The New York Times reports:

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 crossings 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. [Continue reading…]