Melania Trump calls for end to migrant family separations

WASHINGTON: Former first lady Laura Bush and the First Lady Melania Trump made a rare political plea to end the deeply controversial practice of separation of migrant children from their parents at the US border, as the “zero-tolerance” border security policy implemented by President Donald Trump´s administration has sparked outrage on both sides of the political aisle.

Melania, who does not often wade into the political arena, did not denounce Trump’s administration´s policy, but instead called for bipartisan immigration reform to fix the issue. “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,” her spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham told CNN. “She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”

Laura Bush, wife of former president George Bush, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post that was published online Sunday night. Bush wrote, “I live in a border state. 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, whose husband was once governor of Texas where child detention centers are being established, went on to write, “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. 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 U.S. 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.”

Trump has said he wants the separations to end, but continues to blame opposition Democrats for the crisis, which critics say is one of his own making. Immigration is one of the most divisive, hot-button crises plaguing the Trump administration.

During one recent six-week period, the government said nearly 2,000 minors were separated from their parents or adult guardians — a figure that only stoked the firestorm.The number of separations has jumped since early May, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that all migrants illegally crossing the US border with Mexico would be arrested, regardless of whether the adults were seeking asylum.

Since children cannot be sent to the facilities where their parents are held, they are separated.Amid deep divisions, congressional Republicans have struggled to craft a viable immigration plan.

The Republican-led House of Representatives may vote this week on two immigration measures — a hardline bill and a compromise measure that would limit legal immigration while also ending family separations.