[Federal Register Volume 83, Number 221 (Thursday, November 15, 2018)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 57661-57664]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2018-25117]
[[Page 57659]]
Vol. 83
Thursday,
No. 221
November 15, 2018
Part V
The President
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Proclamation 9822--Addressing Mass Migration Through the Southern
Border of the United States
Proclamation 9823--American Education Week, 2018
Proclamation 9824--National Apprenticeship Week, 2018
Proclamation 9825--Veterans Day, 2018
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 83 , No. 221 / Thursday, November 15, 2018 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 57661]]
Proclamation 9822 of November 9, 2018
Addressing Mass Migration Through the Southern
Border of the United States
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
The United States expects the arrival at the border
between the United States and Mexico (southern border)
of a substantial number of aliens primarily from
Central America who appear to have no lawful basis for
admission into our country. They are traveling in
large, organized groups through Mexico and reportedly
intend to enter the United States unlawfully or without
proper documentation and to seek asylum, despite the
fact that, based on past experience, a significant
majority will not be eligible for or be granted that
benefit. Many entered Mexico unlawfully--some with
violence--and have rejected opportunities to apply for
asylum and benefits in Mexico. The arrival of large
numbers of aliens will contribute to the overloading of
our immigration and asylum system and to the release of
thousands of aliens into the interior of the United
States. The continuing and threatened mass migration of
aliens with no basis for admission into the United
States through our southern border has precipitated a
crisis and undermines the integrity of our borders. I
therefore must take immediate action to protect the
national interest, and to maintain the effectiveness of
the asylum system for legitimate asylum seekers who
demonstrate that they have fled persecution and warrant
the many special benefits associated with asylum.
In recent weeks, an average of approximately 2,000
inadmissible aliens have entered each day at our
southern border. In Fiscal Year 2018 overall, 124,511
aliens were found inadmissible at ports of entry on the
southern border, while 396,579 aliens were apprehended
entering the United States unlawfully between such
ports of entry. The great number of aliens who cross
unlawfully into the United States through the southern
border consumes tremendous resources as the Government
seeks to surveil, apprehend, screen, process, and
detain them.
Aliens who enter the United States unlawfully or
without proper documentation and are subject to
expedited removal may avoid being promptly removed by
demonstrating, during an initial screening process, a
credible fear of persecution or torture. Approximately
2 decades ago, most aliens deemed inadmissible at a
port of entry or apprehended after unlawfully entering
the United States through the southern border were
single adults who were promptly returned to Mexico, and
very few asserted a fear of return. Since then,
however, there has been a massive increase in fear-of-
persecution or torture claims by aliens who enter the
United States through the southern border. The vast
majority of such aliens are found to satisfy the
credible-fear threshold, although only a fraction of
the claimants whose claims are adjudicated ultimately
qualify for asylum or other protection. Aliens found to
have a credible fear are often released into the
interior of the United States, as a result of a lack of
detention space and a variety of other legal and
practical difficulties, pending adjudication of their
claims in a full removal proceeding in immigration
court. The immigration adjudication process often takes
years to complete because of the growing volume of
claims and because of the need to expedite proceedings
for detained aliens. During that time, many released
aliens fail to appear for hearings, do not
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comply with subsequent orders of removal, or are
difficult to locate and remove.
Members of family units pose particular challenges. The
Federal Government lacks sufficient facilities to house
families together. Virtually all members of family
units who enter the United States through the southern
border, unlawfully or without proper documentation, and
that are found to have a credible fear of persecution,
are thus released into the United States. Against this
backdrop of near-assurance of release, the number of
such aliens traveling as family units who enter through
the southern border and claim a credible fear of
persecution has greatly increased. And large numbers of
family units decide to make the dangerous and unlawful
border crossing with their children.
The United States has a long and proud history of
offering protection to aliens who are fleeing
persecution and torture and who qualify under the
standards articulated in our immigration laws,
including through our asylum system and the Refugee
Admissions Program. But our system is being overwhelmed
by migration through our southern border. Crossing the
border to avoid detection and then, if apprehended,
claiming a fear of persecution is in too many instances
an avenue to near-automatic release into the interior
of the United States. Once released, such aliens are
very difficult to remove. An additional influx of large
groups of aliens arriving at once through the southern
border would add tremendous strain to an already taxed
system, especially if they avoid orderly processing by
unlawfully crossing the southern border.
The entry of large numbers of aliens into the United
States unlawfully between ports of entry on the
southern border is contrary to the national interest,
and our law has long recognized that aliens who seek to
lawfully enter the United States must do so at ports of
entry. Unlawful entry puts lives of both law
enforcement and aliens at risk. By contrast, entry at
ports of entry at the southern border allows for
orderly processing, which enables the efficient
deployment of law enforcement resources across our vast
southern border.
Failing to take immediate action to stem the mass
migration the United States is currently experiencing
and anticipating would only encourage additional mass
unlawful migration and further overwhelming of the
system.
