Advocates say family detention does not solve the problem. The government says that only happens when immigrants can not prove family relationship or when there is evidence children have been abused. This week served to be an even larger public relations nightmare than last week, as the Trump administration’s major players continued to look more tone-deaf on the issue of separating children from their parents.
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White House senior advisor Stephen Miller, the architect of the harsh immigration policies and much of the Trump administration’s more zealous policies, is staying out of the spotlight this week as many blame him for the immigration backlash.
“This was 100% her idea”, said Grisham of Trump’s decision to travel to McAllen, making clear the first lady is not on a mission assigned by the President nor is she acting as his emissary. It’s more like a dog whistle for Trump’s anti-immigrant supporters: “I’m publicly supporting immigrants, but you really know I don’t care”.
Since becoming first lady, Trump has said she wants to champion helping children, yet has been for the most part vague about how exactly she intends to accomplish her goal. The other children were placed there after they crossed into the US alone.
Meanwhile, three of the 12 immigrant children at a Catholic Charities shelter in Fort Worth, near Dallas, were expected to be reunited with their family on Thursday.
First Lady Melania Trump has once again come under fire-this time for her choice in outfit for a visit to see migrant children at a Texas border detention centre.
The eyes of the world have focused on this small city along the Mexican border amid cries of human rights abuses by the Trump administration under its rescinded policy of separating parents and children who illegally cross into the USA.
“Now that an EO has been signed ending family separation at the border, it is time to focus on swiftly and safely reuniting the families that have been separated”, she added Thursday, shortly after news of her stepmother’s visit to the border facility broke. “DHS said that 522 had been reunited since the policy began, with 16 more reunions in process delayed due to weather”, reports CNN. “Nice to meet you”, she said as she left one classroom. The migrant children are labelled as “unaccompanied minors” and sent to the government’s custody or foster care. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order.
“The more he speaks, the more they come”, Pimentel said.
Earlier this week, Mrs Trump appeared to have diverged from US President Donald Trump’s stance on family separation when she released a statement saying she “hates to see children separated from their families”.
The Texas border town of McAllen is home to the U.S. Border Patrol’s McAllen Station, the busiest point of entry for apprehending and detaining immigrants suspected of entering the country illegally, and protests have erupted around the area.
On the other side of the political aisle, former first lady Michelle Obama routinely caught grief from some critics for going sleeveless. If they’re to be deported, the family will reunite prior to deportation. The man, who has no prior criminal or immigration record, is being held in an immigration detention facility in South Texas.
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Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, on Thursday accused Trump of putting the children of undocumented immigrants in cages and Republicans of being complicit in his atrocities after Trump lit into the California Democrat on Twitter.
