522 migrant kids REUNITED with families as Trump sows more seeds of confusion on immigration policy

The Department of Homeland Security has returned 552 migrant children to their families, the agency announced late Saturday night, and is establishing a process to ensure that family members know the location of their children.

President Donald Trump, in an attempt to quiet a firestorm that engulfed his administration, signed an executive order on Wednesday that declared children would no longer be separated from their families when captured crossing the border illegally.

But he raised additional questions about his administration’s policy on Sunday when he ramped up the rhetoric surrounding the immigration debate with his call to send illegals back ‘from where they came’ without a legal hearing or due process.

‘We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came,’ he tweeted Sunday morning from his motorcade in route to his golf course in Virginia.

President Trump adds to policy confusion as 522 migrants kids reunited with families. Here the president stands with families who have lost relatives to crimes caused by illegals

Trump tweeted illegal immigrants should be returned without due process

Trump tweeted illegal immigrants should be returned without due process

Confusion over immigration policy comes ahead of a major vote in Congress next week and some charge White House with playing election-year politics

Confusion over immigration policy comes ahead of a major vote in Congress next week and some charge White House with playing election-year politics

‘Our Immigration policy, laughed at all over the world, is very unfair to all of those people who have gone through the system legally and are waiting on line for years! Immigration must be based on merit – we need people who will help to Make America Great Again!,’ he added.

It’s unclear if he plans any policy moves to implement his suggestion or even if he has the authority to do so.

But the announcement about the family reunions comes as questioned lingered about the logistics behind Trump’s executive order and administration staffers scrambled to implement it. 

The order did not speak to any families that have already been separated or address how a reunification process would take place.

There are additional concerns some of the migrant children may be lost in they system as kids have been moved around the U.S. amid a shortage of housing for them.   

‘We know where every single child is,’ Republican Sen. James Lankford said on ‘Meet the Press’ on Sunday. 

‘This is an issue that’s gone out there somewhat in some of the other media that’s not been responsible with this, that with the assumption that the administration lost track of that. So let me clarify a couple things. These are career professionals that work with HHS. And that work with DHS in Customs and Border Patrol and ICE. These are not political appointees. These are career folks. They know where every child is to be able to connect them to their parent or their relative that came.’ 

DHS officials, in the announcement, said they are building out databases to help process the reunions of families faster. 

Sen. Ron Johnson, the Republican chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Commitee, expressed doubt that all the children were accounted for.  

‘That is what they’re claiming,’ he said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ ‘but this is a mess.’

DHS and the Department of Health and Human Services, which has custody of the kids, said late Saturday night officials ‘have a process established to ensure that family members know the location of their children and have regular communication after separation to ensure that those adults who are subject to removal are reunited with their children for the purposes of removal.’

Officials also emphasized ‘the United States government knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families.’ 

In addition to the 522 children already reunited with their families, officials noted more were to come.

Sixteen children had their reunions delayed due to weather affecting travel and officials expect they will all be reunited with their parents within the next 24 hours, officials said.

As of June 20th, HHS has 2,053 separated minors being held in its facilities. Children can talk by telephone or video to a parent or guardian twice a week.

Dozens of women, men and their children, many fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador, arrive at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas

Dozens of women, men and their children, many fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador, arrive at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas

Dozens of women, men and their children, many fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador, arrive at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

Dozens of women, men and their children, many fleeing poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala and El Salvador, arrive at a bus station following release from Customs and Border Protection on June 23, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

There will also be a small number of children who won’t be reunited with their parents due to the fact that a familial relationship cannot be confirmed, out of concern the adult is a threat to the safety of the child, or the adult is a criminal alien.

HHS officials also said that a national call center existed for parents and guardians attempting to locate children in its custody.

The Port Isabel Service Processing Center in San Antonio, Texas, is serving as the main place to bring families back together. 

But the president sowed more seeds of confusion about the nation’s immigration policy with his tweets Sunday morning ahead of a planned vote in the House this week on a comprehensive immigration bill.

The policy debate has become a political albatross for the president, his administration and his party as Republicans work to entangle themselves from the election-year mess.

And while the executive order the president signed on Wednesday reunites children wit their families but it also seeks more authority to detain those families together for a longer period of time – until the end of their immigration proceedings.

Lawsuits are plying up against the administration and some Republicans don’t expect Trump’s executive order to with stand legal challenges.

Republicans in both the House and Senate are working on legislation to solve the problem should the executive order be struck down. But even in Congress a debate is raging over the best path forward. 

President Trump defended his policy at a rally on Nevada on Saturday

President Trump defended his policy at a rally on Nevada on Saturday

'We know where every single child is,' Republican Sen. James Lankford said on 'Meet the Press'

‘We know where every single child is,’ Republican Sen. James Lankford said on ‘Meet the Press’

In the House, a conservative immigration bill failed to get enough votes to proceed on Thursday and a vote was delayed on a compromise measure out of a similar fear by party leaders.

Neither bill has Democratic support, and prospects for the second one passing appeared dim. 

‘I did talk to the White House yesterday. They say the president is still 100 percent behind us,’ Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, a co-sponsor of the bill, said on ‘Fox News Sunday.’ 

At a political rally in Nevada on Saturday, Trump Trump defended his immigration policy, accusing Democrats of backing ‘weak, weak borders,’ saying at one point: ‘I think I got elected largely because we are strong on the border.’ 

Republican Sen. Bob Corker conceded the White House was using the issue to make election-year hay.  

‘The administration obviously made a large mistake, I know that some in the White House want to use the immigration issue as a force to activate the base for elections.,’ he said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation.’ 

‘But obviously the president realized that was a mistake, and now it’s up to us in Congress to work with him to come up with a longer term solution.’ 

And a liberal Democrat accused the president of using the issue to rally the Republican base ahead of the 2018 midterm election.

‘He doesn’t use it as immigration policy, he doesn’t use it as border control policy, he uses it as a issue in order to energize his political base,’ Rep. Luis Gutierrez said on ABC’s ‘This Week.’ 

A large majority of Americans – 72 percent – disapprove of family separation. Republicans, however, are split on that policy, generally half support it, half oppose it. And Republicans do give the president high marks – 81 percent favor – for his handling of the matter, overall, a new CBS News poll found.

One-third of registered voters say the separation policy will be a very important matter in their congressional vote this fall, the poll found. 

Of those who say it will change, more say it will make them vote Democratic than Republican.    

Tom Bossert, who served as the president’s homeland security adviser, said on ABC’s ‘This Week’ that it hasn’t been a great past few days for the White House. 

‘This week has been just gripping imagery and terrible optics for the administration,’ he said.

 



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