WEST WING MHI Daily Brief ;

President Trump Signs NAFTA Replacement Deal with Mexico, Canada Earlier this morning, President Donald J. Trump signed a three-way trade deal with Mexico and Canada that will replace the outdated NAFTA if it is approved by Congress. “Trump signed the U.S. Mexico Canada trade agreement in Argentina on the side of the G-20 summit,” Pete Kasperowicz reports in the Washington Examiner. “This is a model agreement that changes the trade landscape forever, and this is an agreement that first and foremost benefits working people, something of great importance to all three of us here today,” the President said.”Thank you for your close partnership throughout this process,” he said to Mexican Prime Minister Enrique Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin praised the deal as one that would rebalance trade in North America.”Today’s signing marks a critical step in modernizing and rebalancing North American trade,” he said. “The new agreement secures strong outcomes for farmers, ranchers, businesses, and workers across North America, including in areas such as auto manufacturing and intellectual property.” Among other things, the deal encourages more manufacturing in North America, a step Trump has said would help retain and create jobs in America. Vice President Mike Pence also praised it as a campaign promise kept. The deal won’t be finalized, however, until the legislatures of each country approves the deal. It’s not yet clear that the Democratic-led House will accept the deal when it convenes next year. But Trump said he was confident the deal would go through.”I look forward to working with members of Congress and the USMCA partners, and I have to say, it’s been so well-reviewed, I don’t expect to have very much of a problem, to ensure the complete implementation of our agreement,” he said.

The Trump Administration Is Taking Bold Action To Combat The Evil Of Human Trafficking “The International Labor Organization estimates that worldwide, nearly 25 million children and adults of all ages and backgrounds are victims of human trafficking, including forced labor and sex trafficking. Every government in the world has a moral obligation to do all in its power to stop these heinous crimes within its borders,” Advisor to the President Ivanka Trump writes in The Washington Post. “That is why President Trump took strong action on Thursday to hold accountable those governments that have persistently failed to meet the minimum standards for combating human trafficking in their countries.” Specifically, the president will limit the number of national-interest waivers and restrict certain types of foreign assistance for nearly two dozen governments of countries identified as “Tier 3” by the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report. The report, the world’s most comprehensive resource for governmental anti-trafficking efforts, places each country in tiers to highlight best practices and urge greater action to combat human trafficking. Tier 3 countries are those that have neither met the minimum standards nor made a significant effort to adequately identify and protect trafficking victims, punish the traffickers or prevent human trafficking. The United States is an extraordinarily generous nation, but this administration will no longer use taxpayer dollars to support governments that consistently fail to address trafficking. The most urgent types of assistance to these countries will continue, including humanitarian aid and lifesaving global health programs such as HIV treatment and Ebola preparedness and response. But the new restrictions will hold these governments accountable while providing further incentive for them to live up to their responsibility to end this scourge. The United States will encourage Tier 3 countries to step up efforts to eliminate human trafficking, including the establishment of new laws and national action plans. The president’s directive is the latest in an administration-wide push — including diplomatic, financial, educational, intelligence and law enforcement efforts — to confront this evil. In his first month in office, the president said he was “prepared to bring the full force and weight of our government” to end human trafficking, and he signed an executive order directing federal law enforcement to prioritize dismantling the criminal organizations behind forced labor, sex trafficking, involuntary servitude and child exploitation. Following the president’s directive, the Justice Department secured a record 499 human trafficking convictions in fiscal 2017, a 14 percent increase over the previous year. The director of national intelligence elevated human trafficking to a top priority for the U.S. intelligence community. Despite a deeply polarized political climate, the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act-Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act championed by the White House gained strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill this year, and in April, the president signed into law this landmark legislation to fight online sex trafficking. Finally, the Trump administration, in collaboration with the resilient survivors who serve on the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking , is prioritizing efforts to ensure law enforcement, immigration authorities and customs officials have the training and resources to identify victims of trafficking at U.S. ports of entry and in local communities. President Abraham Lincoln and the abolitionist movement gave America a unique inheritance: a principled commitment to fight slavery in all its pernicious forms. This administration is continuing the fight to end modern slavery and using every tool at its disposal to achieve that critical goal.

