Trump’s Unpardonable Challenge to the Constitution
Updated at 7:35 p.m. ET on April 12, 2019.
Speaking at a U.S. Border Patrol station in Calexico, California, on April 5, President Donald Trump announced his ideal immigration policy: “Our country is full,” he said. “Our area is full. The sector is full. Can’t take you anymore, I’m sorry. Can’t happen. So turn around. That’s the way it is.”
His comments were widely denounced at the time, evoking skepticism along with horror from many of his political opponents. But it turns out that Trump’s time in Calexico was even more eventful than had previously been reported. According to CNN, Trump told Border Patrol agents to turn back people seeking asylum; if they faced resistance from the courts, he said, agents should respond, “Sorry, judge, I can’t do it. We don’t have the room.”
Now and have reported that Trump also personally instructed then–Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan toadds that Trump told McAleenan to go around then–Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, who had refused to implement a ban on asylum on the grounds that it was illegal. Two days later, Nielsen was forced out; McAleenan was then appointed acting secretary in her place.
