Melania Trump seeing lots, saying little at migrant centers
WASHINGTON — Melania Trump lit up when a 3-year-old boy darted out of “Family Unit 8” at a migrant center in Tucson, Arizona.
“Hello!” said the first lady, brightening amid the semicircle of eight cells in a short-term holding center for migrants. “How are you?”
Mrs. Trump, an immigrant and a mother herself, wanted to find out more about how her husband’s strict immigration policy was playing out on the ground, especially among families that have been separated at the border. Two tours of migrant detention centers in a week gave her a sometimes grim view.
Now the question is what she does with that knowledge — and how she meshes it with her dislike for dividing up families and a concurrent belief in strong borders.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said more border visits or talks with lawmakers are possible, but it’s not clear what lessons the first lady took from her visits and what she’ll communicate to her husband.
“She cares about children deeply,” Grisham said. “She also believes in strong border laws and treating everybody equally.”
The first lady has given her husband her views on controversial political issues throughout his presidency, but never in such a public way as with the issue of immigrant children.
Before her husband reversed himself and put a halt to separations at the border, Mrs. Trump’s office put out a statement saying the first lady “hates” to see families separated and expressing hope that “both sides of the aisle” can reform the nation’s immigration laws. She did not say whether she supports the president’s “zero tolerance” policy for criminally prosecuting those who cross the border illegally.
“This is a complex issue,” Grisham said. “She recognizes that.”
The sights and sounds of Mrs. Trump’s visits to border facilities in Texas and Arizona amounted to a hard-to-forget information file about the 2,000 children separated from their families nationally.
Thursday’s visits to a migrant center and a school provided Mrs. Trump with indelible images and facts on the perils for families crossing the desert, the challenges for law enforcement and what happens to illegal border crossers and their children when they are caught.
Despite the cameraready nature of the events, some of the images were bleak: a cell block, doors open at the time, where minors are sorted into “Families,” “Males” and “Processed” and “Unprocessed.” Six expressionless teenage boys seated on a bench outside their cell. A daycare for children under 2 and a few mothers — also minors.
At a Tucson roundtable with law enforcement officials responsible for hundreds of miles of border, the first lady asked how many children cross the desert alone. One official told her a 16-year-old was raped on her journey into the U.S. and gave birth in federal custody.
Another official showed Mrs. Trump a picture that seemed to take her aback. It appeared to be a photo described as showing a 6-year-old boy who was found crossing the desert alone with a soda bottle and a note saying he was looking for his mother. Reporters later learned the boy is alive.
“She cares about children deeply. She also believes in strong border laws and treating everybody equally.” – SPOKESWOMAN STEPHANIE GRISHAM