Former President Trump has unveiled a new plan declaring Mexican drug cartels as “unlawful enemy combatants”, as well as taking aim at loopholes in the American visa and asylum systems, ending birthright citizenship, and finishing his infamous border wall.
The cartel designation means the U.S. military could be used to deal with America’s ongoing, and worsening border crisis, while the overhauls to the visa system would reinstate “Remain in Mexico” – a system that prevents asylum seekers from waiting in the U.S. for their court dates.
Stephen Miller, a former senior advisor in the Trump White House, called the proposal “pure bliss”.
The plan will enforce laws that, while still in effect, have been ignored by prior presidential administrations; including reviving the McCarran Internal Security Act’s ideological restrictions barring Marxists, fascists, and other subversives from obtaining U.S. citizenship. The plan lays out the case for using statutory authority under the Alien and Sedition Acts to expedite the deportation of illegal migrants who have criminal records, or are gang members.
During the previous Trump presidency, his administration increased scrutiny of H-1B “specialty skill” visa applicants in order to protect American workers from being replaced with cheaper H-!B immigrant labor. In 2017, Trump signed the ‘Buy American, Hire American’ executive order that required U.S. immigration officials to conduct more thorough investigations of visa applicants and asylum-seekers. Challenges to H-1B requests rose by 45 percent after the executive order was implemented.
