WASHINGTON — President Trump on Wednesday will order the construction
of a Mexican border wall — the first in a series of actions this week to crack
down on immigrants and bolster national security, including slashing the number
of refugees who can resettle in the United States and blocking Syrians and
others from “terror prone” nations from entering, at least temporarily.
The orders are among an array of national security directives Mr. Trump
is considering issuing in the coming days, according to people who have seen
the orders. They include reviewing whether to resume the once-secret “black
site” detention program and the use of enhanced interrogation techniques;
keeping open the prison at Guantánamo Bay; and designating the Muslim
Brotherhood a terrorist organization.
The proposed orders could lead to sweeping and controversial changes in
the way the United States conducts itself at home and around the globe in the
name of security, potentially leading to the reinstatement of policies that
have been repudiated by much of the world.
Mr. Trump will sign the executive order for
the wall during an appearance at the Department of Homeland Security on
Wednesday, as Mexico’s foreign minister, Luis Videgaray, arrives in Washington
to prepare for the visit of President Enrique Peña Nieto of Mexico.
Mr. Peña Nieto will be among the first foreign leaders to meet the new
president at the end of the month.
The border wall was a signature promise of Mr. Trump’s campaign, during
which he argued it is vital to gaining control over the illegal flow of
immigrants into the United States.
Mr. Trump is also expected to target legal immigrants as early as this
week, White House officials said, by halting a decades-old program that grants
refuge to the world’s most vulnerable people as he begins the process of
drastically curtailing it and enhancing screening procedures. In the draft of a separate executive order now being circulated inside
the administration, Mr. Trump would also order that the detention center at
Guantánamo Bay remain open and examine the question of whether the Central Intelligence
Agency should reopen its so-called black sites, secret interrogation and
detention centers that it operated overseas.
Former President Barack Obama
ordered the closings of all in the first week of his presidency in 2009. The black sites were a highly classified program, so their mention in
an executive order would be highly unusual.
According to a draft, the order on detention policies would start a
review of “whether to reinstate the program of interrogation of high-value
alien terrorists to be operated outside the United States, and whether such a
program should include the use of detention facilities operated by the C.I.A.”
But one section of the draft would require that “no person in the custody of
the United States shall at any time be subjected to torture, or cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment, as describe by U.S. or international
law.”
The draft would also order a review of the Army Field Manual to
determine whether to use certain enhanced interrogation techniques. Another executive
order under consideration would direct the secretary of state to determine
whether to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a foreign terrorist organization.
That designation has been sought by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
The refugee policy under consideration would halt admissions from Syria
and suspend it from other majority-Muslim nations until the administration can
study how to properly vet them. This would pave the way for the administration
to slash the number of displaced people who can be resettled on American soil,
and would effectively bar the entry of people from Muslim countries including
Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and Syria at least for some time.
The plan is in line with a ban on Muslim immigrants that Mr.
Trump proposed during his campaign, arguing that such a step was warranted
given concerns about terrorism. He later said he wanted to impose “extreme
vetting” of refugees from Syria and other countries where terrorism was
rampant, although the Obama administration had already instituted strict
screening procedures for Syrian refugees that were designed to weed out anyone
who posed a danger.
The expected actions drew strong criticism
from immigrant advocates and human rights groups, which called them
discriminatory moves that rejected the American tradition of welcoming
immigrants of all backgrounds.
“To think that Trump’s first 100 days are going to be marked by this
very shameful shutting of our doors to everybody who is seeking refuge in this
country is very concerning,” said Marielena Hincapié, the executive director of
the National Immigration Law Center. “Everything points to this being simply a
backdoor Muslim ban.”
For Mr. Trump, whose raucous campaign rallies frequently featured
chants of “build the wall,” the directive to fortify the border was not
unexpected, although it may not be enough by itself to accomplish the task.
Congress would need to approve any new funding necessary to build the wall,
which Mr. Trump has insisted Mexico will finance, despite its leaders’
protestations to the contrary. The order would shift already appropriated
federal funds to the wall’s construction, but it was unclear where the money
would come from.
The Government Accountability Office has estimated that it
could cost $6.5 million per mile to build a single-layer fence, and an
additional $4.2 million per mile for roads and more fencing, according to
congressional officials. Those estimates do not include maintenance of the
fence along the nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Representative Nancy
Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, said she thought even Republicans
might balk at spending what she said could be $14 billion on a wall. Mr. Trump
has said immigration will be on the agenda when he meets with Mr. Peña Nieto.
The order to build the wall is likely to complicate the visit of Mr.
Videgaray, who has a history with Mr. Trump. It was Mr. Videgaray, then
Mexico’s finance minister, who orchestrated Mr. Trump’s visit to Mexico before
the election, a move seen by many Mexicans as tantamount to treason. He was
forced to resign because of the fallout, but his reputation was restored after
Mr. Trump’s victory, and he was given the job of foreign minister, in part to
capitalize on his relationship with the new American leader. It is unclear
whether Mexican officials were informed of Mr. Trump’s decision to sign the
executive order during Mr. Videgaray’s visit.
Mr. Trump’s refugee directive is expected to target a program the Obama
administration expanded last year in response to a global refugee crisis,
fueled in large part by a large flow of Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war.
Mr. Obama increased the overall number of refugees to be resettled in the
United States to 85,000 and ordered that 10,000 of the slots be reserved for
Syrians. He set the number of refugees to be resettled this year at 110,000,
more than double the 50,000 Mr. Trump is now considering.
By the end of last month, more than 25,000 refugees had been resettled,
according to State Department figures, meaning the plan Mr. Trump is
considering would admit only 25,000 more by the end of September.
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