Melania Trump returns to border for second visit
First lady meets with agents, aid workers
PHOENIX – First lady Melania Trump made her second visit to the southern border region Thursday, aiming to display a more compassionate view toward separated immigrant families as President Donald Trump pushes ahead with his crackdown on illegal immigration.
In Tucson, she visited a Customs and Border Patrol facility to learn firsthand how those on the front lines – Border Patrol officers, immigration agents, immigrant families, social workers and residents – deal with immigrant children. Most of those children crossed the border by themselves, but more than 2,000 were separated from their parents under the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossers.
The first lady also stopped in Phoenix, where she met with people who worked with the Office of Refugee Resettlement and Southwest Key Programs, the nonprofit that has housed separated children.
The tour illustrated just how complicated the issue is: children separated from their parents sat alongside children who came across the border alone. In one room, she met babies as young as 6 months old — and their mothers, no older than 17 themselves.
“It’s hard to understand where are their parents, because of their age,” the first lady said.
White House officials hoped for a do-over of last week’s trip to McAllen, Texas, which was largely overshadowed by the controversy over the first lady’s choice of outerwear and the meaning of the phrase “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?” on the back of her jacket while boarding her plane. Thursday, she kept it simple: white slacks, a black top and white sneakers.
At each stop on her Arizona tour, she asked many of the same basic questions: How many children? How old? How long have they been here?
She thanked law enforcement, teachers and social workers. “I know how difficult and dangerous your daily jobs are. I am here to support you and help any way I can,” she said.
Rodolfo Karisch, chief patrol agent for the Tucson sector, told the first lady that “there have to be consequences” for people who cross the border illegally. He said the criticisms of immigration enforcement had been misplaced.
“There’s been a lot of misinformation put out to the general public,” he said. He then led the first lady on a tour of a section of the facility with eight holding rooms. Inside one was a mother and a 3-year-old child.
“Hi! How are you?” the first lady asked. The child looked at all the cameras before turning to his mother.
The first lady “cares about children deeply,” Stephanie Grisham, the first lady’s spokeswoman, told USA TODAY aboard the first lady’s plane. “She also believes in strong border laws and treating everybody equally.”
“I know how difficult and dangerous your daily jobs are. I am here to support you.”
Melania Trump Meeting with law enforcement, social workers