Other presidents have taken strong action to prevent
mass migration. In Proclamation 4865 of September 29,
1981 (High Seas Interdiction of Illegal Aliens), in
response to an influx of Haitian nationals traveling to
the United States by sea, President Reagan suspended
the entry of undocumented aliens from the high seas and
ordered the Coast Guard to intercept such aliens before
they reached United States shores and to return them to
their point of origin. In Executive Order 12807 of May
24, 1992 (Interdiction of Illegal Aliens), in response
to a dramatic increase in the unlawful mass migration
of Haitian nationals to the United States, President
Bush ordered additional measures to interdict such
Haitian nationals and return them to their home
country. The Supreme Court upheld the legality of those
measures in Sale v. Haitian Centers Council, Inc., 509
U.S. 155 (1993).
I am similarly acting to suspend, for a limited period,
the entry of certain aliens in order to address the
problem of large numbers of aliens traveling through
Mexico to enter our country unlawfully or without
proper documentation. I am tailoring the suspension to
channel these aliens to ports of entry, so that, if
they enter the United States, they do so in an orderly
and controlled manner instead of unlawfully. Under this
suspension, aliens entering through the southern
border, even those without proper documentation, may,
consistent with this proclamation, avail themselves of
our asylum system, provided that they properly present
themselves for inspection at a port of entry. In
anticipation of a large group of aliens arriving in the
coming weeks, I am directing the Secretary of Homeland
Security to commit additional resources to support our
ports of entry at the southern border
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to assist in processing those aliens--and all others
arriving at our ports of entry--as efficiently as
possible.
But aliens who enter the United States unlawfully
through the southern border in contravention of this
proclamation will be ineligible to be granted asylum
under the regulation promulgated by the Attorney
General and the Secretary of Homeland Security that
became effective earlier today. Those aliens may,
however, still seek other forms of protection from
persecution or torture. In addition, this limited
suspension will facilitate ongoing negotiations with
Mexico and other countries regarding appropriate
cooperative arrangements to prevent unlawful mass
migration to the United States through the southern
border. Thus, this proclamation is also necessary to
manage and conduct the foreign affairs of the United
States effectively.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, by the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States of America, including sections 212(f) and
215(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) (8
U.S.C. 1182(f) and 1185(a), respectively) hereby find
that, absent the measures set forth in this
proclamation, the entry into the United States of
persons described in section 1 of this proclamation
would be detrimental to the interests of the United
States, and that their entry should be subject to
certain restrictions, limitations, and exceptions. I
therefore hereby proclaim the following:
Section 1. Suspension and Limitation on Entry. The
entry of any alien into the United States across the
international boundary between the United States and
Mexico is hereby suspended and limited, subject to
section 2 of this proclamation. That suspension and
limitation shall expire 90 days after the date of this
proclamation or the date on which an agreement permits
the United States to remove aliens to Mexico in
compliance with the terms of section 208(a)(2)(A) of
the INA (8 U.S.C. 1158(a)(2)(A)), whichever is earlier.
Sec. 2. Scope and Implementation of Suspension and
Limitation on Entry. (a) The suspension and limitation
on entry pursuant to section 1 of this proclamation
shall apply only to aliens who enter the United States
after the date of this proclamation.
(b) The suspension and limitation on entry pursuant
to section 1 of this proclamation shall not apply to
any alien who enters the United States at a port of
entry and properly presents for inspection, or to any
lawful permanent resident of the United States.
(c) Nothing in this proclamation shall limit an
alien entering the United States from being considered
for withholding of removal under section 241(b)(3) of
the INA (8 U.S.C. 1231(b)(3)) or protection pursuant to
the regulations promulgated under the authority of the
implementing legislation regarding the Convention
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, or limit the statutory
processes afforded to unaccompanied alien children upon
entering the United States under section 279 of title
6, United States Code, and section 1232 of title 8,
United States Code.
(d) No later than 90 days after the date of this
proclamation, the Secretary of State, the Attorney
General, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall
jointly submit to the President, through the Assistant
to the President for National Security Affairs, a
recommendation on whether an extension or renewal of
the suspension or limitation on entry in section 1 of
this proclamation is in the interests of the United
States.
Sec. 3. Interdiction. The Secretary of State and the
Secretary of Homeland Security shall consult with the
Government of Mexico regarding appropriate steps--
consistent with applicable law and the foreign policy,
national security, and public-safety interests of the
United States--to address the approach of large groups
of aliens traveling through Mexico with the intent of
entering the United States unlawfully, including
efforts to deter, dissuade, and return
[[Page 57664]]
such aliens before they physically enter United States
territory through the southern border.
Sec. 4. Severability. It is the policy of the United
States to enforce this proclamation to the maximum
extent possible to advance the interests of the United
States. Accordingly:
(a) if any provision of this proclamation, or the
application of any provision to any person or
circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of
this proclamation and the application of its other
provisions to any other persons or circumstances shall
not be affected thereby; and
(b) if any provision of this proclamation, or the
application of any provision to any person or
circumstance, is held to be invalid because of the
failure to follow certain procedures, the relevant
executive branch officials shall implement those
procedural requirements to conform with existing law
and with any applicable court orders.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this
proclamation shall be construed to impair or otherwise
affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or
the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget
relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This proclamation shall be implemented
consistent with applicable law and subject to the
availability of appropriations.
(c) This proclamation is not intended to, and does
not, create any right or benefit, substantive or
procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any
party against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or
agents, or any other person.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
ninth day of November, in the year of our Lord two
thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
third.
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2018-25117
Filed 11-14-18; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3295-F9-P