Trump: ‘I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault’
President Trump doubled down on his administration’s practice of separating illegal immigrant families at the Mexican border yesterday, saying the United States “will not be a migrant camp,” as outrage mounted with Massachusetts officials blasting the policy and demanding immediate change.
Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their incarcerated parents over the past two months after the Trump administration announced a “zero tolerance” policy for prosecuting illegal immigrants has drawn condemnation from Democrats, former first ladies and religious leaders, especially after images from one detention center showed children held in chainlink-fence cages.
But Trump blamed Democrats for not taking action on immigration.
“I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault,” Trump said yesterday. “The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. Not on my watch.”
Trump is due to meet with Republicans today for a strategy session on possible legislation. The House is expected to vote on a GOP immigration measure later this week and a GOP aide said language curbing family separation will be added to the bill.
A 2015 court decision barred family detention, which had expanded under the Obama administration, because the practice violated a previous law requiring immigrant children to live in the least restrictive environment possible.
Jessica Vaughan, director of policy for the conservativeleaning Center of Immigration Studies, said Congress could come up with a new law allowing for family detentions to stop separation.
“For all their talk complaining about this problem I really doubt they’d actually support legislation that would take care of the problem because it would mean that families are being held together,” Vaughan said. “Nobody loves this idea of separating kids from parents but it’s one bad option out of many bad options.”
Yesterday, Massachusetts politicians and immigration advocates slammed the separation policy.
“It’s absolutely reprehensible. The last time I know of that the United States of America was ripping kids away from families was when we had slavery,” said U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton. “This is the administration’s fault. This is something they could end in the next hour if the president wanted to. It’s un-American.”
Mayor Martin J. Walsh blasted the separations as “disgusting” and called on Congress to act.
“This is probably the most inhumane thing I’ve ever seen,” Walsh said. “Using little kids that are being taken from their parents to try to get Congress to do their job. It’s completely uncalled for and horrible.”
Lucy Pineda of Latinos Unidos Massachusetts said she recently helped two teenagers from Guatemala whose mother sent them to America because gangs were threatening to kill them. She said immigrants will continue to seek asylum unless their home countries see major change.
“The real problem is the immigration system is broken and Congress is not doing anything and the president we have does not care about families,” Pineda said.