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NYT: Trump suggested shooting migrants and building an alligator moat

Inhuman measures are not new for Trump, who detained and separated children from their families

Trump publicly suggested shooting migrants - Photo: Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS
02/10/2019 |13:17
Redacción El Universal
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During his entire presidential campaign and administration , Donald Trump has waged a war on migrants. According to the New York Times , in March, President Trump “often talked about f ortifying a border wall with a water-filled trench , stocked with snakes or alligators , prompting aides to seek a cost estimate. He wanted the wall electrified , with spikes on top that could pierce human flesh.”

Cruel measures

are not new for Trump , who has previously suggested that soldiers shoot migrants if they threw rocks. Trump only backed off when his staff told him that it was illegal . According to the New York Times , Trump told aides recalled that “he suggested that they shoot migrants in the legs to slow them down” but they told him that’s not allowed either.

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“The president was frustrated and I think he took that moment to hit the reset button,” said Thomas D. Homan, who had served as Mr. Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, recalling that week in March. “The president wanted it to be fixed quickly.”

The New York Times interviewed over a dozen White House officials and administration officials who were present when Trump suggested using snakes and shooting migrants .

Trump told Mr. McAleenan, the Customs and Border Protection chief that “he wanted him to stop letting migrants cross the border at all, with no exceptions. If you get into any trouble for it, Mr. Trump told him, I’ll pardon you.”

Trump

then asked Kirstjen Nielsen , the former Secretary of Homeland Security , to build a cement wall.

Months later, Trump tried to impose tariffs on Mexico , implemented restrictive asylum rules , detained and separated families , and allocated USD $3.6 billion to build the border wall .

Today, Trump denied the accusations:

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