How Trump plans to crack down on immigration during his second term

Asylum-seeking migrants line up near the border while waiting to be transported by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. in Jacumba Hot Springs, California, U.S. April 29, 2024. (REUTERS)
Short Url
Updated 12 November 2024
Follow

How Trump plans to crack down on immigration during his second term

  • Trump has said he would restore his 2019 “remain in Mexico” program, which forced asylum-seekers of certain nationalities attempting to enter the US at the southern border to wait in Mexico for the resolution of their cases
  • Trump told Time he did not rule out building new migrant detention camps but “there wouldn’t be that much of a need for them” because migrants would be rapidly removed

WASHINGTON: Republican Donald Trump is expected to crack down on illegal immigration and try to restrict legal immigration when he returns to the White House on Jan. 20, following up on campaign promises and unfinished efforts from his 2017-2021 presidency.
Here are some of the policies under consideration, according to Trump, his campaign and news reports:

BORDER ENFORCEMENT

Trump is expected to take a slew of executive actions on his first day as president to ramp up immigration enforcement, including deploying National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border and declaring a national emergency to unlock funds to resume construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border. Trump has said he would restore his 2019 “remain in Mexico” program, which forced asylum-seekers of certain nationalities attempting to enter the US at the southern border to wait in Mexico for the resolution of their cases. The program was terminated by Biden, a Democrat who ended his faltering reelection campaign in July, making Vice President Kamala Harris the candidate. Biden defeated Trump in 2020, pledging more humane and orderly immigration policies, but struggled to deal with record levels of migrants caught crossing the US-Mexico border illegally. Immigration was a top voter issue heading into last week’s election, in which Trump defeated Harris in a stunning political comeback. Edison Research exit polls showed 39 percent of voters said most immigrants in the US illegally should be deported while 56 percent said they should be offered a chance to apply for legal status.
Trump also would reinstate the COVID-19-era Title 42 policy, which allowed US border authorities to quickly expel migrants back to Mexico without the chance to claim asylum, he told Time magazine in an interview.
He would use record border crossings and trafficking of fentanyl and children as reasons for the emergency moves, Time reported, citing comments from advisers.
Trump has said he will seek to detain all migrants caught crossing the border illegally or violating other immigration laws, ending what he calls “catch and release.” At an October campaign event, Trump said he would call on Congress to fund an additional 10,000 Border Patrol agents, a substantial increase over the existing force. Harris criticized Trump for helping kill a bipartisan border security bill earlier this year that could have added 1,300 more agents. Trump criticized a Biden asylum ban rolled out last June and pledged to reverse it during a campaign event in Arizona. He said the measure would not adequately secure the border, even though it mirrored Trump-era policies to deter would-be migrants and has contributed to a steep drop in migrants caught crossing illegally. Trump also said at the campaign event that he would consider using tariffs to pressure China and other nations to stop migrants from their countries from coming to the US-Mexico border.

MASS DEPORTATIONS

Trump has pledged to launch the largest deportation effort in American history, focusing on criminals but aiming to send millions back to their home countries, an effort that is expected to tap resources across the US government but also face obstacles. As part of his Day One executive actions, Trump is expected to scrap Biden’s immigration enforcement priorities, which focused on arresting serious criminals and limited enforcement against people with no criminal records.
During a rally in Wisconsin in September, Trump said deporting migrants would be “a bloody story,” rhetoric that sparked criticism from immigrant advocates.
Trump told Time he did not rule out building new migrant detention camps but “there wouldn’t be that much of a need for them” because migrants would be rapidly removed.
Trump would rely on the National Guard, if needed, to arrest and deport immigrants in the US illegally, he said. When questioned, he also said he would be willing to consider using federal troops if necessary, a step likely to be challenged in the courts. Trump has also vowed to take aggressive new steps to deport immigrants with criminal records and suspected gang members by using the Alien Enemies Act, a 226-year-old statute last utilized for interning people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two. Trump called for the death penalty for migrants who kill US citizens or law enforcement officers at an October rally in Aurora, Colorado. Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s first-term immigration agenda who reportedly will return in a top White House role, said in an interview last year with a right-wing podcast that National Guard troops from cooperative states could potentially be deployed to what he characterized as “unfriendly” states to assist with deportations, which could trigger legal battles.
Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a New York Times interview published in October that deporting 1 million immigrants per year would be “reasonable.” Biden in the 2023 federal fiscal year outpaced Trump deportation totals for any single year — with a total 468,000 migrants being deported to their home countries or returned to Mexico by US immigration authorities — and is on pace for even more this year, a tally that includes migrants returned to Mexico.

