President Donald Trump has never kept his distrust of the U.S. justice system a secret, and this week, he’s taking it to dangerous new extremes as North America grapples with his threat to completely close the southern United States border. Sitting in the Oval Office next to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, he asserted that we might have to “get rid of judges” to fix the situation, explaining to reporters:
‘I’m ready to close it if I have to close it… We don’t want people coming up on this dangerous journey and coming in… And what we have to do is Congress has to meet quickly and make a deal. I could do it in 45 minutes. We need to get rid of chain migration, we need to get rid of catch and release and visa lottery and we have to do something about asylum and to be honest you have to get rid of judges.’
TRUMP threatens to close border with Mexico as soon as this weekend, then rants about immigration during Oval Office meeting with NATO secretary general: “What we have to do is Congress has to meet quickly & make a deal… to be honest with you, we have to get rid of judges.” pic.twitter.com/DAbeXVXUIK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2019
In the past, Trump has complained to high heaven about the fact that undocumented immigrants are granted due legal process and the chance to plead their case for asylum or some related matter before a judge — sometimes at least — and his latest commentary appears to be a revival of that line. In other words, he is threatening to cut off travel across the border that sees the transfer of well over $1.5 billion worth of goods per day because Congressional leaders refuse to go along with his plan to completely dump the fundamental legal principle of a right to due process for those whose skin happens to be something other than white.
Just another Tuesday in the Trump administration!
Speaking further to reporters this Tuesday, the president completely dismissed the possible economic disruptions that would ensue if he follows through on his threat to close off the United States to Central America entirely.
Wrongly suggesting that his administration’s NAFTA update is already in place, Trump explained:
‘Sure it’s going to have a negative impact on the economy. It’s one of the biggest trade deals in the world that we’ve done with the USMCA, but to me — trading is very important, the borders are very important, but security is what’s most important to me.’
REPORTER: Are you worried that closing the border will be bad for the US economy?
TRUMP: “Sure, it will have a negative effect on the economy… we’re going to have security in this country. That’s more important than trade.” pic.twitter.com/p9pdNLgoUA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2019
How reassuring to know that the president of the United States is basing national policy with global ramifications on how he feels about a laundry list of issues as if his presidency is some kind of grade school project to identify the chief drivers of American government. The actual American presidency should — at least in theory! — be at least a little more nuanced and reality-based than that.
He’s proven his commitment to dumping the U.S. economy in favor of his immigration policy agenda in the past, mostly unfazed by the negative ramifications of putting hundreds of thousands of Americans out of work via temporarily refusing to approve any further government funding without billions for a border wall.
To be clear, there is no crisis in the immigration system at the level Trump claims. The asylum seekers he’s so worried about do not pose a documented criminal threat to the United States above that of the average white guy, and neither chain migration nor the “visa lottery” are the free-for-all systems that Trump has suggested.
Featured Image via screenshot
