As he threatens to shut down the southern border, President Donald Trump is considering bringing on a 'border' or 'immigration czar' to co-ordinate immigration policy across various federal agencies, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
President Donald Trump speaks at the 2019 Prison Reform Summit and First Step Act celebration in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Monday, April 1, 2019. WASHINGTON -- As he threatens to shut down the southern border, President Donald Trump is considering bringing on a "border" or "immigration czar" to co-ordinate immigration policy across various federal agencies, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
The planning comes as Trump is threatening anew to close the U.S.-Mexico border as soon as this week if Mexico does not completely halt illegal immigration into the U.S. And it serves as the latest sign that the president plans to continue to hammer his hardline immigration rhetoric and policies as he moves past the special counsel's Russia investigation and works to rally his base heading into his 2020 re-election campaign.
A Department of Homeland Security official noted that White House czars have been appointed in the past when there has been an "urgent need" for sustained, inter-agency policy co-ordination. While Homeland Security often plays a leading role when it comes to immigration policy and enforcement, the department is not in charge of officials at the departments of Health and Human Services, State, Defence and Justice, which often play key roles.
Those moves have involved a swath of government agencies. The Justice Department manages the immigration courts that decide whether a migrant is deported; Health and Human Services manages the care of migrant children apprehended at the border; agencies within Homeland Security manage the allocation of legal status, immigration enforcement and asylum requests; and the Pentagon and the Army Corps of Engineers manage facets of border wall construction.
It has yet to be decided whether the czar position would be housed within Homeland Security or within the White House, which would not require Senate confirmation. While immigration officials would welcome an adviser focused specifically on policy across the varying agencies, the names being floated are likely to spark backlash and criticism.
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