INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
President Donald Trump on Sunday explicitly advocated depriving undocumented immigrants of their due-process rights, arguing that people
who cross the border into the United States illegally were invaders and must immediately be deported without trial or an appearance before a
judge.Trump's attack on the judicial system sowed more confusion as lawmakers struggle to reach consensus on immigration legislation and
as federal agencies scramble to reunite thousands of migrant children and their parents who had been separated at the border under an
administration policy that the president abruptly reversed last week.The House is preparing to vote this week on a broad, GOP immigration
bill, but although the White House supports the legislation its prospects for passage appeared dim Sunday, both because Democrats oppose the
measure and because Republicans have long been divided over how restrictive immigration laws should be.Meanwhile, some GOP lawmakers were
preparing over the weekend a more narrow bill that would solely address one of the flaws in Trump's executive order, which mandates that
migrant children and parents not be separated during their detention
The 1997 "Flores settlement" requires that children be released after 20 days, but the GOP proposal would allow for children and their
parents to stay together in detention facilities past 20 days.At the center of the negotiations is a president who has kept up his hard-line
rhetoric even as he gives contradictory directives to Republican allies
In a pair of tweets sent late Sunday morning during his drive from the White House to his Virginia golf course, Trump described immigrants
as invaders, called United States immigration laws "a mockery" and wrote that they must be changed to take away legal rights from
undocumented migrants."We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country," Trump wrote
"When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came
Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order
Most children come without parents."The president continued in a second tweet, "Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is
very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years! Immigration must be based on
merit - we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!"Trump also exhorted congressional Democrats to "fix the laws," arguing
that "we need strength and security at the Border! Cannot accept all of the people trying to break into our Country."After House Republicans
failed to pass a hard-line immigration bill last week, they were preparing to vote on another broad bill this week that would provide $25
billion for Trump's long-sought border wall, limit legal immigration and give young undocumented immigrants a path to citizenship."I did
talk to the White House yesterday
They say the president is still 100 percent behind us," Rep
Michael McCaul, R-Texas, a co-sponsor of the bill, said on "Fox News Sunday."But because that bill may not garner enough votes to pass the
House, momentum was building over the weekend for a more narrow measure that would effectively end the Flores settlement
Should the broader bill fail, the White House is preparing to throw its support behind the measure, which is expected to garner wider
support among lawmakers, according to a White House official.Legislative negotiations are continuing behind the scenes despite Trump's
vacillations over the last week
The president began the week defending his administration's family separation policy
On Tuesday night, he expressed support for two rival GOP bills in a muddled and meandering address to House Republicans in which he insulted
Mark Sanford, R-S.C., without prompting, drawing a smattering of boos
Then on Friday, he urged lawmakers to throw in the towel, tweeting, "Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after
we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November."That tweet demoralized Republicans as they headed home for the weekend, but did
not end talks about what the House might pass
Brendan Buck, counselor to House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Sunday that a solution specifically dealing with family separation had been
"a topic of discussion all week," though he noted that there was not one policy or bill that Republicans had coalesced behind.Marc Short,
the White House director of legislative affairs, said Sunday that it was premature to announce which measures Trump would sign but urged
Congress to act quickly to address the immigration issue broadly."The White House has consistently raised our concern about the Flores
settlement with Congress," Short said
"It's , in fact, an issue that previous administrations grappled with also, and we anticipate Congress acting on that sooner rather than
later."Meanwhile, Trump's attack on the due-process rights of immigrants follows a week in which he has been fixated on the immigration
court system, which he has called "ridiculous." The president has balked at proposals from Sen
Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and other lawmakers to add court personnel to help process more immigration cases.Democrats and immigrant rights
advocates sought to shame Trump for saying he wants to deny illegal immigrants their due-process rights."America rules by law," tweeted Rep
Gerald Connolly, D-Va., "not by presidential diktat."Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Immigrants' Rights
Project, said in a statement:"What President Trump has suggested here is both illegal and unconstitutional
Any official who has sworn an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws should disavow it unequivocally."And at least one Republican lawmaker
spoke out against Trump's threat
Justin Amash, Mich., a libertarian-leaning Republican who has often criticized the president, responded to the controversy by quoting the
Fifth Amendment of the Constitution."No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," Amash
tweeted.Trump has been beating this drum for several days now
In a speech last Tuesday, Trump said, "I don't want judges
I don't want to try people
I don't want people coming in.""Do you know, if a person comes in and puts one foot on our ground, it's essentially, 'Welcome to America,
welcome to our country'" Trump continued
"You never get them out, because they take their name, they bring the name down, they file it, then they let the person go
They say, 'Show back up to court in one year from now.' "Trump suggested in those remarks, delivered before the National Federation of
Independent Businesses, that many immigrants were "cheating" because they were following instructions from their attorneys."They have
professional lawyers," he said
"Some are for good, others are do-gooders, and others are bad people
And they tell these people exactly what to say."Many immigration hard-liners see it differently
Asylum applications and deportation proceedings go before immigration courts, staffed by judges who can make rulings without consulting
juries.Cruz's initial legislation on the border crisis proposed doubling the amount of immigration judges, from roughly 375 to 750
And Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken steps to strengthen the immigration courts, allowing them to process many cases without trials
and limiting their ability to delay other cases."I have sent 35 prosecutors to the Southwest and moved 18 immigration judges to the border,"
Sessions told an audience in San Diego earlier this year
"That will be about a 50 percent increase in the number of immigration judges who will be handling the asylum claims."While wrestling with
their own response, Republicans have shifted blame to Democrats, who have been critical of both Sessions's moves and drafts of immigration
In a Sunday afternoon tweet, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, N.Y., argued for "a czar to break through the bureaucracy and get these
kids out of limbo and back in their parents' arms."On the Sunday political talk shows, Republicans echoed Trump in accusing Democrats of
rejecting any serious solution in favor of inflicting political hurt - and charging that they want "open borders.""Chuck Schumer says, 'No,
no, no, we're not going to bring it up,' " Rep
Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a leader of the House Freedom Caucus, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "What they want is the political issue
They don't want to solve the problems
They don't want to keep families together and adjudicate this and have a go through the hearing process and do it in a way that's
consistent with the rule of law."(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published
