DHS/IMMIGRATION/INTELLIGENCE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “The Trump administration was warned by intelligence analysts that ending protections for hundreds of thousands of Central Americans living in the US would likely drive a spike in illegal immigration. They did it anyway. That intelligence assessment was made public late Tuesday [7-17-18] as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over the termination of Temporary Protected Status for citizens of multiple countries, many of whom have lived in the US upwards of two decades. Questions have swirled since the administration began systematically terminating the majority of TPS designations on the books, impacting more than 400,000 immigrants who have lived in the US for years. The administration justified the moves by citing the law, saying that the Department of Homeland Security was compelled to end the protections because conditions from the original disasters that precipitated the protected status had improved. But the intelligence report and another email from the acting secretary last year to White House chief of staff John Kelly add to other uncovered documents that raise serious questions about whether the Trump administration ignored its own experts’ analysis and recommendations to fulfill a pre-ordained objective. The email explains that the administration was intending to ‘send a clear signal that TPS in general is coming to a close.'”
–Tal Kopan, “Documents reveal DHS knew ending protections could cause more, not less, illegal immigration,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, July 18, 2018 1:56 pm