Secretary of State Marco Rubio has ordered American diplomats in Europe and in Canada, Australia and New Zealand to press their host governments to restrict most immigration and to file reports if the governments appear to be overly supportive of immigrants, according to a document sent to U.S. embassies and consulates.
Mr. Rubio told the diplomats to emphasize the effects of criminal acts by immigrants to encourage greater entry restrictions, according to the document, which is a diplomatic cable dated Nov. 21. The text of the cable, which was obtained by The New York Times, has not been previously reported.
Diplomats should “regularly engage host governments and their respective authorities to raise U.S. concerns about violent crimes associated with people of a migration background” and “any related human rights abuses,” the cable said. It said that those episodes were “widespread disruptors of social cohesion and public safety.”
The diplomats should send reports on crime linked to immigrants to State Department headquarters as well as analysis of how host governments handle the issues, including “policies that unduly favor migrants at the expense of local populations.”
The goal of these actions is to build “host government and stakeholder support to address and reform policies related to migrant crime, defending national sovereignty, and ensuring the safety of local communities,” the cable said.
The Trump administration often uses the term “sovereignty” to describe its efforts to get other countries to allow in fewer foreign citizens and harden their borders — even as it tries to impose policies on sovereign nations.
President Trump, his top aides and many of their supporters have talked about large numbers of migrants and immigrants as a scourge in the United States and Europe. They are determined to get governments to take draconian measures to limit immigration and increase deportations, even though statistics show that irregular border crossing in Europe have been dropping for many months and were decreasing in the United States late in the Biden administration.
In a speech at the United Nations in September, Mr. Trump denounced the “globalist migration agenda.” Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, and Vice President JD Vance have been equally vocal. “We cannot rebuild Western civilization, we cannot rebuild the United States of America or Europe, by letting millions and millions of unvetted illegal migrants come into our country,” Mr. Vance said in February.
Mr. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, shifted his views on immigration policy during his 14 years as a Republican senator from Florida, and he and his deputy, Christopher Landau, now push the State Department to help enforce the Trump administration’s hard-line positions.
For instance, they are helping enact the administration’s drastic reduction in the number of refugees allowed into the United States, first reported by The Times. And many of the current 7,500 refugee slots are reserved for white Afrikaner South Africans, despite the fact that they do not face widespread persecution.
The State Department said in an official statement on social media last week that “mass migration poses an existential threat to Western civilization and undermines the stability of key American allies.”
The State Department sent out the cable with instructions on immigration diplomacy last Thursday night. Earlier that day, it sent a separate cable to U.S. diplomats telling them that instances of foreign governments supporting illegal or mass migration should be included in the annual country human rights reports being written now, two State Department officials said.
One of the officials said the immigration diplomacy cable was sent to U.S. missions in countries that have a “shared Western civilization” with the United States and are close allies. Cables on addressing immigration problems in Latin America and other regions will soon be sent to missions there, he said.
The official said Mr. Trump supports immigration of “high-skill” workers.
The cable lists 12 talking points that diplomats can use with host governments and three more specifically for European countries.
One point says: “We encourage your government to ensure that policies protect your citizens from the negative social impacts of mass migration, including displacement, sexual assault and the breakdown of law and order.”
Another says: “We urge vigilance in safeguarding religious liberty, particularly against the prevalence of radical Islam among certain migrant populations, which has caused an increase in antisemitic and anti-Christian incidents throughout migrant-heavy areas.”
The cable does not present any data supporting those assertions, though it says such information exists.
Many of the Trump administration’s assertions on immigrants in Europe overlap with the language of far-right political parties in those countries. The administration accuses European governments of trying to censor speech by far-right groups and individuals on these and similar topics.
The State Department has told diplomats working on the annual human rights reports to write up instances of that kind of censorship.
Edward Wong reports on global affairs, U.S. foreign policy and the State Department for The Times.
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