TRAVEL BANS

Trump has said he would implement travel bans on people from certain countries or with certain ideologies, expanding on a policy upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Trump previewed some parts of the world that could be subjected to a renewed travel ban in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and “anywhere else that threatens our security.” During the speech, Trump focused on the conflict in Gaza, saying he would bar the entry of immigrants who support the Islamist militant group Hamas and send deportation officers to pro-Hamas protests.
Trump said last June he would seek to block communists, Marxists and socialists from entering the US

LEGAL IMMIGRATION

Trump plans to end Biden’s humanitarian “parole” programs, including one that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants with US sponsors to enter the US and obtain work permits. He has called Biden’s programs an “outrageous abuse of parole authority.” Trump said last year that he would seek to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US to immigrants living in the country illegally, an idea he flirted with as president.
Such an action would run against the long-running interpretation of an amendment to the US Constitution and would likely trigger legal challenges. During his first term, Trump greatly reduced the number of refugees allowed into the US and has criticized Biden’s decision to increase admissions. He would again suspend the resettlement program if elected, the New York Times reported in November 2023.
Trump has said he would push for “a merit-based immigration system that protects American labor and promotes American values.” In his first term, he took steps to tighten access to some visa programs, including a suspension of many work visas during the COVID pandemic. The Trump campaign criticized a Biden program — currently blocked by a federal judge — that offered a path to citizenship to immigrants in the US illegally who are married to an American citizen and have lived in the US for at least a decade. Trump said on a podcast in June that he backed giving green cards to foreign students who graduate from US colleges or junior colleges, but Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later said the proposal “would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
He would seek to roll back Temporary Protected Status designations, the New York Times reported, targeting a humanitarian program that offers deportation relief and work permits to hundreds of thousands. Trump tried to phase out most Temporary Protected Status enrollment during his first term, but was slowed by legal challenges. A federal appeals court in September 2020 allowed him to proceed with the wind-down, but Biden reversed that and expanded the program after taking office.

FAMILY SEPARATION
In a town hall with CNN last year, Trump declined to rule out resuming his contentious “zero tolerance” policy that led thousands of migrant children and parents to be separated at the US-Mexico border in 2018.
He defended the separations again in November 2023, telling Spanish-language news outlet Univision that “it stopped people from coming by the hundreds of thousands.” While Trump has refused to rule out reinstating a family separation policy, Trump’s incoming “border czar” Tom Homan told Reuters last year that the separations “caused an uproar” and that it would be better to detain families together. The Biden administration last year reached a settlement agreement with separated families that would offer them temporary legal status and other benefits while barring similar separations for at least eight years.

DACA
Trump tried to end a program that grants deportation relief and work permits to “Dreamer” immigrants brought to the US illegally as children, but the termination was rebuffed by the Supreme Court in June 2020. Following the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration said it would not accept any new applications to the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and would explore whether it could again attempt to end it.
Trump plans to try to end DACA if elected, the New York Times reported.

 


Suspect in German Christmas market attack held on murder charges

Updated 22 December 2024
Follow

Suspect in German Christmas market attack held on murder charges

  • Suspect strongly critical of German authorities as well as Islam in the past
  • Saudi Arabia repeatedly flagged to Germany concerns over posts on suspect’s social media, according to sources

MAGDEBURG: A man suspected of plowing a car through crowds at a German Christmas market in an attack that killed five people and injured scores faces multiple charges of murder and attempted murder, police said on Sunday.
Friday evening’s attack in the central city of Magdeburg shocked the country and stirred up tensions over the charged issue of immigration.
The suspect, who was in custody, is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia with a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric who has lived in Germany for almost two decades. The motive for the attack remained unclear.
There were scuffles and some “minor disturbances” at a far-right demonstration attended by around 2,100 people on Saturday night in Magdeburg, police said. They added that criminal proceedings would follow, but did not give details.
Protesters, some wearing black balaclavas, held up a large banner with the word “remigration,” a term popular with supporters of the far right who seek the mass deportation of immigrants and people deemed not ethnically German.
Other residents gathered to pay their respects to the dead.
A sea of flowers stretched out in front of St. John’s Church in Magdeburg, close to the scene of the crime, which attracted a steady stream of tearful mourners over the weekend.
“This is my second time here. I was here yesterday. I brought flowers and it moved me so much and I had to know today how many flowers were brought,” local resident Ingolf Klinzmann told Reuters.
A sign commemorating the victims bore in large lettering the word “Why?.”
A magistrate ordered the suspect, identified in German media as Taleb A., into pretrial custody on charges of murder on five counts as well as multiple counts of attempted murder and grievous bodily harm, police said in a statement.
Reuters could not immediately ascertain if the suspect had a lawyer.
Those killed were a nine-year-old boy and four women aged 52, 45, 75 and 67, the police statement said. Among the wounded, around 40 had serious or critical injuries.
Authorities said the suspected attacker used emergency exit points to drive onto the grounds of the Christmas market, where he picked up speed and plowed into the crowds, hitting more than 200 people in a three-minute attack. He was arrested at the scene.
German authorities have not named the suspect and German media reports have given his name only as Taleb A. in keeping with local privacy laws.

