On Thursday, President Donald Trump announced a proposal to fix America’s broken immigration system that advocated for migrants to be chosen by merit rather than family ties. But while the plan was lauded by many conservatives, some critics expressed concern that the plan didn’t pay enough attention to the mounting crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Perhaps in response to that criticism, Trump issued a warning to undocumented immigrants on Twitter on Friday: Don’t get too comfortable, he said, “you will be leaving soon!”
Catch and release
Trump’s message came as tensions have again mounted over immigration policy. Trump’s plan was slammed by Democrats like Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who said the U.S. shouldn’t be treating immigrants “like criminals.”
But that didn’t deter Trump, who warned on Friday that laws are changing — and not in undocumented immigrants’ best interests.
He tweeted Friday:
Trump later retweeted that message before calling for the end of “catch and release,” a controversial policy that many allege has allowed illegal aliens to remain in the U.S. undocumented and without consequences.
Those who are being released “under the ridiculous” catch and release loophole, Trump said, “are being registered and will be removed later!”
Getting comfortable
Trump also called on Democrats to work with him to reform the nation’s immigration system — but if past behavior is predictive of future actions, it seems unlikely that Democrats will engage in good faith negotiations with the president or any other Republicans.
To their credit, border officials are catching illegal border crossers at a rate of around 100,000 per month, but this truly astounding number has completely overwhelmed the detention facilities used to hold such illicit entrants.
To make room for new detainees, officials have been forced to release countless illegal aliens into the interior of the country as they await hearings.
And as can be expected, many never turn back up for their hearings.
Whether Trump can truly bring an end to the ridiculous “catch and release” policy, much less roundup and deport the illegal aliens already here — with or without the assistance of Congress — remains to be seen. But it’s clear that he won’t give up trying.