President Trump blamed Democrats on Tuesday for border apprehension policies that have broken up families.
The Republican president who has aggressively pursued stricter immigration policies and security reforms designed to tamp down illicit border crossings claimed rules changes that would help families are being blocked by the opposing party.
‘Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed by the Democrats,’ he tweeted. ‘Border Security laws should be changed but the Dems can’t get their act together! Started the Wall.’
Democrats and Republicans have been unable to come to an agreement on an overhaul of the immigration system that Trump can stomach. Attempts on two occasions over the last year to force reforms have failed, and a third push now is off to a sputtering start.
President Trump blamed Democrats on Tuesday for border apprehension policies that have broken up families
Members of the president’s own party were struggling this week to come up with enough votes in the House of Representatives to allow for a free-flowing discussion on the topic.
After Trump’s Tuesday morning tweet, Democratic Rep. Joe Crowley shot back that it was the ‘Trump administration’s inhumane policies’ that caused thousands of children to be ‘ripped from their mothers’ arms.’
‘Outrage is not enough – we must dismantle @realDonaldTrump’s deportation machine,’ Crowley tweeted.
Another Democratic congressman, Gerry Connelly, said he intends to fight back with an amendment that would prohibit family separations. ‘We must stop this cruel practice,’ he stated.
President Donald Trump last week accused Democrats of trying to make him ‘look bad’ when they tweeted a photo of immigrant children in cages that turned out to be from 2014 – when Barack Obama was president.
‘They thought it was recent pictures in order to make us look bad, but backfires,’ the president charged in a tweet Tuesday morning.
The picture, published by the Arizona Republic, shows two children lying on green mats behind a chain-link fence.
President Trump criticized Democrats for tweeting this photo over the weekend, accusing them of trying to make him ‘look bad’ on immigration. The picture was taken in 2014, when Barack Obama was president.
President Trump slammed Democrats on immigration in an early morning tweet Tuesday but White House counselor Kellyanne Conway would not answer the DailyMail.com’s question on whether the president was trying to restart DACA talks.
The picture circulated on social media this weekend and was tweeted by former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau and other liberal activists.
Several people deleted their tweets when the photo was revealed to be four years old.
Democrats have been outraged since a new policy was announced by the administration earlier this month that separates parents and children who enter the U.S. illegally.
Over the weekend, Trump blamed Democrats for the origins of that policy, asking them to change a ‘horrible law’ he claimed required children to be separated from parents who enter the country illegally. There is no law specifically requiring that action by the government.
Favreau defended the Obama administration, saying children were held because they were unaccompanied minors who tried to cross the border illegally.
He tweeted: ‘These awful pictures are from 2014, when the government’s challenge was reconnecting unaccompanied minors who showed up at the border with family or a safe sponsor.’
Trump supports compromise legislation that include a pathway for citizenship for the so-called ‘Dreamers,’ children brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents. However, he also wants any proposal to include funding for his border wall, which experts say could cost up to $25 billion. Democrats oppose the building of the wall.
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway did not answer a question from the DailyMail.com Tuesday morning when asked if the president’s tweet was his way of making a new push for a DACA deal.
Conway did follow Trump’s line of attack and asked a CNN reporter, who was also asking questions on immigration: ‘why did a CNN reporter retweet that false fake tweet about the migrant children being in cages?’
CNN reporter Hadas Gold posted and then deleted the photo. She later wrote on Twitter: ‘Deleted previous tweet because gave impression of recent photos (they’re from 2014).’
Conway asked if the tweet was deleted ‘because it didn’t fit the narrative.’
Democrats are outraged over a Trump administration policy that would separate children from their parents when they come into the U.S. illegally.
The president was reportedly furious when the number of illegal border crossings doubled in April when compared to the same month in the previous year.
The president was reportedly furious when the number of illegal border crossings doubled in April when compared to the same month in the previous year.
He was said to give Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen a 30-minute tongue lashing when the numbers were reported. Nielsen was reportedly considering resignation after the verbal whipping from the president, which she later denied was the case.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions warned earlier this month that parents who cross the border illegally with their children will have them taken away.
‘If you cross the border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you — it’s that simple. If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, we will prosecute you,’ he said during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The administration is working with Southern states to dispatch more National Guard troops along the border and is also looking at housing children separated from their parents in military bases.
Additionally, Nielsen has ordered federal prosecution against any person caught crossing the border illegally.
Between May 6 and May 19, 638 adults were referred for prosecution for illegally crossing the border. They brought with them a total of 658 children, all of whom were separated from those adults.
Nielsen defended the Trump administration’s practice of separating children and parents when the family is being prosecuted for entering the U.S. illegally.
She told a Senate committee earlier in May that removing children from parents facing criminal charges happens ‘in the United States every day.’
If a person crosses the border illegally, she said: ‘We will refer you for prosecution. You’ve broken U.S. law.’
A conviction for illegal entry carries a maximum penalty of six months in custody for first-time crossers – though they usually do far less time – and two years for repeat offenses.
During a surge in children from Central America in 2014, under the Obama presidency, Health and Human Services temporarily used military bases in California, Oklahoma and Texas to house the kids.
Nearly 1 in 4 Border Patrol arrests on the Mexican border from October through April was someone who came in a family. That means any large increase in prosecutions will likely cause parents to be separated from their children while they face charges and do time in jail.