MOTIVE UNCLEAR
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement on Sunday that the criminal investigation would leave no stone unturned.
“The task is to piece together all findings and paint a picture of this perpetrator, who does not fit any existing mold,” Faeser said.
“This perpetrator acted in an unbelievably cruel and brutal manner — like an Islamist terrorist, although he was clearly ideologically hostile to Islam,” she added.
The suspect had been strongly critical of German authorities as well as Islam in the past.
He had voiced support on social media platform X for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and for US billionaire Elon Musk, who has backed the AfD.
The AfD has strong support in the former East Germany where Magdeburg is located. Opinion polls put it in second place nationally ahead of elections in February.
Its members, including the candidate for chancellor Alice Weidel, planned a rally in Magdeburg on Monday evening.
Saudi Arabia had repeatedly flagged to Germany concerns over posts on the suspect’s social media, according to a Saudi source and a German security source.
The Christian Democrats, Germany’s main opposition party, and the Free Democrats, who were part of the coalition government until its collapse last month, called for improvements to Germany’s security apparatus, including better coordination between federal and state authorities.
“The background must be clarified. But above all, we must do more to prevent such offenses, especially as there were obviously specific warnings and tips in this case that were ignored,” Sahra Wagenknecht, leader of the leftist BSW party, told the Welt newspaper.
The BSW, a new political party with far-left roots, has also condemned unchecked immigration and has gained considerable support ahead of the Feb. 23 election.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democrats are trailing in opinion polls, attended a service for victims in Magdeburg’s cathedral on Saturday.


Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh

Updated 22 December 2024
Follow

Minorities fear targeted attacks in post-revolution Bangladesh

  • In the chaotic days following Hasina’s August 5 ouster there was a string of attacks on Hindus
  • Muslim Sufi worshippers as well as members of the Baul mystic sect have also been threatened

DHAKA: For generations, the small Hindu temple outside the capital in Muslim-majority Bangladesh was a quiet place to pray — before arsonists ripped open its roof this month in the latest post-revolution unrest.
It is only one of a string of attacks targeting religious minorities since a student-led uprising toppled long-time autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina in August.
“We don’t feel safe,” said Hindu devotee Swapna Ghosh in the village of Dhour, where attackers broke into the 50-year-old family temple to the goddess Lakshmi and set fire to its treasured idols on December 7.
“My son saw the flames and doused them quickly,” said temple custodian Ratan Kumar Ghosh, 55, describing how assailants knew to avoid security cameras, so they tore its tin roof open to enter.
“Otherwise, the temple — and us — would have been reduced to ashes.”
Hindus make up about eight percent of the mainly Muslim nation of 170 million people.

In this photograph taken on December 3, 2024, Hindu devotees pray at Dhakeshwari Temple in Dhaka. (AFP)

