Former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton slammed the Trump administration on Monday for enforcing an immigration law that doesn’t permit the government to hold illegal immigrant children together with adults who bring them across the border.
‘Every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged,’ Clinton said an awards luncheon for the Women’s Forum of New York, calling the White House’s explanation ‘an absolute lie.’
She cited the most emotion-laden of recent broadcasts and online reports, saying that ‘what’s happening to families at the border is horrific.’
Clinton appeared to have left behind an orthopedic device she began wearing last month – something described by observers as a back brace.
She has been photographed wearing heavy coats and scarves over the device, even in 80-degree heat.
Hillary Clinton said Monday that the White House is lying about a requirement to separate children from illegal immigrant adults who sneak across the U.S. border
The former Democratic presidential nominee appeared to have ditched a back brace she has been pohtographed wearing under heavy clothes since at least six weeks ago
There was no sign of a back brace on Monday. Clinton hasn’t said publicly whether she has been suffering from an injury.
But she had plenty to say about the Trump administration’s interpretation of immigration law, which the White House is hoping will spur Congress to change it for good.
‘Nursing infants being ripped away from their mothers. Parents being told their toddlers are being taken to bathe or play, only to realize hours later they aren’t coming back. Children incarcerated in warehouses and, according to one account, kept in cages!’ Clinton said.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy in May, directing that illegal immigrants apprehended near the border must be criminally charged, which generally leads to children being separated from their parents and housed separately.
That directive includes people who claim asylum after jumping the border instead of making their request at a regular point of entry.
The Trump administration is taking a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to enforcing federal laws that forbid keeping children in the same immigration detention facilities as adults
The result has been facilities like this, where children can be kept for as long as 20 days before being sent to live with legal-resident sponsors or foster parents while the adults who brought them into the U.S. await prosecution
The policy has drawn condemnation from immigration activists and Democratic lawmakers.
The children are held in Department of Health and Human Services facilities for amaximum of 20 days before being released to adult sponsors or placed in temporary foster care.
The White House is calling on Congress to change the laws that it says have forced its hand.
Clinton was seen wearing a wool coat and scarf indoors on May 7 at an event in New Zealand, hiding what some have speculated was a ‘back brace’
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters Monday afternoon that ‘we’re not the ones responsible for creating this problem. We’ve inherited it. But we’re actually the first administration stepping up and trying to change it.’
But Clinton insisted that ‘separating families is not mandated by law at all. That is an outright lie. And it’s incumbent on all of us, journalists and citizens alike, to call it just that.’
‘We are a better country than one that tears families apart, turns a blind eye to women fleeing domestic violence, and treats frightened children as a negotiating tool as a means to a political end,’ she said.
‘These actions are an affront to our values, and they undermine America’s reputation as a beacon of hope and freedom in the world.’