By Lalit K Jha
Washington, Oct 30 (PTI) President Donald Trump has said that his administration is planning to build tent cities for thousands of migrants seeking asylum in the US, rather than releasing them while they await court decisions.
In an interview with Fox News, Trump asserted that his administration will not let illegal immigrants come into the US as the Pentagon on Monday announced to deploy 5,200 soldiers on the southwestern border to beef up security.
All such illegal immigrants would live in such a tent city till the time a decision has been taken on their application. If denied, they would be sent across the border from where they came, Trump said.
His comments come amid nationwide attention over a 3,500-member migrant caravan that has travelled through Central America and into Mexico on its way to the US border, where many people travelling in the group plan to apply for asylum after fleeing violence in Honduras.
Trump said Monday he planned to deploy 5,200 troops to the region by the end of the week, even though the caravan itself, in which people are travelling mostly on foot, is weeks away from the border.
"We're not letting them in into this country. We're not going to let gang members (come in)," Trump told the Fox News when asked about the caravan of people now headed to the US.
Trump proposed tent city when he was asked about the US law which is liberal with the asylum seekers.
If illegal immigrants apply for asylum, "we are going to hold them until such time" the trial takes place, he said.
"We're going to put up we are going to build tent cities. We're going to put tents up all over the place," he said when asked where these illegal immigrants seeking asylum would be kept.
Trump said his administration is not going to build structures and spend hundreds of millions of dollars for this.
"We're going to have tents. They (tents) are going to be very nice. They (illegal immigrants) are going to wait (in the tent cities). If they don't get asylum, they get out," he said.
Unlike the previous administrations, Trump said he would not let those illegal immigrants to roam around the country and wait for the trial three years later.
"Unlike Obama and unlike others, we are going to take the people (illegal immigrants seeking asylum). We are going to put them in (tents) and they're going to wait," he asserted.
As a result of this policy, he said when people find out that this happened, far few people will try to enter the US illegally.
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