Trump shifts blame for migrant family separation to Bush, Obama
US President Donald Trump has sought to blame his predecessors George W. Bush and Barack Obama for his policy of separating immigrant children from their parents along the border with Mexico.
“Everybody sees but this is the same sight that Obama had, that Bush had: same sight,” Trump told a state Republican convention in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday.
“It’s the same thing. In fact they said, ‘Look at this sight, look at President Trump, look at this picture.’ Excuse me, it was 2014 and it was President Obama. OK?”
Trump also said that the issue of illegal immigration “is a problem that should have been solved years ago,” accusing the Democrats of being “obstructionists.”
“We’re working very hard. The fact is we need more Republicans because the Democrats are obstructionists. They won’t vote.”
His remarks came a few days after he signed an executive order halting family separations after he had come under immense pressure both at home and abroad.
Trump also criticized a plan by the Senate to employ more judges to deal with immigration cases, saying he wanted more border patrol agents instead.
“We will have millions and millions of people pouring through our country with all of the problems that would cause with crime and schools … If they see any weakness, they will come by the millions.”
In May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a "zero tolerance" policy towards undocumented migrants and refugees, promising to prosecute those who crossed the southern border illegally. Part of that approach has been separating children from their parents who are detained.
Heartbreaking images and audio of children separated from their parents and crying for their loved ones while being held in chain-link fence cages have stoked outrage across the political spectrum in the United States and abroad.
Currently, there are over 10,000 children being detained in the United States.
Thousands of people have been protesting in several US cities and activists are planning nationwide protests on June 30 following reports on the inhumane treatment of immigrants.
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