Protests force rare Trump reversal
‘We’re going to keep families together’
In the face of worldwide condemnation and widespread protests across the U.S., President Donald Trump ended on Wednesday a policy of separating children from their parents after they are detained crossing the U.S. border illegally.
The dramatic — and rare — turnaround for Trump came as new details emerged of special “tender age” facilities to house babies and very young children taken from their families.
Until Wednesday, the president, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and other officials had repeatedly argued the only way to end the practice was for Congress to pass new legislation, while Democrats said he could do it with his signature alone. That’s what he did on Wednesday.
“We’re going to have strong, very strong borders, but we’re going to keep the families together,” said Trump who said he didn’t like the “sight” or “feeling” of children separated from their parents.
He said his executive order would not end the “zerotolerance” policy that criminally prosecutes all adults caught crossing the border illegally. The order aims to keep families together while they are in custody, expedite their cases, and ask the Department of Defence to help house families.
“It continues to be a zero tolerance,” Trump said. “We have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally.”
Trump’s order, however, is likely to create a new set of problems involving length of detention of families and could result in court action.
Trump had tweeted earlier Wednesday, “It’s the Democrats fault, they won’t give us the votes needed to pass good immigration legislation. They want open borders, which breeds horrible crime. Republicans want security. But I am working on something - it never ends!”
Also playing a role in his turnaround: First lady Melania Trump. One White House official said Mrs. Trump had been making her opinion known to the president for some time that she felt he needed to do all he could to help families stay together, whether by working with Congress or acting on his own.
“Ivanka feels very strongly,” Trump said.
“My wife feels very strongly about it. I feel very strongly about it. I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it.”
The news in recent days has been dominated by searing images of children held in cages at border facilities, as well as audio recordings of young children crying for their parents — images that have sparked fury, questions of morality and concern from Republicans about a negative impact on their races in November’s midterm elections.
International criticism was also mounting.
Pope Francis Wednesday condemned the family separation policy as “immoral” and “contrary to our Catholic values.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “What is happening in the United States is unacceptable. I cannot imagine what these families are going through. Obviously this is not the way we do things in Canada.”
British Prime Minister Theresa May called it “deeply disturbing” and “wrong.”
Adding to pressure on the administration was revelations that babies and other young children of illegal immigrants were being sent to at least three “tender age” shelters in South Texas.
Lawyers and medical providers who visited the Rio Grande Valley shelters described play rooms of crying preschool-age children in crisis. The government also plans to open a fourth shelter to house hundreds of young migrant children in Houston.
Since the White House announced its zero tolerance policy in May, more than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Before attorney general Jeff Sessions ordered the prosecution of anyone apprehended after illegally crossing the border, it was commonplace for Border Patrol to issue families notices to appear in court and release them into the interior of the U.S.
Trump has derided that practice as “catch-and-release.”
The furor over the family separations and the chaotic White House response were engulfing Republicans less than five months before November elections that will determine whether the GOP remains in control of Congress.
The issue drowned the GOP’s preferred campaign message about a booming economy on the week of the six-month anniversary of the Trump tax cuts.