The first lady said the country needed to be governed \u201cwith a heart,\u201d but echoed President Trump\u2019s widely disputed implication that a political stalemate was to blame.<\/b>
\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Melania Trump urged \u201cboth sides of the aisle\u201d on Sunday to come together to stop federal authorities from separating children from their parents when apprehended at the border, a rare public intervention in an issue that has generated enormous criticism of her husband.
In a statement issued by her office, the first lady expressed empathy for affected families, saying the country should be governed \u201cwith a heart,\u201d but did not directly take issue with President Trump\u2019s policy. Instead, by saying that \u201cboth sides\u201d needed to agree, she adopted his argument that the situation was caused by political stalemate rather than a policy he initiated.
\u201cMrs. 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,\u201d the first lady said in the statement, which her office said was issued in response to questions by reporters. \u201cShe believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with a heart.\u201d
The president has falsely blamed Democrats for the situation, saying that he was simply enforcing a law that they had written. But no law requires families to necessarily be separated at the border. Children have been taken away from their parents because of a Trump administration \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy enacted this year to prosecute all unlawful immigrants as criminals.
When parents are taken into federal custody, their children are removed. Previous administrations made exceptions to such prosecutions for adults traveling with minor children, but the Trump administration has said it will not do so. Nearly 2,000 children were taken away from their parents in a six-week period ending last month under the new Trump administration policy.
Mrs. Trump\u2019s statement echoed the president\u2019s words on Friday, when he told reporters that \u201cI hate the children being taken away.\u201d He then added, \u201cThe Democrats have to change their law \u2014 that\u2019s their law.\u201d
At times, the first lady has subtly sent signals different from those of her husband. After Mr. Trump blamed violence at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., on \u201cmany sides\u201d last year, Mrs. Trump posted a message on Twitter saying, \u201cOur country encourages freedom of speech, but let\u2019s communicate w\/o hate in our hearts.\u201d
Seven House Democrats made a surprise Father\u2019s Day visit to a detention facility in Elizabeth, N. J., on Sunday and said they were blocked for nearly two hours before finally being allowed to see the parents who had been separated from their children.
\u201cTrump claims Democrats are to blame for families\u2019 being broken up,\u201d said one of the Democrats, Representative Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey. \u201cThat is a lie. Republicans control every branch of government.\u201d
Some Republican lawmakers have joined Democrats in recent days to push Mr. Trump to reverse or modify the family separation policy by giving new instructions to the Department of Homeland Security.
\u201cPresident Trump could stop this policy with a phone call,\u201d Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and often an ally and golfing partner of the president\u2019s, said on CNN on Friday. \u201cI\u2019ll go tell him. If you don\u2019t like families\u2019 being separated, you can tell D. H. S. stop doing it.\u201d
Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, condemned the separations, except in cases where there is evidence of abuse or another good reason.
\u201cWhat 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,\u201d she said on \u201cFace the Nation\u201d on CBS. \u201cThat is traumatizing to the children, who are innocent victims. And it is contrary to our values in this country.\u201d
\u201cWe know from years of experience that we need to fix our immigration laws,\u201d she added, \u201cand that using children is not the answer.\u201d
Anthony Scaramucci, who served briefly as White House communications director last year, said separating children from their families is not \u201cthe Christian way\u201d or \u201cthe American way,\u201d and made clear he thinks Mr. Trump can end it on his own. \u201cThe President can reverse it and I hope he does,\u201d he wrote on Twitter.
Mr. Trump has said in recent days that Democrats should agree to his panoply of immigration measures, including full financing for a border wall and revamping the system of legal entry to the country, in effect making clear that any legislation addressing family separation must also include his priorities.
A top adviser to Mr. Trump said on Sunday that the president was not using the family separation as leverage to force Democrats to come to the table on other policy disputes, rebutting an unnamed White House official quoted by The Washington Post .
\u201cWhat the president is saying is if the Democrats are serious, they\u2019ll come together again and try to close these loopholes and get real immigration reform,\u201d Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, said on \u201cMeet the Press\u201d on NBC.
\u201cAs a mother, as a Catholic, as somebody who has got a conscience, and wouldn\u2019t say the junk that somebody said, apparently, allegedly, I will tell you that nobody likes this policy,\u201d she said. \u201cYou saw the president on camera that he wants this to end, but everybody has, Congress has to act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Similarity rank: 28<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 0.5<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

TW posts: 131<\/div>\n

TW reposts: 3<\/div>\n

TW likes: 9<\/div>\n

TW sentiment: -10<\/div>\n<\/div>\n