President Trump Argues There’s No Alternative to Family Separation Policy

“(President Donald Trump) could pick up the phone and stop the separation of families seeking refuge in the US.

The president went to the U.S. Capitol Tuesday evening to speak with the Republican Party conference of the House of Representatives. To quote Trump himself, “We could have an immigration bill”.

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas announced yesterday that he was introducing emergency legislation meant to keep immigrant families together. He repudiated the notion that only Congress can fix this.

“We finally have a president willing to work with Congress to solve this, and that’s what this bill does”, said House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) said. One conservative measure is expected to fail.

Most surprising may have been the criticism (albeit without mention of Trump) from an evangelical Christian apologist for the president: Franklin Graham.

The Democrats “are going to have a do-over” in the November elections, said the former White House strategist in a lengthy interview Sunday with ABC’s Jonathan Karl.

The compromise bill shifts away from the nation’s longtime preference for family immigration to a new system that prioritizes entry based on merits and skills.

Trump insisted that there are “only two options” for dealing with immigrants who come to the country illegally: “Totally open borders or criminal prosecution”.

An audio recording that appears to capture the heartbreaking voices of Spanish-speaking children crying out for their parents at a USA immigration facility has stoked the outrage over the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their parents. “That’s traumatising to the children who are innocent victims, and it is contrary to our values in this country”.

Trump insisted he had no choice but to criminally prosecute every adult crossing into the USA from Mexico, meaning “you have to take children away”.

Under the policy, adults who try to cross into the USA illegally, many of whom plan to seek asylum, are placed in custody and undergo criminal prosecution.

The family separations and detentions of children at the southern US border, highlighted by the videos of youngsters in cages and an audiotape of wailing children, have sparked an outcry at home and strong condemnation overseas. Agents did not allow reporters to interview detainees or take photos. In his remarks, he endorsed both House immigration bills that build the wall, close legal loopholes, cancel the visa lottery, curb chain migration, and solve the border crisis and family separation issue by allowing for family detention and removal.

Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker cited the administration’s “cruel and inhuman” policy separating children from their parents in reversing a decision to send a National Guard helicopter from his state to the Mexican border. And even if you don’t believe in karma, or in extending basic human decency to people who didn’t win the geographic birth lottery… even if you’re hard-liner enough to say, “Break the law, suffer the consequences”, shouldn’t the punishment at least fit the crime? Nobody has such sad, such bad and actually, in many cases, such disgusting and tough – you see about child separation, you see what’s going on there.

With roughly 2,000 children already removed from their parents, Schlapp’s comments Tuesday appeared to reflect Sessions’s stance far more than Nielsen’s.

What is this zero tolerance policy?

In the recording, children are asked about where they are from and their family situation.

“It is absolutely wrong to separate children from their families in any circumstances and particularly when people are in distress as, for example, people that are fleeing from violence and persecution, as is the case for people in Central America”, he said.