PROTESTERS ACROSS U.S. DECRY FAMILY SEPARATIONS AT BORDER WASHINGTON FLORIDA
TRUMP DEFENDS POLICY: ‘WE CAN’T LET PEOPLE POUR IN’
America rose up in protest Tuesday as the White House refused to back down from a controversial policy involving thousands of illegal immigrants being separated from their children.
From Los Angeles to New York, protesters took to the streets to brand the policy inhumane, an abuse of human rights and demanded that it end.
The countrywide demonstrations happened on the same day the U.S. withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council with Ambassador Nikki Haley saying, “We take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.”
On Tuesday, a crowd greeted VicePresident Mike Pence with boos and drumbeats as he arrived at an upstate New York Republican fundraiser.
In Washington, protesters with babies briefly shut down proceedings on a House committee hearing and had to be escorted from the room.
In Texas, hundreds marched to the El Paso Processing Center and sang songs of freedom.
Mayors from across the U.S. said they plan to travel to the Texas border to protest the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy on migrants.
Meanwhile, demonstrations are planned in 132 cities across the country on June 30 to express outrage at the policy. Activists will descend on city centres, state capitols and, in Washington, at Lafayette Square across from the White House.
“We’re encouraging everyone who can possibly make it to D.C. to get there,” said Karthik Ganapathy, a MoveOn.org spokesman and co-organizer of the demonstration.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and a coalition of social justice leaders announced Tuesday that they plan to visit immigrant children separated from their families at the U.S. border with Mexico.
Sharpton accused U.S. officials of applying a different standard to the children “because these are children of colour.” President Donald Trump defended his policy during a speech Tuesday at the National Federation of Independent Business’ 75th anniversary celebration.
While the separation of families needs to stop, Trump said, “we can’t let people pour in.”
“Politically correct or not, we have a country that needs security, that needs safety,” Trump said.
Trump is under mounting pressure to reverse an immigration enforcement policy that has led to the separation of more than 2,300 migrant children from their families in recent weeks.
Republicans on Capitol Hill were anxiously searching Tuesday for a way to end the policy, with the focus shifting to a new plan to keep children in detention longer than now permitted — but with their parents.
GOP House leaders, increasingly fearful of voter reaction in November, were to meet with Trump Tuesday evening to work out some resolution.
Leaders in both the House and Senate are struggling to shield the party’s lawmakers from the public outcry over images of children taken from migrant parents and held in cages at the border.
But they are running up against Trump and his worries that, according to one adviser, the lack of progress toward his signature border wall makes him look “soft”
Many lawmakers say he could simply reverse the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy and keep families together. But some worry he could also inject a new dynamic, rejecting emerging GOP proposals and potentially exacerbating an already tough situation as his party heads toward a difficult midterm election.
“What I’m asking Congress to do is to give us a third option, which we have been requesting since last year, the legal authority to detain and promptly remove families together as a unit,” Trump said Tuesday. “We have to be able to do this. This is the only solution to the border crisis.”
House GOP leaders are scrambling to revise their broader current immigration bill to include a provision to resolve the situation.
The major change being unveiled Tuesday would loosen rules that now limit the amount of time minors can be held to 20 days, according to a GOP source familiar with the measure. Instead, the children could be detained with their parents for extended periods.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Republicans are rallying behind a different approach.
Theirs is narrow legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas that would allow detained families to stay together in custody while expediting their deportation proceedings.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was reaching out to Democrats for bipartisan backing, since the proposal would need to reach a 60-vote threshold to advance.
But Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer signalled that no such support would be coming, saying it was already in Trump’s power to keep the families together.
“There’s no need for legislation. There’s no need for anything else. You can do it. Mr. President you started it, you can stop it.”
However, Trump, who has been watching the coverage play out on television with increasing anger, has told confidants he believes the news media are deliberately highlighting the worst images — like the cages — to make him look bad.
To combat worries that he looks “soft” on immigration, Trump unleashed a series of tweets in which he played up the dangers posed by the high-profile MS-13 gangs.
“Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13,” tweeted Trump.