quote:

President Trump’s top aides considered an idea to pressure immigration agencies to release apprehended migrants into so-called sanctuary cities represented by Democratic lawmakers, according to several people familiar with the proposal.

The idea was floated in an email by a top White House policy adviser in November, when Mr. Trump was furiously condemning migrant caravans from Central America headed toward the southwestern border, the people, including two government officials, said.

In the email dated Nov. 16, with the subject line “Sanctuary City Proposal,” May Davis, the deputy White House policy coordinator, raised the idea with officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

Ms. Davis suggested that migrants who had been apprehended and were slated to be released into border towns could instead be taken to one of several sanctuary cities, which limit how local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration officers.

The proponents of the idea inside the White House argued at the time that it would help with overcrowding at nonprofit shelters in border towns by transferring the migrants to cities that already embrace the idea of having more immigrants, one official said.

Once there, the migrants would be released onto the streets — potentially sending a message to the Democratic politicians who oppose Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda and his demands for a wall along the border with Mexico.

“The idea has been raised by one to two principals that, if we are unable to build sufficient temporary housing, that caravan members be bused to small- and mid-sized sanctuary cities,” Ms. Davis wrote to the officials at the agencies. She added, “There is not a White House decision on this.”

Matthew Albence, the acting deputy director of ICE, objected to the idea, telling the White House that there would be liability issues if a migrant were injured during transport. He also raised concerns that the agency’s budget had not been appropriated for that purpose.

quote:

The plan to transport migrants to sanctuary cities, which was first reported Thursday evening by The Washington Post, did not go into effect, according to the officials.

But the White House did raise the idea again several months later, in February, suggesting that releasing the immigrants into the sanctuary cities would be a way of punishing Democrats for resisting budget requests for more money to detain undocumented immigrants, according to one person familiar with it.

quote:

When some of President Donald Trump's top national security advisers gathered at the White House Tuesday night to talk about the surge of immigrants across the southern border, they discussed increasing the U.S. military's involvement in the border mission, including whether the military could be used to build tent city detention camps for migrants, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the conversations.

During the meeting, the officials also discussed whether the U.S. military could legally run the camps once the migrants are housed there, a move the three officials said was very unlikely since U.S. law prohibits the military from directly interacting with migrants. The law has been a major limitation for Trump, who wants to engage troops in his mission to get tougher on immigration.

Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was at the White House meeting Tuesday night and was open to sending more U.S. troops to support the border mission, so long as their assigned mission is within the law, according to the three U.S. officials.

quote:

Discussions this week, at the White House meeting and afterward, have included the suggestion that troops may be needed to run the tent city detention camps once immigrants are being housed there, according to the U.S. officials familiar with the conversations.

The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of federal troops for domestic law enforcement inside the U.S. This prevents them from direct interaction with immigrants crossing into the country. One U.S. official said recent meetings have included discussions about whether using active duty troops to run a detention camp would be a violation of Posse Comitatus.

quote:

On Wednesday, during a visit to Texas, Trump spoke about increasing the number of U.S. troops assigned to the border mission and alluded to the limitations to using active duty troops there.

"I'm going to have to call up more military. Our military, don't forget, can't act like a military would act. Because if they got a little rough, everybody would go crazy. ... Our military can't act like they would normally act. ... They have all these horrible laws that the Democrats won't change. They will not change them."

quote:

President Trump last week urged Kevin McAleenan, whom he was about to name as acting secretary of homeland security, to close the southwestern border despite having just said that he was delaying a decision on the step for a year, according to three people briefed about the conversation.

It was not clear what Mr. Trump meant by his request or his additional comment to Mr. McAleenan that he would pardon him if he encountered any legal problems as a result of taking the action. Federal judges have already blocked the administration’s attempts to limit asylum seekers who illegally enter the country, and it is not likely Mr. McAleenan would have ended up in jail if he had followed the president’s directive.

One of the people briefed on the conversation said it was unclear whether Mr. Trump had intended the comments to Mr. McAleenan as a joke. But the conversation, which took place during the president’s visit to the border town of Calexico, Calif., alarmed officials at the Department of Homeland Security who were told of it, according to the people familiar with the comments.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
They're all from Central America. Why not just dump them all in woods in the Upper Peninsula? That'll discourage more border crossings!

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Do it!

I would love it.

Can you imagine, a huge caravan of yellow school buses filled with migrants, rolling up interstate 5, with Trump loyalists throwing rocks and bottles.

And with nuns and volunteers giving the buses food and water.

Then they arrive at their destination, surrounded by cameras. And they tell their stories to the cameras, eyes filling with tears. And then someone like me with spare bedrooms takes them in.

I could definitely take in a family.

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Do it!

I would love it.

Can you imagine, a huge caravan of yellow school buses filled with migrants, rolling up interstate 5, with Trump loyalists throwing rocks and bottles.

And with nuns and volunteers giving the buses food and water.

Then they arrive at their destination, surrounded by cameras. And they tell their stories to the cameras, eyes filling with tears. And then someone like me with spare bedrooms takes them in.

I could definitely take in a family.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:

quote:

Originally posted by Cindysphinx:
Do it!

I would love it.

Can you imagine, a huge caravan of yellow school buses filled with migrants, rolling up interstate 5, with Trump loyalists throwing rocks and bottles.

And with nuns and volunteers giving the buses food and water.

Then they arrive at their destination, surrounded by cameras. And they tell their stories to the cameras, eyes filling with tears. And then someone like me with spare bedrooms takes them in.

I could definitely take in a family.

But then you'd steal their cab.