Trumps tweets take on Justice Department, immigrants, Dems

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump took aim at familiar targets in a burst of tweets Monday, calling the Department of Justice “an embarrassment to our country,” casting the country as “being stolen” by illegal immigrants, and deriding Democrats for not endorsing his immigration agenda.

The president’s tweets came as his administration announced it is drafting new legislation aimed at making it tougher for refugees to seek asylum in the United States. A senior White House official, in a briefing with reporters Monday, said the administration also planned to propose changes to border detention laws that would tighten rules that allow unaccompanied minors to be released to relatives living in the United States as their cases make their way through the immigration court system.

On Twitter, Trump urged Republicans in Congress to “use Nuclear Option if necessary” to pass his long-standing immigration wish list that calls for $25 billion for a new border wall and an end to the diversity-based visa lottery program and family reunification visas.

“Border Patrol Agents (and ICE) are GREAT, but the weak Dem laws don’t allow them to do their job. Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!” Trump tweeted on Monday.

Using the so-called nuclear option would require the Republican-controlled Senate to change the chamber’s rules to only require a simple majority vote of 51 senators to pass a measure, instead of the current 60-vote supermajority threshold that has allowed Democrats to block certain measures. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated that he does not want to change the current rules.

Trump, who last year ordered the elimination of DACA — an Obama-era program shielding from deportation young immigrants who entered the country illegally as minors — declared the program “dead” in Monday tweets, despite pledging months earlier to work with both sides of the aisle to sign a compromise measure to restore the program.

The president has balked at supporting any of the Senate’s bipartisan proposals to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood arrivals program that do not include full funding for his proposed southern border wall.

DACA remains in effect because of a federal court ruling that mandated the initiative be upheld until various lawsuits on the program make their way through the court system.

The president, referring to media reports of more than 1,000 migrants traveling together through Mexico with the aim of making it to the U.S. border, called on Mexico to “not to let these large ‘caravans’ of people enter their country.

“They must stop them at their Northern Border, which they can do because their border laws work, not allow them to pass through into our country, which has no effective border laws,” Trump said.

Mexico’s foreign secretary, Luis Videgaray Caso, responding to similar tweets made by Trump on Sunday, said on Twitter: “Every day Mexico and the US work together on migration throughout the region. Facts clearly reflect this . . . Upholding human dignity and rights is not at odds with the rule of law. “

Trump, in a separate tweet chided the Department of Justice, accusing it of delaying the delivery of documents requested by Congress.

“So sad that the Department of “Justice” and the FBI are slow walking, or even not giving, the unredacted documents requested by Congress. An embarrassment to our country!” Trump tweeted.

Congressional Republicans have complained about the FBI’s pace in completing records request, but FBI Director Christopher Wray told lawmakers last week he agreed “that the current pace of production is too slow,” and said he planned on doubling the staff needed to handle requests.