Leading Republicans join Democrats in pushing Trump to halt family separations - Polidicks

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/us/politics/melania-trump-family-separation.html WASHINGTON — Leading figures of both parties demanded on Sunday that President Trump halt his administration’s practice of separating children from their parents when apprehended at the border, as the issue further polarized the already divisive immigration debate in Washington. The administration argued that it was just enforcing the law, a false assertion that Mr. Trump has made repeatedly. The issue took on special resonance on Father’s Day as Democratic lawmakers visited detention facilities in Texas and New Jersey to protest the separations and the House prepared to take up immigration legislation this week. Pictures of children warehoused without their parents in facilities, including a converted Walmart store, have inflamed passions and put the administration on the defensive. But Melania Trump weighed in, saying she “hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together.” Mrs. Trump “believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with a heart,” the first lady’s office said in a statement. By laying responsibility for the situation on “both sides,” Mrs. Trump effectively echoed her husband’s assertion that it was the result of a law written by Democrats. Mrs. Bush, the last Republican first lady, spoke out forcefully against the practice on Sunday in a rare foray into domestic politics, comparing it to the internment of Japanese- Americans during World War II. “I live in a border state,” she wrote in a guest column in The Washington Post. “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.” She attributed the situation entirely to the administration. “The reason for these separations is a zero tolerance policy for their parents, who are accused of illegally crossing our borders,” she wrote. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, deplored separations on Sunday, except in cases where there is evidence of abuse or another good reason. “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 on “Face the Nation” on CBS. But Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, rejected responsibility for the separations in a series of tweets on Sunday. “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border,” she wrote. “Period.” She distinguished between asylum seekers who try to enter the country at designated points of entry and those who arrive at other parts of the border. Mr. Trump has confused his allies in the House with conflicting signals about his preferences. At one point on Friday, he said he would not sign the “moderate” bill embraced by the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, only to have the White House later contradict that by saying the president had been confused. Some Republican lawmakers in recent days have pushed Mr. Trump to reverse or modify the family separation policy by giving new instructions to the Department of Homeland Security. “President Trump could stop this policy with a phone call,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and often an ally and golfing partner of the president’s, said on CNN on Friday. “I’ll go tell him. If you don’t like families’ being separated, you can tell D.H.S. stop doing it.” 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. “As a mother, as a Catholic, as somebody who has got a conscience, and wouldn’t say the junk that somebody said, apparently, allegedly, I will tell you that nobody likes this policy,” Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, said on “Meet the Press” on NBC. “You saw the president on camera that he wants this to end, but everybody has, Congress has to act.” The full article's pretty large. In totally unrelated news, dems got a bump in poll aggregates recently.

Will this be the thing that finally unites Democrats and Republicans together and helps them realize they need to fucking work together instead of constantly blaming each other? Probably not. But it's a good start.

I'll be waiting for them to support legislation against it. Otherwise...

Can't go against overboss Trump. If you do even, if you're in the reddest state in the union, you'll get primaried out by a rabid Trumpster.

We really need the oath of office to specifically mention "even if they are within my own party" when it mentions 'enemies foreign or domestic'. A clause like that would be a dealbreaker for most Republicans, glad to see it's not the case for all though.

they control the legislative branch, why don't they i don't know create a law or impeach him?

Because of the false narrative that Democrats are the ones blocking them from creating a law. Also they see nothing to impeach him over; everything he does is just 'a misunderstanding' or 'it's great unless you listen to the fake news liberal media'.

because if they did they would lose their office or end up shot republicans will not tolerate anything but absolute loyalty to their child emperor

Yeah I was gonna' say this thread title sounds like "Leading Republicans stick their neck out to get primaried by the shambling frankestein's monster of a party they've created."

still at ZERO republicans supporting legistlation Contacting Congress if you're so inclined.

No. But we did find the moral compass, though! Apparently child concentration camps are the line. But anything under that is fine

More of a 'Enemy of my Enemy' thing going on. Career politicians, especially in tourism-dependent states, are gonna be leaning hard on Trump because this policy is already hurting intl tourism.

While we know this is wrong, I do want to know what the solutions are and how we can help fix this problem.

I doubt anything is going to happen. Especially not since the majority of Republicans approve of the policy.

I guess the majority of Republicans are sick fucks.

As of 2017 the GOP has 32.8 million members, the poll says around 58% of GOP members support the separation of immigrant families. So around 19 million Republicans approve of it. Apparently there are around 28 million independents as well (data from 2016), and around 26% of them support it, so that's around 7.3 million independents. So 26.3 million people in the US support it.

Legal action is underway as we speak, in addition to the legislative action being undertaken in Cognress. The Stop Family Separation Act has unanimous support from the entirety of the Democratic caucus. Not a single Republican thus far. Beyond that, this brutality could be stopped in an instant. Donald Trump could stop it right now just by picking up a pen and signing an executive order. It's an executive policy, not a law, meaning that he can terminate it at his leisure.

Found some stuff on how people can help fight against this. Pass it along. How you can fight family separation at the border.

OOOOH THANK YOOOU

Those second amendment people should really do something soon.

Most of the responsible second amendment people exercise proper trigger discipline and do not place a finger on the trigger until they intend to kill. We are not at the stage where we must rise up in armed rebellion - this can still be solved through politics, peaceful public pressure, and shining a light into these facilities where no cameras are allowed.