President Donald Trump is facing increasing pressure from both Democrats and Republican lawmakers to halt the practice of separating children from parents arrested while entering the US without documents.
Under the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, nearly 2000 families have been split up in the recent weeks after being apprehended at the US-Mexico border, according to figures provided by the Department of Homeland Security. Minors, including babies and toddlers, have been separated from parents.
While Democrats have been at the forefront in condemning the family separations, two strong voices—First Lady Melania Trump and former First Lady Laura Bush—weighed in on Sunday, that many believe could be the game-changer.
Melania Trump issued a statement saying she “hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform.”
The statement further added: “She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”
Laura Bush, who rarely speaks on policy matters, wrote an article in the Washington Post saying: “This zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.”
Thousands of protesters led by Democrat lawmakers protested outside detention facilities in Texas and New Jersey on Sunday.
The US Border Patrol on Sunday allowed some reporters to briefly visit the detention centre in Texas.
According to one of the accounts published in the US media: “Inside an old warehouse in South Texas, hundreds of children wait in a series of cages created by metal fencing. One cage had 20 children inside. Scattered about are bottles of water, bags of chips and large foil sheets intended to serve as blankets.”
The Border Patrol said close to 200 people inside the facility were minors unaccompanied by a parent.
President Trump has blamed Democrats for this situation saying his administration is just enforcing the law that “Democrats gave us”.
On Sunday, he tweeted saying: The Democrats should get together with their Republican counterparts and work something out on Border Security & Safety. Don’t wait until after the election because you are going to lose!
He followed it up with another Tweet on Monday morning saying: “Why don’t the Democrats give us the votes to fix the world’s worst immigration laws? Where is the outcry for the killings and crime being caused by gangs and thugs, including MS-13, coming into our country illegally?”
Immigration experts have been unable to point at the law the President is referring to when blaming Democrats for the separation of families.
Instead, they point out that this crisis is a result of the “zero-tolerance” policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month. Before the policy was announced, adults were subjected to deportation proceedings without separating them from their children.
On Tuesday evening, President Trump is expected to meet Republican leaders who have crafted a compromise Bill on immigration reform that would fund his border wall, impose new limits on immigration, protect young undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children and end the administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the border.
Trump’s support for this Bill is, however, still unclear.