published Nov 1, 2018, 4:01:30 PM, by Toluse Olorunnipa, Jennifer Jacobs and Jennifer Epstein
(Bloomberg) —

President Donald Trump declared that thousands of migrants headed toward the U.S. border with Mexico would be detained in “massive” tent cities and face difficulty claiming asylum, as he sought to rev up his base supporters ahead of next week’s elections.

In a speech at the White House, Trump ratcheted up his attacks on migrants and U.S. immigration policy, promising forthcoming changes that would make it tougher to apply for asylum upon entering the country.

“They’ve overrun the Mexican police and they’ve overrun and hurt, badly, Mexican soldiers,” Trump said of so-called migrant “caravans” from Central America. He suggested the U.S. military might fire on migrants if they commit violence, and that those seeking asylum would be held in tent cities on the Mexican border under construction by the military.

“We’re going to hold them right there. We’re not letting them into our country,” Trump said.

While Trump tried to portray the caravans as a “crisis,” the closest group is still hundreds of miles from the U.S. border.

Trump didn’t directly answer a question about whether the children of migrants would again be separated from their parents if they cross the border, and he suggested the military could fire on migrants if they commit violence such as throwing rocks at U.S. troops. Trump was criticized by lawmakers in both parties earlier this year after his administration separated about 3,000 children from caregivers after they crossed the Mexican border.

“We’re working on a system where they’ll stay together,” Trump said of families apprehended crossing the border.

Asked if the military would be able to fire on the migrants, he said “I hope there won’t be that.”

He said some of the migrants threw stones at Mexican police and soldiers. “We will consider that a firearm. Because there’s not much difference,” Trump said.

The speech is the latest effort by the president to stoke voters’ fears of immigration in hopes of boosting Republican turnout on Tuesday. In the past week, he’s also ordered thousands of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to stop the migrant caravans, still hundreds of miles away in Mexico, and proposed ending by executive order the Constitution’s guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the U.S.

Trump has long criticized U.S. asylum law, which allows migrants to request protection upon arriving in the country regardless of how they enter. Asylum claims are initially heard by immigration officers who must determine whether migrants have a “credible fear” of being returned to their home country. If so, they are granted future hearings in immigration courts and either held in detention or released into the U.S.

Senior Trump administration officials have previously encouraged asylum-seekers to make their claims at official ports of entry. But immigrant advocates at the border earlier this year said that Customs and Border Patrol officers made it difficult for migrants to cross bridges, turning them away at the midpoint between Mexico and the U.S. In June, officers were visible on bridges in the Rio Grande Valley, blocking pedestrians from crossing.

“Migrants seeking asylum will have to present themselves lawfully at a port of entry,” Trump said. “Those who choose to break our laws and enter illegally will no longer be able to use meritless claims to enter our country. We will hold them. For a long time, if necessary.”

About 20 percent of asylum applications were granted in 2017, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Trump promoted a racially charged advertisement on Twitter Wednesday evening showing an undocumented immigrant who killed two police officers in California smirking and boasting in court as the words “Democrats let him into our country” and “let him stay” flash across the screen. Senator Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, called the ad “sickening” and said Republicans “should denounce it.”

Jeff Flake @JeffFlake This is a sickening ad. Republicans everywhere should denounce it. Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump It is outrageous what the Democrats are doing to our Country.

Vote Republican now! Vote.GOP http://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/statuses/1057728445386539008
Sent via Twitter Web Client.

The targets of Trump’s verbal attacks expanded earlier on Wednesday to include House Speaker Paul Ryan, a fellow Republican who has raised millions of dollars for the party’s candidates, but who criticized Trump’s proposal to end “birthright citizenship.”

Babies born in the U.S. have been deemed American citizens under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants citizenship to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States.” Trump’s pledge to alter how that constitutional provision is interpreted through executive order is legally controversial, and top officials including Ryan have challenged Trump’s authority to make the change unilaterally.

To contact the reporters on this story: Toluse Olorunnipa in Washington at tolorunnipa@bloomberg.net ;Jennifer Jacobs in Washington at jjacobs68@bloomberg.net ;Jennifer Epstein in Washington at jepstein32@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alex Wayne at awayne3@bloomberg.net Kevin Whitelaw
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