Because no bad idea ever really goes away, we learn from CNN today that Donald Trump didn't just tell Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to ignore judges, break the law, and block immigrants on US soil from applying for asylum when he was in California last week. He also told Kevin McAleenan, his pick to replace Kirstjen Nielsen as head of Homeland Security, that if McAleenan were sent to jail for breaking the law and blocking migrants, Trump would pardon him, because HE IS THE LAW.

CNN's Jake Tapper reports,

Two officials briefed on the exchange say the President told McAleenan, since named the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that he "would pardon him if he ever went to jail for denying US entry to migrants," as one of the officials paraphrased.

It was not clear if the comment was a joke; the official was not given any further context on the exchange.

A DHS spokesperson insisted that

At no time has the President indicated, asked, directed or pressured the Acting Secretary to do anything illegal. Nor would the Acting Secretary take actions that are not in accordance with our responsibility to enforce the law.

So THAT's reassuring as fuck, isn't it? CNN says the story is "still developing." Gosh, we can remember a time when a president telling law enforcement officials to break the law, and then he'd pardon 'em, might have been a scandal or something. Here in Hell World, it's a bold move to take control of the border away from the out-of-control "unelected judges in robes."

Trump also responded to the Washington Post's expose on a discarded plan to bus undocumented immigrants to so-called sanctuary cities by saying that's a terrific idea, let's do that.In a pair of tweets this morning, and at a photo opportunity touting "5G" phone service this afternoon, Trump said the idea -- which had been rejected as "inappropriate" and probably illegal by officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- is now something his administration is giving "strong considerations" to. It remains to be seen whether it will happen or just turn into another "Let's shut down the WHOLE BORDER" fiasco. That's the point, after all. There's no policy, just trolling.

Here's the stupid tweets, in case you missed 'em earlier. Note that they're properly threaded and have the commas in the right spots, so we'll assume President Stephen Miller actually sent the things:

Sure, let's release migrants from detention centers ONLY into "sanctuary cities," to troll the libs. As the earlier Post story noted, that would ignore current ICE policy, which whenever possible tries to send asylum seekers to await further hearings in communities where they have relatives, if possible. Well hell, screw that, because wouldn't it be more fun to just dump them in San Francisco or other cities represented by Democrats? It's not like the dumb foreigns know anything anyway; let the liberals take care of 'em if they love criminal aliens so much! (All asylum seekers are criminals, do keep up.)

Trump explained that nobody really wants sanctuary cities, which somehow come into existence with no approval by the people who elect city leaders. He also claimed that the law only allows the US to hold immigrants for 20 days -- a restriction that only applies to children, of course, but hey, he's rolling. Then he explained most asylum seekers are criminals coached to pretend they are in fear of their lives, and so why not dump 'em all in California and other places that won't cooperate, haha! As usual, Trump made no distinction between "illegal immigrants" and legal asylum seekers, because there's no such thing, they're lying.

The Washington Post notes that, after this morning's tweets, "a Department of Homeland Security official said DHS is not drawing up plans to implement the proposal," though now that he's said it in front of a camera, you'd better bet it's official policy.

If Trump seriously pushes for this to become reality, a serious snag would involve the fact that asylum seekers are usually sent to whatever city holds the immigration court their case has been assigned to -- although that system is badly broken, and paperwork fuckups are a chief reason people miss court dates and get deported. Crom only knows what sort of mess would result if ICE's top priority in transporting people from detention centers is to place them where it will own the libs instead. And of course there would be lawsuits, and more lawsuits.

And of course, there's the racist assumption that liberals would be anywhere near as freaked out by immigrants being in their community as wingnuts are.

Here's a crazy idea Trump would never approve of: Bring back the Obama era Family Case Management Program, which closely monitored asylum seekers as they moved through the process, and resulted in 99 percent of participants attending their immigration hearings.

Oh, but then they might win their cases. Can't have that.

In the meantime, we're left wondering whether Fox has scared another senior to death, and Trump really believes his own border crisis/caravan bullshit -- we're starting to get the feeling that yes.

We don't have to wonder about him obstructing justice anymore though; he's doing that every day, and he just did it again.

[WaPo / Wapo / Vox / Christian Science Monitor]

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