Trump supporters see virtue in immilration controversy

CINCINNATI — Cincinnati resident Andrew Pappas supported President Donald Trump’s decision to separate children from parents who crossed the border illegally because, he said, it got Congress talking about immigration reform.

Niurka Lopez of Michigan said that Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy made sense because her family came to the U.S. legally from Cuba and everyone else should, too.

Trump supporters remained steadfast amid outrage among Democrats and Republicans. They said they believed Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen when they said that they had no choice but to enforce an existing law.

When Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to end forced separations on his own, they shrugged. The end, they suggested, justified the means. And it was the fault of Congress rather than Trump.

“The optics of what’s happening here directly at the border isn’t something that he wants to have on his watch, but at the end of the day, he still wants to focus the attention of Congress on the fundamental need for immigration reform in the United States and I think he’s gonna hold firm on that,” said Pappas, 53.

“His goal was not to rip families apart. I think his goal was to make Congress act on immigration reform,” Pappas added. “And now … everyone’s talking about immigration reform, and I think President Trump is getting exactly what he wants.”

Sixty-five-year-old Richard Klabechek of Oak Grove, Minnesota, who attended the president’s rally Wednesday evening in Duluth, Minnesota, said he was unmoved by audio of crying children, saying it was “the media playing the heartstrings of the public.”

And, he said, Trump was simply being Trump.