The Latest: Trump defends tweeting video about immigration
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump and immigration (all times local):
4:40 p.m.
President Donald Trump is defending his decision to tweet a video warning of people crossing into the U.S. illegally that both Democrats and Republicans have called “racist.”
Trump says, “They gave me a hard time” about the video featuring a Mexican migrant in a courtroom smiling and boasting about killing police officers prompted critics to complain.
He adds, “All I’m doing is just telling the truth.”
The video alleges without evidence that Democrats were responsible for allowing Luis Bracamontes into the U.S. Bracamontes, a twice-deported immigrant from Mexico, was sentenced to death in California for the 2014 killings of two police officers.
It also includes scenes of a migrant caravan moving toward the U.S., warning ominously, “Who else would Democrats let in?” and suggesting that more violence would soon penetrate the border.
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3:20 p.m.
President Donald Trump says if migrants throw rocks at U.S. troops or border patrol officers, they’re not going to be shot, but they’re “going to be arrested for a long period of time.”
Trump had said that he told the U.S. military mobilizing at the southwest border that if U.S. troops face rock-throwing migrants, they should react as though the rocks were “rifles.”
But Trump said at the White House Friday the U.S. won’t be firing on the migrants. Then he added that he hoped that shots wouldn’t be fired.
He says what rock-throwing migrants did to the Mexican military was a “disgrace.” Trump says the U.S. is “not going to stand for” what they did to the Mexican military and police.
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1:15 a.m.
President Donald Trump says he plans to sign an order next week that could lead to the large-scale detention of migrants crossing the southern border and bar anyone caught crossing illegally from claiming asylum.
The two legally dubious proposals are his latest election-season barrage against illegal immigration.
Trump also says he told the U.S. military mobilizing at the southwest border that if U.S. troops face rock-throwing migrants, they should react as though the rocks were “rifles.”
He made his comments Thursday at the White House in a rambling, campaign-style speech that was billed as a response to caravans of migrants traveling slowly on foot toward the U.S. border. It comes just days before midterm elections.
