5 Moments That Defined Trump’s Record on Immigration
Mr. Trump began his presidency by signing an executive order that sought to limit travelers from seven largely Muslim countries for 90 days. The order, with some exceptions, affected travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. It also suspended the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the United States.
The travel ban caused instant chaos. Airports were clogged with travelers who had been on airplanes when the order was signed and had no way of entering the country. Advocates sued, and the case went to the Supreme Court, which upheld the policy in a 2018 ruling. The administration issued additional travel bans as time went on, removing or adding countries, including several African nations, often using terrorist activities as justification.
The Border Wall
In 2017, Mr. Trump began focusing on one of his earliest campaign promises — building a physical wall along the border between the United States and Mexico. The idea was initially suggested by a Trump campaign aide, Sam Nunberg, as a memory aid to prompt the candidate to remember to talk about immigration in his speeches. But it soon became a rallying cry at his events.
“You know, if it gets a little boring, if I see people starting to sort of, maybe thinking about leaving,” Mr. Trump told the editorial board of The New York Times during the 2016 campaign, “I can sort of tell the audience, I just say, ‘We will build the wall!’ And they go nuts.”
Mr. Trump had a series of extreme designs for the wall. He wanted spikes on top, black paint to burn the hands of immigrants trying to scale it, possibly a moat at the bottom. He wanted it 30 feet high. He queried at one point whether migrants could be shot in the legs to slow them down. Aides ignored such suggestions.
Source: The New York Times
