota
• Governor Mike DeWine, Ohio
• Governor Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma
• Governor Henry McMaster, South Carolina
• Governor Kristi Noem, South Dakota
• Governor Bill Lee, Tennessee
• Governor Spencer Cox, Utah
• Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia
• Governor Jim Justice, West Virginia
• Governor Mark Gordon, Wyoming

Trump Plays Politics With The Border Crisis

Republican and Democratic senators are very close to agreeing on a bill that could fix the border crisis, or at least give President Biden some tools to control the border -- and the President has said he would use those tools.

As a Liberal Democrat, I think what we really need is a full immigration bill. But I recognize that the border is currently a mess, and something must be done to restore order there. The negotiated compromise would probably do that.

The compromise gave Republicans most of what they wanted, and one would think it should easily pass with huge Republican support. But after whining about the border situation for months now, a lot of Republicans (especially in the House) are saying they will not support the Senate's compromise bill.

Why would they do that? Don't they want a stable and safe situation at the border? It turns out that for them politics is more important than the border crisis. 

Donald Trump has come out against the border deal. He told the congressional GOP that they should oppose the deal because it is not "perfect". Few bills passing Congress are perfect, but most actually improve what they are meant to improve. And that is the problem for Trump.

Trump's main campaign issue has been the border crisis, and he's afraid the compromise solution will actually fix the mess at the border. He would no longer be able to claim (untruthfully) Biden's is doing nothing to fix it. And he thinks his campaign would suffer.

It tells us a lot about Trump. He thinks his own shaky situation is more important than solving the nation's problems. 

I think he's making a big political mistake this time. If the problem at the border continues because this bill is not passed, then he must take the blame for that. It's no longer a winning issue for him.

Abbott's Border Policy Responsible For Children's Deaths

 

The following is by Dan Rather:

Often lost in the gamesmanship of border politics are details of those who tragically die trying to get to this country. In 2022, the most recent year for which records are available, nearly 700 people perished or disappeared trying to come to the United States. The International Organization for Migration says this is the deadliest land route for migrants worldwide. 

 

We received many comments on our post from Tuesday asking for more information about the three people who died crossing the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass, Texas. According to Mexican authorities, the bodies have been identified as Victerma de la Sancha Cerros, 33, and her two children, a 10-year-old girl and an eight-year-old boy. They were from a town near Mexico City, hundreds of miles south of Eagle Pass.

Authorities say Victerma’s sister, Mónica de la Sancha Cerros, 30, and her 10-year-old son were rescued by Mexican soldiers. They suffered hypothermia but survived.

The five family members had reportedly formed a human chain to cross the river, but at some point, one of the children broke free, and the strong river currents swept three of them underwater. That’s when Mexican authorities requested help from the U.S. Border Patrol, which was denied access to the area by the Texas State Police and National Guard.

We Should Tell The Truth About Immigrants At Our Border

Republicans are claiming that we have hordes of illegals and criminals at our Southern border who want to bring in drugs and take jobs away from American citizens. That is mostly a lie!

We do have a problem at the border. There are desperate people trying to get into this country. Most are not criminals, and are trying to obey U.S. immigration law (which means they are not illegal either).

The problem has two causes. The first is the sad situation in their own countries, where they have few, if any, prospects to support their families in a decent manner. The second is out badly broken immigration system. We cannot control the first reason, but we could control the second -- if our politicians would work together instead of trying use the situation to win votes from people who don't understand the situation.

Immigrants who cross the border and evade capture, have broken U.S. immigration law -- so technically, they could be called "illegal". But that is not the situation currently at the border. The people there are trying to cross the border, true themselves in, and ask for asylum. That is perfectly legal under U.S. immigration law. Calling them "illegal" is wrong.

Making the situation even sadder is that U.S. businesses are desperate for workers, and cannot fill their openings with citizens -- especially the dirty, dangerous, and low-paying jobs. These jobs would happily be filled by the desperate people trying to legally enter our country. 

The problem could be fixed by passing a reasonable immigration law, but our politicians (especially Republicans) would rather demonize the immigrants to get votes than do that.

It's easy to claim these people are criminals who pose a danger to Americans, but most aren't. They want to be good, law-abiding Americans. And history has shown that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at a much lower rate than citizens.

