October 1, 2019

Trump Proposed Shooting Migrants to Prevent Them From Crossing the Border

A new book from two New York Times reporters contains some horrifying details.

Alex Brandon/AP

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President Donald Trump once pitched fortifying the border with a snake-filled trench, creating an electrified wall with spikes, and reportedly suggested officers shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down, according to an excerpt from a new book written by New York Times reporters Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Michael Shear. 

The excerpt provides a revealing look at the internal drama within the White House as the Trump administration has aggressively cracked down on migration to the United States; White House advisers are described as being in a state of “near panic” after Trump ordered the closure of the US-Mexico border in March.

At the time, then-Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reportedly warned in a March meeting that migrants would still try to claim asylum after crossing into the United States if Trump closed the border. In another exchange, Trump suggested the need for a cement wall, to which Nielsen reportedly responded: “I literally don’t think that’s even possible.” According to the report, the president “routinely berated Ms. Nielsen as ineffective and, worse—at least in his mind—not tough-looking enough.” Trump eventually ousted Nielsen as part of an overhaul inside his administration of other officials who White House aide Stephen Miller “believed were thwarting efforts to block immigrants.”  

“The president was frustrated and I think he took that moment to hit the reset button,” former acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan told the Times. 

Read the rest of the excerpt here.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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