US President Donald Trump took a first step toward fulfilling his pledge to "build a wall" on the Mexican border today, signing two immigration-related decrees.
Trump visited the Department of Homeland Security to sign an order to begin work to "build a large physical barrier on the southern border," according to the White House.
(Reopens FGN 1)
Talking to reporters, White House Press Secretary, Sean Spicer, described this as the president "fulfilling one of his most significant campaign promises" to the American people by making America safe again, by taking steps to secure our borders and improve immigration enforcement inside the US.
The first order, he explained, is the border security and immigration enforcement improvements. It addresses long overdue border security issues and it's the first order in that will be to build a large physical barrier on the southern border.
"Building this barrier is more than just a campaign promise, it's a common sense first step to really securing our porous border. This will stem the flow of drugs, crime, illegal immigration into the US. And yes, one way or another, as the president has said before, Mexico will pay for it," he said.
The US will create more detention space for illegal immigrants along the southern border to make it easier and cheaper to detain them and return them to their country of origin.
"We're going to end the last administration's dangerous catch and release policy, which has led to the deaths of many Americans," he added.
Spicer said under the second executive order, federal agencies are going to unapologetically enforce the law, "no if's, ands or buts".
"We're gonna restore the popular and successful secure communities program, which will help ICE agents target illegal immigrants for removal," he said.
Spicer warned that the State Department is going to withhold visas and use other tools to make sure countries accept in return the criminals that came from their country.
"We'll ensure that these countries take those individuals back and we're gonna strip federal grant money from the sanctuary states and cities that harbor illegal immigrants," he said.
"The American people are no longer going to have to be forced to subsidise this disregard for our laws. Reform of our immigration system has been at the top of President Trump's priorities since he announced his candidacy," Spicer said.
