Trump orders clamp down on immigrant 'sanctuary cities,' pushes border wall

WASHINGTON — President Trump signed two immigration-related executive orders Wednesday, including efforts to build a wall on the Mexican border and to clamp down on so-called "sanctuary cities" that shield migrants in the country illegally.

Calling illegal immigration a "clear and present danger," Trump's executive orders are the most detailed of the 12 presidential edicts he's issued in the first six days of his presidency. They call for the immediate building of a southern border wall, new public or private detention facilities, the hiring of 5,000 new border patrol agents and 10,000 immigration officers, and shutting off federal funds for cities that refuse to inform federal officials about undocumented immigrants in their custody.

The order doesn't explicitly say how the wall will be paid for, but Trump has required a report on all foreign aid given to Mexico, with the implicit threat to withhold that funding. Mexico received $586 million in U.S. foreign aid in 2015. Trump has said the wall would cost $8 billion, though independent estimates are as much as three times higher.

Trump signed the orders at a ceremony at the Department of Homeland Security headquarters in Washington, where he later rallied rank-and-file law enforcement officers, declaring, "A nation without borders is not a nation. Beginning today, the United States of America gets back control of its borders."

In an interview with ABC News, Trump said that construction of the wall will begin in "in months," and that the United States will soon commence talks with Mexico over his demand that it pay for the structure — a demand the Mexican government has consistently rejected.

"We'll be reimbursed at a later date from whatever transaction we make from Mexico," Trump told ABC in his first television interview as president. "I'm just telling you there will be a payment. It will be in a form, perhaps a complicated form."

Trump is scheduled to meet with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto next week, the first face-to-face meeting with a foreign leader after British Prime Minister Theresa May on Friday.

Wednesday's moves are the first of what are likely to be many executive actions to roll back Obama's immigration policies, with more orders expected on refugees and status of people who immigrated to the United States as children.

But the plan will receive domestic and international opposition. "We will see the Trump administration in court," said Omar Jadwat, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.

Enforces existing laws

The immigration plan largely relies on the enforcement of existing laws, Trump said.

"This is a law enforcement agency," he told DHS employees. "From here on out, I'm asking you all to enforce the laws of the United States of America. They will be enforced, and enforced strongly. People are surprised that we do not need new laws. We will work within the existing system and framework."

Under Trump's order, if "recalcitrant countries" won't take back criminal aliens deported from the United States, the order requires the State Department to stop issuing visas for citizens of that country. If cities and counties won't turn over undocumented immigrants held in their jails, Trump will withhold funding — though a provision of the order would allow the attorney general to make exceptions.

Still, major law enforcement groups oppose the plan. Darrel Stephens, executive director of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, said Trump’s order “raises more questions’’ about potential demands that could be placed on local police to enforce federal immigration laws. The coalition of police departments has warned that local police involvement in immigration enforcement “undermines the trust and cooperation with immigrant communities.’’

“We’re against anything that would withhold funding. We don’t support that,’’ Stephens said.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said he was waiting to read Trump’s order. But the mayor was not ready to flinch.

“I want to be clear,” Emanuel said. “We’re going to stay a sanctuary city.”

The mayor, however, did not respond to questions from reporters about how Chicago would manage to weather a slashing of federal funding.

And while President Barack Obama prioritized the deportation of immigrants convicted of serious crimes, Trump vastly expanded the definition of criminal to include immigrants suspected but not charged in a crime, those who have "abused" any benefit programs, and those who, in the judgment of an immigration officer, "otherwise pose a risk to public safety."

The ACLU said a lot would depend on how the executive orders are enforced, but that Trump's own campaign statements suggest that his administration won't be restrained.

"You have to read this stuff in light of light of what he said," said Cecillia Wang, the ACLU's deputy legal director, "He has already said that all Mexicans pose a safety risk. They're rapists and criminals, right?" (Trump did add, "And some, I assume, are good people.")

The White House said the administration would focus on criminals, and not families with children.

"He's going to work through it with his team in a very humane way to make sure that he respects the situation that many of these children are in that were brought here," said White House press secretary Sean Spicer. "But his priority with respect to immigration is first and foremost making sure that people who are in this country that are seeking to do us harm or have committed a crime are at the forefront of that."

Spicer said to expect more presidential directives curtailing refugee admissions later this week.

"I think the guiding principle for the president is keeping this country safe," he said. The so-called "extreme vetting" policy would target "people who are from a country that has a propensity to do us harm," he said, "to make sure that they're coming to this country for all the right reasons."

Contributing: Alan Gomez in Miami, Aamer Madhani in Chicago, and Kevin Johnson and Eliza Collins in Washington.

Read more:

Trump, fed up with Chicago 'carnage,' threatens to send Feds

Trump vows 'major investigation' into alleged voter fraud