Trump vows U. S. ‘ will not be a migrant camp’
WASHINGTON— An unapologetic President Donald Trump defended his administration’s borderprotection policies Monday in the face of rising national outrage over the forced separation of migrant children from their parents. Calling for tough action against illegal immigration, Trump declared the U. S. “will not be a migrant camp” on his watch.
Images of children held in fenced cages fueled a growing chorus of condemnation from both political parties, four former first ladies and national evangelical leaders. The children are being held separately from parents who are being prosecuted under the administration’s “zerotolerance” policy for illegal border crossings.
“I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault,” Trump said Monday as his administration rejected criticism that the policy has resulted in inhuman and immoral conditions.
Trump pointed to more lenient policies under past administrations that had not charged all migrants who had crossed illegally.
“We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does, for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said before the National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans. “Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards.”
Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their families over a six- week period in April and May after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the new “zerotolerance” policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. Prior procedure had limited prosecution for many family entrants, in part because regulations prohibit detaining children with their parents since the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are.
Sessions issued a warning last month to those entering the U. S. illegally that their children “inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions.”
The Rev. Franklin Graham, a longtime Trump ally, called the policy “disgraceful.”
On Capitol Hill, Republicans joined Democrats in calling for an end to the separations.
GOP senators, including Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Susan Collins of Maine, said they were considering legislation that would keep migrant families together and provide additional judges so detained families would face shorter waiting periods.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said she had the backing of the Democratic caucus for a bill would that prohibit the separation of migrant children from their parents.
Also, all four former first ladies have joined the current one, Melania Trump, in an unusual united political front expressing horror at the separations.
As Michelle Obama put it on Twitter, in support of Laura Bush: “Sometimes truth transcends party.”
Mrs. Obama, a Democrat, wrote those words as she retweeted Mrs. Bush, a Republican, who first spoke out in an opinion piece Sunday in The Washington Post.
“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero- tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,” Mrs. Bush said on Twitter.
Hillary Clinton, at a women’s event in New York, said Trump’s “zero tolerance” policywas a “moral and humanitarian crisis.”
The senior among the first ladies, Rosalynn Carter, spoke through The Carter Center: “The practice and policy today of removing children from their parents’ care at our border with Mexico is disgraceful and a shame to our country.”