Trump official deflects blame for border family separations
WASHINGTON — A top White House adviser on Sunday distanced the Trump administration from responsibility for separating migrant children from their parents at the U.s.-mexico border.
“Nobody likes” breaking up families and “seeing babies ripped from their mothers’ arms,” said Kellyanne Conway, a counselor to President Donald Trump.
Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their families over a sixweek period in April and May after Attorney General Jeff
Sessions announced a “zero-tolerance” policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. U.S. protocol prohibits detaining children with their parents because the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are.
The administration wants to send a message, said Sen. Susan Collinsof Maine, a Republican critic of the policy, “that if you cross the border with children, your children are going to be ripped away from you. That’s traumatizing to the children who are innocent victims, and it is contrary to our values in this country.”
Trump plans to meet with House Republicans on Tuesday to discuss immigration legislation amid an election-season debate over an issue that helped vault the New York real estate mogul into the Oval Office in 2016. The House is expected to vote this week on a bill pushed by conservatives that might not have enough support to pass, and a compromise measure that includes key proposals supported by the president. The White House has indicated Trump would sign either of those.
Conway rejected the idea that Trump was using the children as leverage to force Democrats to negotiate on immigration and his promised border wall. Trump tweeted Saturday: “Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change!”
She put the onus on Democrats, saying if they are serious about overhauling the system, “they’ll come together again and try to close these loopholes and get real immigration reform.” Asked whether Trump was willing to end the policy, she said: “The president is ready to get meaningful immigration reform across the board.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-calif., said the administration is “using the grief, the tears, the pain of these kids as mortar to build our wall.”