Trump pressed by own party, own family
Supporters say he’s searching for balance of strength, compassion
WASHINGTON – For President Donald Trump, cracking down on illegal immigration is good politics, but separating families is not.
Trump signed an executive order to halt the separations at the border after days of protests from across the political spectrum.
Pressure also came from within his own family.
First lady Melania Trump urged the president to change course. The first lady made a public statement Sunday urging “both sides” to come together on a solution to the crisis.
“Ivanka feels very strongly. My wife feels very strongly about it. I feel very strongly,” Trump said Wednesday after signing the executive order. “I think anybody with a heart would feel strongly.”
Trump voiced concerns during a meeting with House Republicans on Tuesday, telling them his daughter Ivanka had questioned the policy. “We have to take care of these separations,” he said.
Dissatisfaction with illegal immigration proposals helped propel Trump to the White House, and the issue is essential to his base of voters.
On their way out of the gathering at the Capitol on Tuesday night, lawmakers said they were optimistic the president would back legislation pushed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to address the family separations.
In defending his “zero tolerance” immigration policy, Trump lashed out at Democrats he accused of obstructing his immigration proposals and the news media for emphasizing the plight of immigrant children and not the crimes committed by immigrants who enter the country illegally. “The Fake News is not mentioning the safety and security of our Country when talking about illegal immigration,” he tweeted Wednesday. “Our immigration laws are the weakest and worst anywhere in the world, and the Dems will do anything not to change them.”
Voters oppose the family separation policy 66 percent to 27 percent, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll released Monday. Republican voters support it, 55 percent to 35 percent.
Protesters rallied outside a Mexican restaurant in Washington where Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was dining Tuesday night.
Trump supporters touted the executive action as a limited, temporary fix that tries to strike a tough-but-compassionate balance – mollifying critics while appeasing the president’s more conservative base.
“Obviously, the images are something that nobody wants to see,” former White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.
“If they can fix this quick and get really strong on the border in the long term, there is the potential for upside,” he said.
Boris Epshteyn, chief political analyst at Sinclair Broadcast Group and former special assistant to Trump, said the president “will continue to be tough on illegal immigration, which is important to him and his base, while also being humane.”
GOP lawmakers stressed that the order doesn’t solve all the problems at the border. “You still have to have the infrastructure in place to make this work right,” said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio. “You have to be able to adjudicate these cases quickly, so you need more judges, you need more family detention facilities.”