During his visit to the U.S.-Mexico border in California last week, President Donald Trump personally instructed border agents to illegally block all incoming immigrants and then lie to judges about it, CNN host Jake Tapper said on “Reliable Sources.”
Tapper said Monday that sources informed him that Trump had coached border agents in Calexico on Friday to prevent migrants from entering the country. According to the sources, the president had instructed agents to say, “Sorry, judge, I can’t do it. We don’t have the room” if judges questioned them, Tapper said.
When agents later sought advice from their superiors about Trump’s instructions, Tapper added, they were told to ignore the president and instead follow the law.
Trump had also planned to shut down the port of entry in El Paso, Texas, on March 22, but acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney talked him out of it, CNN reported.
The White House could not immediately be reached for comment.
The president has additionally been pushing for a stricter and expanded family separation policy — and to ignore pleas from asylum-seekers, Tapper said. NBC also reported Monday that Trump is set on reinstituting family separations.
When then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told Trump at a White House meeting in mid-March about court challenges to a new family separation operation and noted that it’s illegal to bar all asylum-seekers, Trump reportedly responded: “I don’t care!” according to Tapper.
He was “ranting and raving,” insisting that “border security was his issue,” Tapper said, citing an attendee at the meeting.
Nielsen was ousted as Homeland Security secretary on Sunday.
Check out the full “Reliable Sources” segment above.
