Trump says tariff threats made countries accept deported migrants; claims sharp fall in fentanyl smuggling

WASHINGTON: US president Donald Trump on Monday spoke about his administration's illegal immigration crackdown and anti-drug operations, and mentioned that nations unwilling to take back deported migrants eventually agreed after being warned of tariffs by Washington.

He also claimed a significant fall in fentanyl smuggling across US borders and lauded the American law enforcement for their service to the country.

He made the remarks as he hosted his second 'Rose Garden Club' dinner in honour of Police Week at the White House.





Trump said, "Since I took office, our administration has made nearly 200,000 criminal arrests nationwide, a record, and we're getting them off the streets and putting them in jail or in many cases sending them back to their lovely countries where they came from. And sometimes their country will say, "We don't want them, we're not taking them." I'll say, "That's okay, slap about a 25% tariff on their country," and they call back, "We would love to have them back immediately."

He informed that the Department of Homeland Security has removed nearly 615,000 illegal alien criminals from the US for the past 12 months in a row and that zero illegal aliens have been admitted through the country's southern border.

Speaking about the issue of fentanyl drug smuggling, he mentioned a whopping drop of over 60 per cent on the flow across our border is down by over 60%. He said that coming in by sea is down by 97%.

The US president lauded American authorities and law enforcement such as ICE, Homeland Security, US Marshals, ATF, FBI and the state and local police, crediting them for the gains

"They're all incredible patriots, they're incredible people."