Trump defiant over family separation at the border
THE SITUATION HAS BECOME A MORAL TEST FOR US PRESIDENT AND HIS ADMINISTRATION
The Trump administration’s move to separate immigrant families at the border and detain children apart from their parents spiralled into a humanitarian and political crisis on Monday as the White House struggled to contain the growing public outcry.
The situation has become a moral test for President Donald Trump and his administration. He on Monday voiced defiance and continued to falsely blame congressional Democrats for what he decried as a “horrible and tough” situation. But Trump is empowered to immediately order border agents to stop separating families as a result of his “zero tolerance” enforcement policy.
WHITE HOUSE VIEW
The president asserted that the parents illegally crossing the US-Mexico border with their children “could be murderers and thieves and so much else”. And in a series of dark tweets, he warned that undocumented immigrants could increase gang crime and usher in cultural changes.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said in midday speech. “You look at what’s happening in Europe… We can’t allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch.”
More than 2,300 children were taken from their parents at the border between May 5 and June 9, according to statistics released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, with the pace of family separations growing over that period to nearly 70 a day.
The White House said that people killed by illegal immigrants were the true victims because they were “permanently” separated from their family members.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Monday that her agency was merely enforcing existing law and said it was up to Congress to change the policy.
LAWMAKERS DISAGREE
But many lawmakers disagreed with that assessment.
“The White House can fix it if they want to,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, Republican-Utah, said. “I don’t think there’s any question about that.”
Democrats, meanwhile, have escalated their campaign to denounce the family separations. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Democrat-California, and a handful of Democratic lawmakers visited a detention facility in San Diego.
In the Senate, all 49 members of the Democratic Caucus have endorsed a bill from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Democrat-California, that would explicitly bar DHS officials from taking children away from a parent at the border absent evidence of trafficking or abuse.
TRUMP MONITORING
Trump has been closely monitoring the coverage, but has been suspicious of it, telling associates he believes the media cherry-picks the most dramatic images and stories to portray his administration in a negative light, according to one senior administration official.
The images in the media contrast with more positive photos Trump’s aides have shown the president depicting detained children smiling, playing video games and exercising outside, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.
WHAT NEXT
Two polls released Monday showed the public overwhelmingly against separating the children of illegal immigrants from their parents at the border. A CNN survey found that 28 per cent of Americans approve of the policy and 67 per cent disapprove.
Trump heads to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with House Republicans and push for immigration legislation that would provide funding for his promised border wall, among other priorities. Senior administration officials suggested the humanitarian crisis at the border was leverage to force legislators to pass such a law.
“We do not want to separate parents from their children,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an architect and key defender of the policy, said in a speech Monday. “If we build the wall, if we pass legislation to end the lawlessness, we won’t face these terrible choices.”