Jared Kushner receives Mexico’s highest honor awarded to non-Mexicans “Son-in-law and senior adviser to the president Jared Kushner received Mexico’s highest honor awarded to foreigners on Friday. Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto bestowed the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle to Kushner in a ceremony that President Trump made an unscheduled stop at Friday morning,” Katelyn Caralle reports in the Washington Examiner.“Through your direction and leadership we were able to accomplish a lot of great things,” Kushner said to Trump, who was in the first row at the ceremony. “While there has been a lot of tough talk, I have seen the genuine respect and care that President Trump has for Mexico and the Mexican people, and I do believe we have been able to put that in the right light.” Kushner said Nieto represented Mexico well during trade talks, and thanked his wife, Ivanka Trump, for her understanding trade negotiators would arrive at their residence late into the night. “I believe we are at a historic place in the relationship between our two countries,” Mr. Kushner said during the ceremony. After the ceremony, Trump went to meet with Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who all spoke publicly before signing the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, on the side of the G-20 summit in Argentina.

Border Patrol Arrests MS-13 Member Who Traveled with Caravan “U.S. Border Patrol agents have arrested a member of the infamous Salvadoran MS-13 gang who admitted to authorities that he traveled with a caravan of Central American migrants who were hoping to qualify for asylum in America,” Mairead McArdle reports for National Review. “During questioning at the El Centro station, the Honduran citizen confessed that he is an active member of MS-13 and had intended to enter the country illegally after traveling to the U.S. with the caravan of thousands of other migrants. He is in custody pending his deportation back to Honduras.” President Trump has made MS-13 a priority in his crackdown on illegal immigration and said last month that the latest caravan, estimated to consist of as many as 7,000 people, contained MS-13 members. “You’re going to find MS-13, you’re going to find Middle Eastern, you’re going to find everything,” he said of the caravan travelers. The gang was started in Los Angeles in the 1980s and has a large presence in El Salvador and other Central American countries, where it terrorizes locals. Several crimes perpetrated by its members have made national headlines in the U.S., including the September 2016 murder on Long Island of two young girls, ages 15 and 16. In April, another MS-13 member, Herberth Geovani Argueta-Chavez, 18, was apprehended after illegally entering the U.S. with a group suspected to be part of the caravan that headed for the border last spring. He posed as an unaccompanied minor before police discovered his identity as an adult gang member. The president on Monday threatened to close the border permanently if Mexico does not help contain the wave of asylum seekers. Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018

New Numbers: 91 Percent of Central American Asylum Seekers Have Bogus Claims “New numbers from the Department of Homeland Security show that just 9 percent of asylum claims made by individuals from Central America turn out to be legitimate,” Katie Pavlich reports for Townhall. “The fact that only 9 percent of those who initially claim asylum are found eligible, indicates that we are expending most of our limited resources – detention space, court space and the time of our asylum officers and immigration judges – denying frivolous or illegitimate claims of asylum from the 9 out of 10 who are found ineligible,” “The low statutory requirements and legal loopholes in our laws encourage aliens to claim credible fear at our Southern border knowing they will be promptly released into the interior with work permits pending the determination of their full claim. In recent years, data shows that more than 65 percent of asylum seekers at our border are from Central America – of those 89 percent pass their initial credible-fear interview,” DHS said in a statement. Current U.S. immigration law requires illegal aliens traveling from Central America as a family unit, specifically with children, to be released into the interior of the United States after 20 days of federal detention. “Where are those 91 percent today? While some are properly removed from the U.S. by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), many of those who are released on a promise to appear in court disappear into the country’s interior to live and work illegally. In FY17, only 1 percent of the 226,119 removals conducted by ICE were on Alternatives to Detention,” Waldman said. Meanwhile, thousands of caravan members are still camped out in Tijuana with thousands more along the way. Reporters on the ground, in addition to Border Patrol agents, have repeatedly pointed out the majority of individuals in the caravan are young men who are not legitimately seeking asylum.

WEST WING MHI