5 First Ladies, Growing Number In GOP Condemn Border Separations

WASHINGTON, DC — First Lady Melania Trump and four former first ladies have all expressed horror at what’s happening at the southern U.S. border under a “zero tolerance” policy that has led to the separation of children from their families.

Outrage continues to roil over the policy announced in April by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that has resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their parents when they’re detained at the border. The critics include not only the five living U.S. first ladies, but also a growing number of rank-and-file Republicans.

From April 19-May 31, nearly 2,000 children from Central America have been placed in shelters at the border, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In many cases, the migrants seeking asylum in the United States are fleeing violent drug gangs and domestic violence.

Mrs. Trump didn’t criticize her husband’s administration directly, but said in a statement that she “hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together for successful immigration reform.”

“She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart,” Grisham said of the first lady.

Former First Lady Laura Bush wrote in an opinion piece in The Washington Post that the policy is “cruel” and “immoral.”

“I live in a border state,” she said in a tweet sharing her column. “I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,” Mrs. Bush said on Twitter as she shared her column.

Democrat Michelle Obama retweeted Mrs. Bush, a Republican, writing: “Sometimes, truth transcends party.”

Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic nominee for president, said at a gathering in New York that the Trump administration is telling “an outright lie” by blaming the policy on Democrats. She also refuted Sessions’ insistence that the policy is rooted in religion.

“Separating families is not mandated by law at all,” Mrs. Clinton said, adding: “We are a better country than one that tears families apart.”

Rosalynn Carter, the senior among the first ladies, called the policy that separates children from their parents at the border “disgraceful and a shame to our country.”

“When I was first lady, I worked to call attention to the plight of refugees fleeing Cambodia for Thailand. I visited Thailand and witnessed firsthand the trauma of parents and children separated by circumstances beyond their control,” Mrs. Carter said in a statement released by the Carter Center.

PRESIDENT TRUMP DOUBLES DOWN

President Trump doubled down on the policy Tuesday, saying that when parents are prosecuted for “coming in illegally — which should happen — you have to take the children away.” He has continued to blame his administration’s zero tolerance policy on Democrats and has said that if they “would sit down, instead of obstructing, we could have something done very quickly.”

Trump, speaking at a small business event in Washington, also said he wants to cut off aid to countries that send waves of migrants to the United States.

“When countries abuse us by sending people up — not their best — we’re not going to give any more aid to those countries,” Trump said . “Why should we?”

Early this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted that she and other members of the administration “will not apologize for enforcing the laws passed by Congress.”

“We are a national of laws,” she wrote. “We are asking Congress to change the laws.”

That tweet followed one in which she denied the existence of a separation policy.

At a news conference Monday, Nielsen said the “minors are very well taken care of.”

“Don’t believe the press,” she said.

A report by ProPublica included a tape recording of children screaming for their parents after they were separated at the border as a Border Patrol agent jokes: “Well, we have an orchestra here. What’s missing is a conductor.”

CBS News reported that Border Patrol agents are “very uncomfortable” with the use of the word “cages” to describe the mesh-walled holding areas where children are kept.

“They say it’s not accurate and added that they may be cages but people are not being treated like animals,” the network tweeted.

CRUZ: 'AMERICANS RIGHTLY HORRIFIED'

A growing number of Republicans have broken ranks with their party over the policy. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Monday he is crafting emergency legislation to keep the families detained at the border together. Like Trump, the Republican senator called out Democrats.

“All Americans are rightly horrified by the images we are seeing on the news, children in tears pulled away from their mothers and fathers. This must stop. Now,” Cruz said. “We can end this crisis by passing the legislation I am introducing this week. We can fix this. If my Democratic colleagues will join me, not play politics but work to solve the problem, we can start to end family separation this week. And, we can honor the rule of law.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican with the highest approval rating of all U.S. governors, condemned the practice of separating children from their parents and on Tuesday ordered National Guard troops assisting in the Southwest to return home. Until the policy is rescinded, Maryland won’t deploy troops to the border, he said.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Laura Bush’s brother-in-law and Trump’s former primary campaign rival, said on Twitter that “children shouldn’t be used as a negotiating tool.”

The president “should end this heartless policy and Congress should get an immigration deal done that provides for asylum reform, border security and a path to citizenship for Dreamers,” he tweeted.

He was responding to a tweet from Trump, who had said the 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,” Trump tweeted. “It is historic, with some countries the most dangerous places in the world. Not going to happen in the U.S.”

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that the policy that uses children as a deterrent is ineffective, “traumatizing” for children and “contrary to our values in this country.”

“What the administration has decided to do is to separate children from their parents to try to send a message that if you cross the border with children, your children are going to be ripped away from you,” she said. “That’s traumatizing to the children who are innocent victims, and it is contrary to our values in this country.

“From the experience of previous administrations, it does not act as a deterrent to use children in this fashion,” she said.

House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin last week came out against the policy, but put the blame on the courts. He also called on Congress to correct the problem through legislation.

“We don’t want kids to be separated from their parents,” Ryan told reporters last week. “This is because of a court ruling. We believe it should be addressed in immigration legislation. So what’s happening at the border with the separation of their parents and their children is because of a court ruling, and so that’s why I think legislation is necessary.”

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Photo: A Honduran mother holds her 2-year-old daughter while being detained by U.S. Border Patrol agents near the U.S.-Mexico border on Tuesday, June 12, in McAllen, Texas. The asylum seekers had rafted across the Rio Grande from Mexico and were detained before being sent to a processing center for possible separation. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)