WASHINGTON // US president Donald Trump was expected to unveil new measures on immigration as early as Monday to keep Americans safe, as a leading aide insisted he did not overstep his authority with his controversial travel ban.
With the ban now frozen by a federal appeals court pending further legal review, Mr Trump is “considering and pursuing all options”, presidential aide Stephen Miller told Fox News Sunday.
The White House could either file an emergency appeal to the supreme court, defend the merits of the order in lower courts or issue a new executive order. The last option was floated by Mr Trump on Friday.
"We are contemplating new and additional actions to ensure that immigration is not a vehicle for admitting people into our country that are hostile to its nation and its values," Mr Miller said on NBC's Meet the Press.
“There’s no such thing as judicial supremacy. What the judges did is take power away that belongs squarely in the hands of the president of the United States.”
The issue is sure to come up on Monday when Mr Trump meets Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau, who said after the Republican leader issued his ban that America’s northern neighbour welcomes with open arms “those fleeing persecution, terror and war”.
While the fate of Mr Trump’s restrictions on refugees and travellers from seven Muslim-majority countries plays out in the courts, a separate executive order prioritising deportation of undocumented migrants paved the way for the arrest of hundreds of people, many of them Latinos, in the past week.
As thousands of Mexicans protested on Sunday against Mr Trump’s vow to make the country pay for his “big, beautiful border wall”, the White House confirmed the president’s plans to weigh new action to speed up deportations of illegal immigrants.
“As a result of the president’s order, greatly expanded and more vigorous immigration enforcement activities are taking place.”
Earlier, Mr Trump tweeted: “The crackdown on illegal criminals is merely the keeping of my campaign promise. Gang members, drug dealers and others are being removed!”
Over the past week, the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency rounded up undocumented people living in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and other cities, in what it called “routine” operations.
* Agence France-Presse
