NOW PRIORITY
Get kids back with parents pronto: prez
President Trump on Thursday ordered federal agencies to come up with a plan to reunite detained migrant children with their parents — while the White House also asked the Pentagon to find space for 20,000 unaccompanied minors expected to be nabbed at the border.
The moves came a day after Trump signed an executive order reversing his zero-tolerance policy requiring the forcible separations of migrant kids from families who cross the border illegally.
Trump said at a Cabinet meeting that he had directed the departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services “to work together to keep illegal immigrant families together during the immigration process and to reunite these previously separated groups.”
He also slammed the country’s immigration laws and congressional Democrats.
“My administration is also acting swiftly to address the illegal immigration crisis on the south- ern border . . . and our extremist open-border Democrats. That’s what they are, extremist openborder Democrats,” he said.
Asylum seekers from Central America “walk through Mexico like it’s walking through Central Park. It’s ridiculous,” Trump said.
He added, “Mexico is doing nothing for us except taking our money and sending us drugs.”
Meanwhile, the Pentagon said HHS officials asked them for 20,000 beds for children at military installations “for occupancy as early as July through December 31, 2018,” The Washington Post reported, citing sources and a memo on the issue.
The sites would be run by HHS or contractors working with the department, the memo said.
Trump’s executive order still faces possible legal challenges, and administration lawyers planned to file a request to modify a 1997 court settlement that limits the government’s detention of minors to 20 days.
Trump’s order moves parents with children to the front of the line for immigration proceedings.
Despite his tough talk, The Washington Post reported that Team Trump would at least temporarily stop prosecuting migrant parents who cross the border illegally with children.
“We’re suspending prosecutions of adults who are members of family units until ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] can accelerate resource capability to allow us to maintain custody,” an official told the newspaper.
But, adding to the confusion over Trump’s policy, the Justice Department insisted there was no change.
“There has been no change to the Department’s zero-tolerance policy to prosecute adults who cross our border illegally instead of claiming asylum at any port of entry at the border,” a Justice spokeswoman said.
Yet in Texas, 17 migrant parents who had been nabbed crossing the border were freed after federal prosecutors dropped charges against them.