The Trump administration is floating the idea of hiring a “border” or “immigration” czar who would coordinate executive policies across several federal agencies, according to TPM, citing three anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.
Two candidates are reportedly under consideration; Former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli – both of whom have strong conservative views on immigration.
It has yet to be decided whether the post would be housed within the Department of Homeland Security or the White House.
White House press aides, Kobach and Cuccinelli did not immediately respond to requests for comment. –TPM
Trump, meanwhile, halted foreign aid to the Central American ‘caravan’ countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – and threatened last week to close the US border with Mexico.
On Friday Trump accused the countries of ‘setting up’ migrant caravans, per CNN.
“We were paying them tremendous amounts of money. And we’re not paying them anymore. Because they haven’t done a thing for us. They set up these caravans,” Trump reportedly said.
“At the Secretary’s instruction, we are carrying out the President’s direction and ending FY 2017 and FY 2018 foreign assistance programs for the Northern Triangle,” said a State Department spokesperson. “We will be engaging Congress as part of this process.”
Sounding angry and fed up, Pres Trump says Mexico has to stop illegal crossings into the US. If it doesn’t, he says he’ll shut the southern border for a long time. Also calls on Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador & Colombia to do more to stop caravans and drugs headed for US. pic.twitter.com/HkFALvqvMV
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) March 29, 2019
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2HPRDW9 Tyler Durden