It's also easy to claim these people are bringing in drugs. That's also mostly a lie. The ones allowed in for an amnesty claim are searched. The ones who try to sneak in are very likely to be caught. The cartels know this is a very bad way to try to sneak in drugs. They have much better ways -- bringing the drugs in by trucks, boats, and airplanes (usually hidden in other goods being imported). 

It's time to stop demonizing and lying about the desperate immigrants at our Southern border. It's also time to fix our broken immigration system. But I doubt our Republicans in Congress will make any attempt to do either. 

These Are Children - And The U.S. Should Help Them

The Republicans want you to believe that the crisis at the border is an invading horde of criminals trying to bring death and destruction to the United States. That's a lie! There is a crisis at the border, but it's a few thousand desperate children who just want a chance to live a decent life. We should be trying to help them -- not using them as political footballs to score political points. America is the land of immigrants, and helping a few more is not going to wreck the nation. It would just show the world that we really do believe in equality and human rights -- and we are no longer the nation that cages children as a policy.

Keith Olbermann probably says it better than I could. Here, from Crooks and Liars, is his great rant on this border "crisis":

The Republicans don't give a sh*t about these kids, Their solution is to hell with them. 

This is the God damned United States of America and those are children in trouble and their numbers spiked not last week but last year up 690% in the last nine months under Trump. They are asking us for asylum. They are asking us to keep them from getting killed. They are asking us to be what this country has always been: mother of exiles. My great-great-grandfather came here because there was nowhere else for him to go. Joe Biden's great-great grandfather came here because there was nowhere else for him to go. Donald Trump's grandfather came here because there was nowhere else for him to go.

That border destabilized by Trump's xenophobia must be fixed, The well-intentioned but now malfunctioning care for these kids must be fixed.

But most importantly these children must be welcomed here.

This is the goddamned United States of America.

We are great because of people who came here, because there was nowhere else for them to go. "Give me your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these the homeless tempest-tossed to me."

This question is the crisis:

Are we still Americans here or are we a nation of goddamned stinking Trumps?

Border Cities Are Among The Safest Cities In The U.S.

 The chart above uses information about crime statistics from the FBI. It compares the eight largest border cities to eight other cities of their size. Note that the eight border cities have a lower violent crime rate than the other cities.

This is not new. It has been true for years. Trump has tried to claim the border cities have an enormous crime rate because of undocumented immigrants. That was always a lie! The border cities are among the safest cities in the United States, and always have been.

DHS Inspector General Finds Border A "Ticking Time Bomb"

(Photo is from the office of the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General.)

There is a terrible humanitarian crisis at our Southern border. Donald Trump won't admit it (because he has caused it), and the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol make excuses for it. But it is real, and only getting worse. The DHS Inspector General recognizes it, and has issued two reports now -- calling it a ticking time bomb. Some have called these detention

Here is how NPR reports it:

The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General is warning about "dangerous overcrowding" in Border Patrol facilities in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas.

In a strongly worded report, the inspector general said the prolonged detention of migrants without proper food, hygiene or laundry facilities — some for more than a month — requires "immediate attention and action."

The report comes amid growing outrage over detention conditions for migrants and follows reports that migrant children were kept in squalid conditions without enough food and basic necessities in a Border Patrol station in West Texas.

Inspectors from DHS's Office of Inspector General in June visited Border Patrol facilities and ports of entry across the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, the busiest sector in the country for illegal border crossings.

"We are concerned that overcrowding and prolonged detention represent an immediate risk to the health and safety of DHS agents and officers, and to those detained," they wrote. . . .

In May, according to DHS, an average of more than 4,600 people a day crossed illegally or arrived at ports of entry without the proper documents, compared to less than 700 a day in the same period two years ago.

DHS says Customs and Border Protection facilities are at "peak capacity" and that the agency is adding detention capacity at three tent facilities in order to improve the conditions for migrants. CBP also says it "continues to take steps to address the health and safety of those in custody," including by expanding medical services.

The inspector general's office released a report in May describing similarly dangerous overcrowding conditions in Border Patrol cells in the El Paso region.

The latest report from the Rio Grande Valley includes photos of migrants penned into overcrowded Border Patrol facilities — including one man pressing a cardboard sign to a cell window with the word "Help."

The inspectors quote one unnamed senior manager calling the situation a "ticking time bomb."

