BORDER/CALIFORNIA/MEXICO/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump traveled to this small border town two hours east of San Diego on Friday [4-5-19] to highlight what he and his aides say is an out-of-control crisis caused by a surge of Central American families who have overwhelmed law enforcement facilities at the border. Just a day after retreating from his threat to shut down the entire border with Mexico, Mr. Trump accepted a plaque from border agents and sheriffs in front of a 30-foot-tall section of border wall — the physical embodiment of his immigration agenda — and met with border officials, lawmakers and administration officials at the Border Patrol station here…Critics argue that the wall is not a solution to the surge of families that have arrived in recent months since most of the families are not trying to sneak into the country undetected. On the contrary, most are seeking Border Patrol agents to turn themselves in, either at the ports of entry or between them…Asked on Thursday night why the president was not using the national emergency he recently declared to seek funds to provide humanitarian relief to the families who have been apprehended recently, Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, conceded that the focus on the wall is, partly, a stunt.”
–Michael D. Shear, “Trump Presses His Argument of a Border Crisis in California Visit,” The New York Times online, April 5, 2019