President Donald Trump’s national security strategy that will be unveiled Monday includes a renewed focus on border security, according to a copy of the strategy obtained by The Daily Caller.
A national security strategy is mandated by statute for every administration, and a senior administration official told TheDC that as far as the White House has determined no administration has put forth a new strategy in its first year.
A senior administration official told TheDC that the administration is currently implementing the national security strategy, which President Trump will outline in a speech Monday.
“Strengthening control over our borders and immigration system is central to national security, economic prosperity, and the rule of law,” the national security strategy document states. “Terrorists, drug traffickers, and criminal cartels exploit porous borders and threaten U.S. security and public safety.”
The document goes on to say: “The United States affirms its sovereign right to determine who should enter our country and under what circumstances. The United States understands the contributions immigrants have made to our nation throughout its history. Illegal immigration, however, burdens the economy, hurts American workers, presents public safety risks, and enriches smugglers and other criminals.”
The policy of focusing on immigration as a national security matter differs from President Barack Obama’s 2015 national security strategy, which just briefly mentioned border security.
The strategy includes several reforms to strengthen the border and shift immigration policy.
“We will secure our borders through the construction of a border wall, the use of multilayered defenses and advanced technology, the employment of additional personnel, and other measures,” the document says. Legislation introduced by Republican senators recently would work to accomplish these goals by hiring thousands more immigration officers and ordering the Department of Homeland Security to build border walling where necessary.
The document goes on to call for implementation of Trump’s desired “extreme vetting.”
“The U.S. Government will enhance vetting of prospective immigrants, refugees, and other foreign visitors to identify individuals who might pose a risk to national security or public safety. We will set higher security standards to ensure that we keep dangerous people out of the United States and enhance our information collection and analysis to identify those who may already be within our borders,” the strategy says.
The Trump administration has already increased its vetting of immigrants by allowing the collection of social media data of immigrants entering the country.
The national security strategy notably calls China a competitor and it calls for tighter visa controls in a section alluding to alleged Chinese intellectual property theft.
“The United States will review visa procedures to reduce economic theft by non-traditional intelligence collectors. We will consider restrictions on foreign [science, technology, engineering and math] students from designated countries to ensure that intellectual property is not transferred to our competitors, while acknowledging the importance of recruiting the most advanced technical workforce to the United States.”
