• ATKINS: TRUMP HELPS AT-RISK GOP POLS, BUT DAMAGE DONE,

WASHINGTON — With the use of his executive pen, President Trump threw a lifesaver to vulnerable Republicans whose re-election prospects were sinking due to the public outcry over the horrific sights and sounds of children separated from their parents at border crossings.

But with Democrats and immigrant advocates quickly seizing on the move — and calling the new policy “family imprisonment,” the issue could still rock the midterm elections.

“I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated,” Trump said after he signed the order reversing one effect of his administration’s “zero tolerance” border crossing policy: Children of immigrants arrested at the border were separated from their parents and held in detention facilities, some made of chain-link fencing and resembling cages.

A broad swath of Americans shared that view. Polls show that most Americans oppose the separation of children from their parents at the border. But the Trump administration’s policy has been to prosecute all border crossers instead of allowing some to be released under supervision and to stay with their children.

The executive order allows detained parents to remain with their children, even after they are detained. But for some opponents of the plan, that’s an unsatisfactory change.

“We should not have to choose between separating parents from their children and expanding the shameful practice of imprisoning families,” said Beth Werlin, executive director of the American Immigration Council.

That leaves to Republicans seeking to hold onto their seats in the midterms, and also retain control of Congress, the tough task of trying to seize on GOP voters’ support for stricter immigration laws while avoiding the wrath from the unseemly practice of detaining children — even if they are with their parents.

Polls show that despite general opposition to the child separations, most Republicans back Trump’s zerotolerance prosecution policy.

But even if the order stops future family separations, it is unclear what happens to children already separated from their parents — particularly in cases where the adults have already been deported.

Democratic lawmakers pressed for action.

“I call on the Oversight Committee to start the process of accounting for every single child the Trump Administration separated from his or her parents in the name of the United States of America,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) ranking member of the House Oversight Committee.