First lady visits officials, migrant kids
Trump’s Arizona trip comes amid scrutiny
PHOENIX — First lady Melania Trump made a second visit to a border state Thursday, meeting face to face with people directly affected by her husband’s immigration policies.
“I’m here to support you and give my help, whatever I can” on “behalf of children and the families,” Trump said as she sat down with officials at a U.S. Border Patrol facility in Tucson, Arizona, the first stop of her trip. She later traveled to Phoenix, where she visited a complex that is housing dozens of migrant children separated from their parents.
It was the first lady’s second trip to a border state amid an ongoing outcry over President Donald Trump’s now-suspended policy of separating migrant children from their families when they cross the border illegally.
“She cares about children deeply, and when the news started to hit, I think she was very concerned and wanted to make sure the kids are being well taken care of,” Melania Trump’s spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said on the flight to Arizona. “She doesn’t like to see parents and kids separated.”
The first lady visited what officials described as a short-term holding center for migrant children in Tucson and then traveled to Phoenix, where she visited Southwest
Key Campbell, which receives grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services. A total of 121 children are being held at the facility, including 81 who had been separated from their parents.
Trump visited three classrooms, including one day care room with nine babies or toddlers. Another classroom had five cribs lined up against a wall.
A staffer at the facility said the children had been there, on average, for 48 days.
Grisham said the first lady wanted to learn about the border processes making news around the world.
Asked whether the first lady agrees with her husband’s polices, Grisham said, “She definitely believes in strong border laws,” and wants Congress to strengthen immigration policies. But she also believes in “governing with heart,” Grisham said.