Inspectors found that hundreds of children were held for longer than the 72 hours, the maximum time federal rules allow. In some cases, kids were held for more than two weeks. And some adults were kept in standing-room-only cells, without access to showers, for more than a week.

Some have called these detention facilities at the border "concentration camps". That upsets Trump, the DHS, and the Border Patrol, but the deplorable conditions make the portrayal rather accurate.  And the survivors of America's past concentration camps (for the citizens of Japanese heritage during World War II) agree with the designation. The picture below (by Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Los Angeles Times) shows some of those survivors demonstrating at Fort Sill in Oklahoma to stop the establishment of even more of these concentration camps. They are upset that this country is repeating the mistakes of the past.

Trump Wants More Inhumanity Against Asylum Seekers

(Caricatures of Nielsen and Trump are by DonkeyHotey.)

Kirstjen Nielsen is out of a job. The media is reporting that she resigned, but make no mistake, she was fired by Donald Trump.

Nielsen had demonstrated that she was willing to be as mean as possible to desperate people seeking asylum -- even to the point of separating children from their parents and keeping them detained in cages. But that wasn't good enough for Trump.

Nielsen didn't mind being mean, but she wanted to demonstrate her meanness within the law. Trump wanted more. He doesn't just want mean people working for him -- he wants mean people who will break the law to accomplish what he wants. He wants people like Stephen Miller, who will disregard common sense, decency, and the law.

From CNN.com:

President Donald Trump has been pushing to reinstate broader family separation policies and sought to close the US-Mexico border at El Paso, Texas, as his conflict with Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reached a boiling point.

Three Thursdays ago, in a meeting at the Oval Office with top officials -- including Nielsen, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, top aides Jared Kushner, Mercedes Schlapp and Dan Scavino, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and more -- the President, according to one attendee, was "ranting and raving, saying border security was his issue."

Senior administration officials say that Trump then ordered Nielsen and Pompeo to shut down the port of El Paso the next day, Friday, March 22, at noon. The plan was that in subsequent days the Trump administration would shut down other ports. 

Nielsen told Trump that would be a bad and even dangerous idea, and that the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, has been very supportive of the President. 

She proposed an alternative plan that would slow down entries at legal ports. She argued that if you close all the ports of entry all you would be doing is ending legal trade and travel, but migrants will just go between ports.

According to two people in the room, the President said: "I don't care."

Ultimately, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney seemed to have been able to talk the President out of closing the port of El Paso. Trump, however, was insistent that his administration begin taking another action -- denying asylum seekers entry. Nielsen tried to explain to the President that the asylum laws allow migrants from Central America to come to the US and gain entry. She talked to the White House counsel to see if there were any exceptions, but he told her that her reading of the law was correct. . . .

Last Friday, the President visited Calexico, California, where he said, "We're full, our system's full, our country's full -- can't come in! Our country is full, what can you do? We can't handle any more, our country is full. Can't come in, I'm sorry. It's very simple." 

Behind the scenes, two sources told CNN, the President told border agents to not let migrants in. Tell them we don't have the capacity, he said. If judges give you trouble, say, "Sorry, judge, I can't do it. We don't have the room."

After the President left the room, agents sought further advice from their leaders, who told them they were not giving them that direction and if they did what the President said they would take on personal liability. You have to follow the law, they were told.

Senior administration officials also told CNN that in the last four months or so, the President has been pushing Nielsen to enforce a stricter and more widespread "zero tolerance" immigration policy -- not just the original policy started by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and undone by the President once it was criticized -- that called for the prosecution of individuals crossing the border illegally between ports of entry, resulting in the separation of parents from children.

According to multiple sources, the President wanted families separated even if they came in at a legal port of entry and were legal asylum seekers. The President wanted families separated even if they were apprehended within the US. He thinks the separations work to deter migrants from coming. 

Sources told CNN that Nielsen tried to explain they could not bring the policy back because of court challenges, and White House staffers tried to explain it would be an unmitigated PR disaster. 

"He just wants to separate families," said a senior administration official. . . .

"At the end of the day," a senior administration official said, "the President refuses to understand that the Department of Homeland Security is constrained by the laws."

This is the way a tyrant acts. Trump MUST be removed from office. If he cannot be impeached, then he has to be voted out in 2020. Our democracy depends on it!