Politics

White House divided: Melania breaks ranks with Trump on immigration

Jun 18, 2018

The First Lady issued a statement on the issue. Source: Getty.

Since her husband was sworn in as President of the United States in January 2017, Melania Trump has neglected to comment on his policies, but the First Lady publicly broke ranks from her husband on Sunday when she spoke out against his stance on immigration.

The Slovenian-born First Lady made a bold statement about the current immigration crisis taking place at America’s borders, after it was revealed that thousands of children have been separated from their parents who attempted to enter the USA illegally.

Speaking via her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham, Mrs Trump told CNN that she “hates to see children separated from their families” and hopes that her husband can work with the opposition to achieve “successful immigration reform”.

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

The 48-year-old’s comments come after her husband’s administration introduced a policy of separating children from their families on the border. Every adult caught crossing the border illegally is now charged with federal crimes, rather than referring those with children to immigration courts as previous administrations did, meaning they are split from their children.

Federal authorities separated nearly 2,000 kids from their families during a six-week immigration crackdown along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed https://t.co/us95qhHYRo pic.twitter.com/WvERSfHxr0

— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) June 17, 2018

There is said to be no clear process for reuniting the divided families, leaving many children in detention centres. According to a Department of Homeland Security spokesman, between April 19 and May 31, 1,995 children were separated from 1,940 adults who were being held by US border patrol.

The policy has caused a public outcry, with many critics of the president claiming he is using the situation to advance his plans for a wall along the US-Mexico border.

However, Trump, 72, has repeatedly blamed the situation on the Democrat Party. He 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. Democrats are good at only three things, High, High Crime and Obstruction. Sad!”

The issue was also featured on the front page of the New York Daily News alongside a harrowing photograph of a young toddler crying hysterically after being separated from her mother at the US-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas.