Trump reportedly regrets ending his family-separation border policy

Trump was persuaded to reverse course on immigration by TV coverage

(Image credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)

published 25 June 2018

President Trump was on his way to a Trump golf course in Virginia on Sunday when he tweeted that he wanted all undocumented immigrants deported immediately with no due process, "no judges or court cases," The New York Times reports, in the latest episode of Trump talking a hard line on immigration after reversing his administration's family-separation border policy through an executive order last week. In fact, Trump has been "complaining to aides about why he could not just create an overarching executive order to solve the problem," the Times reports, citing "two people familiar with the deliberations," adding:

Aides have had to explain to the president why a comprehensive immigration overhaul is beyond the reach of his executive powers. And privately, the president has groused that he should not have signed the order undoing separations. [The New York Times]

Deporting immigrants from inside the U.S. without due process, whatever their legal status, would be a "tyrannical" and "breathtaking assertion of unbounded power — power without any plausible limit," Harvard constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe tells the Times. "The due process requirements of the Fifth and 14th Amendments apply to all persons, including those in the U.S. unlawfully." But regarding the family separation directive, Trump isn't alone in the White House in opposing the executive order he signed.

"Typically, executive orders are the product of weeks of collaborative work," Politico reports, but Trump's family-separation rollback was "dashed together in a matter of hours," and he signed it over the objections of White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, White House Counsel Don McGahn, and other staff members worried it won't withstand legal challenge and would lead to the predictably chaotic rollout.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.