Melania Trump’s spokeswoman has said the first lady “hates to see children separated from their families”, in what at first appeared to be a rare public statement at odds with her husband’s policy of separating children from their parents at the Mexico border.
Stephanie Grisham said the first lady believed “we need to be a country that follows all laws”, but also one “that governs with heart”. She added: “Mrs Trump … hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform.”
Former first lady Laura Bush has made a similar plea, writing in the Washington Post that a zero-tolerance policy was “cruel” and “immoral”. But unlike Melania Trump, Bush placed responsibility firmly on the Trump administration’s policy, not “both sides”.
“The reason for these separations is a zero-tolerance policy for their parents, who are accused of illegally crossing our borders,” she wrote.
Melania Trump’s intervention came as reports emerged of children being held in cages at a warehouse in Texas after being separated from their parents. One cage had 20 children inside.
By blaming “both sides”, Melania Trump effectively endorsed her husband’s false claim that Democrats are responsible for his administration’s practice of separating parents and children. The administration announced its “zero-tolerance” enforcement policy in April and has publicly defended the practice as a vital tool for deterring unauthorized migration across the southern border.
Conditions for children separated from their parents or arriving alone and being held in secure facilities were reported by media briefly allowed into the facility by the US border patrol. But Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security, Kirstjen Neilsen, criticised what she called “misreporting” by politicians and the press.
Elaborating on her statement that “we do not have a policy of separating families at the border”, she tweeted: “DHS takes very seriously its duty to protect minors in our temporary custody from gangs, traffickers, criminals and abuse. We have continued the policy from previous administrations and will only separate if the child is in danger, there is no custodial relationship between ‘family’ members, or if the adult has broken a law.”
A chorus of Trump’s allies have joined in criticising the policy , including the Reverend Franklin Graham, who called it “disgraceful”, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, who said it was not “the Christian way” or “the American way”, and Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who said: “President Trump could stop this policy with a phone call.”
Meanwhile the outgoing UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, called the separations “unconscionable”.
According to DHS figures, since the announcement of the “zero tolerance” policy by the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, almost 2,000 children have been separated from their families.
There is no law mandating separation of families. But White House policy is to maximize criminal prosecutions of people caught trying to enter the US illegally. That means more adults are jailed, pending trial, so children are removed from them. Before the Trump policy, many without a criminal record were referred for civil deportation, which generally did not break up families.
Amid outcry, Donald Trump has stuck to the untrue claim that Democrats are to blame. On Saturday, the president tweeted: “Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change! This is why we need more Republicans elected in November …”
Trump has repeatedly referred to a Democratic law. He appears to be referring to one enacted in 2008 that was signed by a Republican president, George W Bush. It was focused on freeing and helping children who come to the border without a parent or guardian and did not call for family separation.
Quick GuideWhy are families being separated at US border?
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Why are children being separated from their families?
In April 2018, the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced a “zero tolerance” policy under which anyone who crossed the border without legal status would be prosecuted by the justice department. This includes some, but not all, asylum seekers. Because children can’t be held in adult detention facilities, they are being separated from their parents.
Immigrant advocacy groups, however, say hundreds of families have been separated since at least July 2017.
More than 200 child welfare groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the United Nations, said they opposed the practice.
What happens to the children?
They are supposed to enter the system for processing “unaccompanied alien children”, which exists primarily to serve children who voluntarily arrive at the border on their own. Unaccompanied alien children are placed in health department custody within 72 hours of being apprehended by border agents. They then wait in shelters for weeks or months at a time as the government searches for parents, relatives or family friends to place them with in the US.
This already overstretched system has been thrown into chaos by the new influx of children.
Can these children be reunited with their parents?
Immigration advocacy groups and attorneys have warned that there is not a clear system in place to reunite families. In one case, attorneys in Texas said they had been given a phone number to help parents locate their children, but it ended up being the number for an immigration enforcement tip line.
Advocates for children have said they do not know how to find parents, who are more likely to have important information about why the family is fleeing its home country. And if, for instance, a parent is deported, there is no clear way for them to ensure their child is deported with them.
What happened to families before?
When an influx of families and unaccompanied children fleeing Central America arrived at the border in 2014, Barack Obama’s administration detained families.
This was harshly criticized and a federal court in 2015 stopped the government from holding families for months without explanation. Instead, they were released while they waited for their immigration cases to be heard in court. Not everyone shows up for those court dates, leading the Trump administration to condemn what it calls a “catch and release” program. By Amanda Holpuch
The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics warned this week that forcibly separating children from their parents is a traumatic experience that will cause “irreparable harm”. On Sunday, the senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told NBC’s Meet the Press: “As a mother, as a Catholic, as somebody who has a conscience … I will tell you that nobody likes this policy.”
Conway echoed Trump in saying Democrats must negotiate over immigration reform and border security. But when NBC host Chuck Todd said it “sounds like you’re holding the kids hostage to get the Democrats to the table”, Conway objected “very forcefully” and said: “I certainly don’t want anybody to use these kids as leverage.”
That was not what an unnamed White House official told the Washington Post this week, saying: “The thinking in the building is to force people to the table.”
The New York Times reported on Saturday that Stephen Miller, a hardliner who wrote the original travel ban on a list of Muslim-majority countries, is the chief driver of the separation policy.
As the president headed to his golf club on Sunday, Democrats staged protests at detention facilities. One party rising star, from Texas, said events at the border were the responsibility of all Americans.
“I’d like to say it’s un-American but it’s happening right now in America,” Beto O’Rourke, a US representative who in November will challenge Ted Cruz for his Senate seat, told CNN’s State of the Union. “It is on all of us, not just the Trump administration. This is on all of us.”
O’Rourke organized a march to Tornillo, Texas, and what has been described as a “tent structure” for 16- and 17-year-olds.