Donald Trump digs in on tough immigration policy

Undaunted and unapologetic, Donald Trump defends his border-protection policies against growing condemnation, including from his wife and four former first ladies.

Undaunted and unapologetic, President Donald Trump defended his administration’s border-protection policies in the face of rising national outrage over the forced separation of migrant children from their parents.

Tough action is needed to fight illegal immigration, he declared and the US “will not be a migrant camp” on his watch.

Besides, the Democrats are to blame, not him, Mr Trump insisted as images of children held in fenced cages fuelled a growing chorus of condemnation from both political parties, four former first ladies and national evangelical leaders.

The children are being held separately from parents who have been arrested under the administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings. “I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault,” Mr Trump said, citing more lenient policies that had not charged all migrants who had crossed illegally.

There are reports of children being torn from their parents’ arms, with 2000 being separated from families in the past six weeks. Some parents were said to have been told that their children were being taken away for baths, only for them not to be returned.

A sprawling former warehouse in southern Texas has become the epicentre of the impassioned debate over immigration. The facility, near the city of McAllen, houses hundreds of minors, some as young as four or five. Children are held in cages built from metal fencing. Foil sheets, intended to be used as blankets, litter the ground. There are no toys or books.

A former Walmart Supercentre now being used as a migrant children's shelter is pictured in Brownsville, Texas.

When journalists were briefly admitted to the facility, one teenager explained how she had been looking after a toddler — no relation to her — who had been separated from her family for three days. None of the other youngsters in the cage had known how to change the child’s nappy and officials were unable to communicate with her because she spoke K’iche’, a language indigenous to Guatemala.

This US Customs and Border Protection photo shows illegal border crossers at the Central Processing Center in McAllen, Texas.

Republican politicians are growing ever more concerned about negative effects on their re-election campaigns this fall, and Mr Trump was to travel to Capitol Hill Tuesday for a strategy session on possible legislation.

Underscoring the sensitivity of the family separation issue, language curbing the taking of immigrant children from parents held in custody will be added to the House’s conservative immigration bill, one House GOP aide said. A similar provision is already in a compromise GOP immigration measure between party conservatives and moderates, with the House expected to vote on both late this week.

The administration is hoping to force Democrats to vote for the bills or bear some of the political cost in November’s midterm elections.

In the meantime, the administration says it doesn’t like the family separations either but migrants who arrive illegally simply won’t be released or loosely kept track of.

“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” he declared. “Not on my watch.”

First Lady Melania Trump, who has tended to stay out of contentious policy debates, waded into the emotional issue. Her spokeswoman said yesterday that Mrs Trump believed “we need to be a country that follows all laws”, but also one “that governs with heart”.

“Mrs Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said.

Former first lady Laura Bush wrote in The Washington Post that the policy is “cruel”, “immoral” and “it breaks my heart”.

“Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso,” she wrote. “These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in US history.

“We also know that this treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned.”

Former first lady Michelle Obama added her voice against the policy of family separation at the border. She re-tweeted a message from Mrs Bush promoting her Washington Post column, adding “Sometimes truth transcends party.”

Sometimes truth transcends party. https://t.co/TeFM7NmNzU

— Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) June 18, 2018

Former first lady Rosalynn Carter also condemned the policy, saying while she was in the White House, she “worked to call attention to the plight of refugees fleeing Cambodia for Thailand” and saw “the trauma of parents and children separated by circumstances beyond their control” when she visited Thailand.

Hillary Clinton called the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy separating children from their parents “a moral and humanitarian crisis.” Speaking at an awards lunch for the Women’s Forum of New York, Mrs Clinton said what was happening to families at the border is “horrific.” “Every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged,” she said.

We should be a better country than one that tears families apart, turns a blind eye to women fleeing domestic violence, and treats frightened children as a means to a political end.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 18, 2018

Mr Trump also barged into the international debate over migration saying Europe made a “big mistake” by allowing in migrants. Mr Trump raged on multiple fronts, firing off six tweets in little over an hour.

In a string of tweets defending US policy, Mr Trump aimed a highly intrusive attack at German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is fighting to save her coalition government amid demands by her interior minister to turn immigrants away.

Germans are “turning against their leadership” over migration, Mr Trump said. “We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!” “Crime in Germany is way up,” he added. “Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!”

The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018

We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018

Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country. Has anyone been looking at the Crime taking place south of the border. It is historic, with some countries the most dangerous places in the world. Not going to happen in the U.S.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018

Crime is actually down in Germany, but Trump has repeatedly stoked crime fears to advance his anti-immigration agenda.

Nearly 2000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May after Attorney-General Jeff Sessions announced the new “zero- tolerance” policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution. Prior procedure had limited prosecution for many family entrants, in part because regulations prohibit detaining children with their parents since the children are not charged with a crime and the parents are.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen rejected criticism accusing her department of inhuman and immoral actions.

“We will not apologise for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” she said in an appearance before the National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans.

“Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards.”

The policy change was meant to deter unlawful crossings — and Sessions issued a warning last month to those entering the US illegally that their children “inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions.”

The current holding areas have drawn widespread attention after journalists gained access to one site Sunday. At a McAllen, Texas, detention centre hundreds of immigrant 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.

Sessions, on Monday, echoed the administration’s defence of the policy, and called on Congress to act.

“We do not want to separate parents from their children,” he said. “If we build the wall, if we pass legislation to end the lawlessness, we won’t face these terrible choices.” White House officials have privately embraced the policy as negotiating tactic to win votes for legislation to fulfil the president’s pledge to build a border wall and to tighten the nation’s immigration laws.

Mr Trump’s commitment to the current policy showed no sign of faltering as voices of outrage and condemnation grew louder and more diverse.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, a longtime Trump ally, called the policy “disgraceful.” Several religious groups, including some conservative ones, have pushed to stop the practice of separating immigrant children from their parents, and former first lady Laura Bush called it “cruel” and “immoral.”

On Capitol Hill, Republicans joined Democrats in calling for an end to the separations. Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton called for an immediate end to this “ugly and inhumane practice,” adding, “It’s never acceptable to use kids as bargaining chips in political process.” And Kansas GOP Sen. Pat Roberts said he is “against using parental separation as a deterrent to illegal immigration.”

AP, The Times, AFP