In the chaotic days following Hasina’s August 5 ouster there was a string of attacks on Hindus — seen by some as having backed her rule — as well as attacks on Muslim Sufi shrines by religious hard-liners.
“Neither I, my forefathers or the villagers, regardless of their faith, have ever witnessed such communal attacks,” temple guardian Ghosh told AFP.
“These incidents break harmony and trust.”
Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India, where she is hosted by old allies in New Delhi’s Hindu-nationalist government, infuriating Bangladeshis determined that she face trial for alleged “mass murder.”
Attacks against Hindu temples are not new in Bangladesh, and rights activist Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir said the violence cannot be regarded out of context.
Under Hasina, Hindus had sought protection from the authorities. That meant her opponents viewed them as partisan loyalists.
“If you analyze the past decade, there has not been a single year without attacks on minorities,” Kabir said, from the Dhaka-based rights group Ain o Salish Kendra.
This year, from January to November, the organization recorded 118 incidents of communal violence targeting Hindus.
August saw a peak of 63 incidents, including two deaths. In November, there were seven incidents.
While that is significantly more than last year — when the group recorded 22 attacks on minorities and 43 incidents of vandalism — previous years were more violent.
In 2014, one person was killed, two women were raped, 255 injured, and 247 temples attacked. In 2016, seven people were killed.
“The situation has not worsened, but there’s been no progress either,” said businessman and Hindu devotee Chandan Saha, 59.
Political rulers had repeatedly “used minorities as pawns,” Saha added.
The caretaker government has urged calm and promised increased security, and accused Indian media of spreading disinformation about the status of Hindus in Bangladesh.
Dhaka’s interim government this month expressed shock at a call by a leading Indian politician — chief minister of India’s West Bengal state Mamata Banerjee — to deploy UN peacekeepers.
Hefazat-e-Islam, an association of Islamic seminaries, has led public protests against India, accusing New Delhi of a campaign aimed at “propagating hate” against Bangladesh. India rejects the charges.
Religious relations have been turbulent, including widespread unrest in November in clashes between Hindu protesters and security forces.
That was triggered by the killing of a lawyer during protests because bail was denied for an outspoken Hindu monk accused of allegedly disrespecting the Bangladeshi flag during a rally.
Bangladeshi hard-line groups have been emboldened to take to the streets after years of suppression.
Muslim Sufi worshippers as well as members of the Baul mystic sect — branded heretics by some hard-liners — have also been threatened.
“There’s been a wave of vandalism,” said Syed Tarik, a devotee documenting such incidents.
Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner appointed the country’s “chief adviser,” has called for dialogue between groups.
Critics say it is not enough.
“To establish a peaceful country where all faiths coexist in harmony, the head of state must engage regularly with faith leaders to foster understanding,” said Sukomal Barua, professor of religion at Dhaka University.
Sumon Roy, founder of Bangladesh’s association of Hindu lawyers, said members of the minority were treated as a bloc by political parties.
“They have all used us as tools,” Roy said, explaining that Hindus had been previously threatened both by Hasina’s Awami League and its rival Bangladesh National Party.
“If we didn’t support AL we faced threats, and the BNP blamed us for siding with the AL,” he said. “This cycle needs to end.”


India, Kuwait upgrade ties to strategic partnership on Modi visit

Updated 11 min 54 sec ago
Follow

India, Kuwait upgrade ties to strategic partnership on Modi visit

  • Modi awarded Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer for strengthening Kuwait-India relations
  • India, Kuwait leaders discussed cooperation in pharmaceuticals, IT, security

NEW DELHI: India and Kuwait upgraded bilateral ties to a strategic partnership on Sunday as their leaders eye stronger cooperation in “key sectors” ranging from pharmaceuticals to security.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a strategic partnership agreement with Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah during his trip to the Gulf state, the first visit by an Indian leader in 43 years.

“We have elevated our partnership to a strategic one and I am optimistic that our friendship will flourish even more in the times to come,” Modi said in a statement.

“We discussed cooperation in key sectors like pharmaceuticals, IT, fintech, infrastructure and security.”

During the trip, the Kuwaiti emir presented Modi with the Order of Mubarak Al-Kabeer for his efforts in strengthening Kuwait-India relations.

The order is the highest civilian honor in Kuwait and is bestowed upon leaders and heads of state.

The emir said India was a “valued partner” in the country and the Gulf region and that he “looked forward” to India playing a greater role in the realization of Kuwait Vision 2035, according to a statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

The newly upgraded ties will open up “further cooperation in sectors such as defense … with the Kuwaiti armed forces,” especially the navy, said Kabir Taneja, a deputy director and fellow with the strategic studies program at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

Their closer cooperation in major sectors will also “further India’s economy-first agenda,” he added.  

“Pharmaceuticals, for example, is a point of strength of Indian manufacturing and can contribute to further building the sector in states such as Kuwait,” Taneja told Arab News.

India’s pharmaceutical exports have been growing in recent years, and the country was the third-largest drugmaker by volume in 2023.

Delhi is also among Kuwait’s top trade partners, with bilateral trade valued at around $10.4 billion in 2023-24.

