Trump says US immigration system 'full'

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump said Friday that America’s immigration system was overburdened, telling immigrants heading to the country’s southern border to turn around.

"The system is full. When it's full, there's nothing you can do," Trump said while touring the U.S.-Mexico border as he continued to make the case for his long-promised border wall. "We've been trying to take people and we can't do it. You can't do it."

"I’m sorry, we can't take you," he added.

Trump claimed a national emergency along the U.S.'s southern border to obtain funds for the wall from previously made congressional appropriations after lawmakers repeatedly refused to provide him with the $5.7 billion in funding he had sought.

He reiterated his claim of a border emergency Friday, saying "people want to come in. They shouldn't be coming in".

"They're people that are causing problems. Gangs and more. We're getting them out. Stopping them for the most part," he said.

The president has taken a hardline approach to both legal and illegal immigration since coming to office in 2017.

In addition to seeking to clamp down on migration from some Muslim-majority countries, he has cracked down on undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.