Taneja said India-Kuwait ties are also likely to strengthen through the Indian diaspora, the largest expatriate community in the Gulf state.

Over 1 million Indian nationals live and work in Kuwait, making up about 21 percent of its 4.3 million population and 30 percent of its workforce.

“(The) Indian diaspora has been part of the Kuwaiti story for a long time,” Taneja said, adding that strengthening ties between the two countries will allow India, through its diaspora, to unlock “deeper economic cooperation potential.”


Putin vows more ‘destruction’ on Ukraine after drone attack on Russia’s Kazan

Updated 22 December 2024
Follow

Putin vows more ‘destruction’ on Ukraine after drone attack on Russia’s Kazan

  • ‘Whoever, and however much they try to destroy, they will face many times more destruction themselves and will regret what they are trying to do in our country’

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday vowed to bring more “destruction” to Ukraine in retaliation for a drone attack on a high-rise apartment block in the central Russian city of Kazan a day earlier.
“Whoever, and however much they try to destroy, they will face many times more destruction themselves and will regret what they are trying to do in our country,” Putin said in comments on the attack on Kazan — which left no casualties — during a televised government meeting.


France’s most powerful nuclear reactor finally comes on stream

Updated 22 December 2024
Follow

France’s most powerful nuclear reactor finally comes on stream

  • The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor in Normandy started providing electricity to French homes on Saturday
  • Launch is welcome news for the heavily indebted state-owned energy company EDF after multiple problems extended construction to 17 years

PARIS: France on Saturday connected its most powerful nuclear power reactor to the national electricity grid in what leaders hailed as a landmark moment despite years of delays, budget overruns and technical setbacks.
The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor in Normandy started providing electricity to French homes at 11:48 a.m. (1048 GMT) Saturday, the EDF power company’s CEO Luc Remont said in a statement.
“Great moment for the country,” President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement on social network LinkedIn, calling it “one of the world’s most powerful nuclear reactors.”
“Re-industrializing to produce low-carbon energy is French-style ecology,” he added. “It strengthens our competitiveness and protects the climate.”
The French-developed European Pressurised Reactor project, launched in 1992, was designed to relaunch nuclear power in Europe after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe in Soviet Ukraine, and is touted as offering more efficient power output and better safety.
The EPR, a new generation pressurized water reactor, is the fourth to be finished anywhere in the world. Similar design reactors in China and Finland came online ahead of it.
The launch is welcome news for the heavily indebted state-owned energy company EDF after multiple problems extended construction to 17 years and caused massive budget overruns.
Remont of EDF called the event “historic.”
“The last time a reactor started up in France was 25 years ago at Civaux 2,” he said, referring to the Civaux power plant in southwestern France.
The connection was initially scheduled to take place Friday.
It is the most powerful reactor in the country at 1,600 MW. Ultimately, it should supply electricity to upwards of two million homes.
The connection to the grid “will be marked by different power levels through to the summer of 2025” in a months-long testing phase, the company has said.
EDF said that starting up a reactor was “a long and complex operation.”
The plant will be shut down for a complete inspection lasting at least 250 days, probably in the spring of 2026, the company added.
Construction of the Flamanville reactor began in 2007 and was beset by numerous problems.
The start-up comes 12 years behind schedule after a plethora of technical setbacks which saw the cost of the project soar to an estimated 13.2 billion euros ($13.76 billion), four times the initial 3.3 billion euro estimate.
The start-up began on September 3, but had to be interrupted the following day due to an “automatic shutdown.” It resumed a few days later.
Generation has been gradually increased to allow the reactor to be connected to the electricity network.
Nuclear power accounts for around three-fifths of French electricity output and the country boasts one of the globe’s largest nuclear power programs.
That is in stark contrast to neighboring Germany, which exited nuclear power last year by shutting down the last three of its reactors.
“This morning marks the culmination of a titanic effort that has finally paid off,” Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the outgoing minister for ecological transition, said on X.
“We are drawing all the lessons from this to make a success of the nuclear revival that we decided on with the President of the Republic.”
Macron has decided to ramp up nuclear power to bolster French energy sustainability by ordering six new-generation reactors and laying options for eight more, that could cost tens of billions of euros.
In 2022, he called for a “renaissance” for the country’s nuclear industry to transition away from fossil fuels.
“What we have to build today is the renaissance of the French nuclear industry because it’s the right moment, because it’s the right thing for our nation, because everything is in place,” Macron said at the time.