President Donald Trump addressed the family separation crisis before taking off to Belgium Tuesday morning.
When asked about the government’s missed deadline to reunite children under the age of five with their families, Trump talked about how it’s the fault of immigrants who choose to come to the country in the first place.
He did not voice any concern for the crisis his administration has created with its “zero-tolerance” policy. President Trump did, however, sympathize with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who manage detention centers and deport individuals.
“There is nobody under greater danger than the people from ICE,” Trump told the press.
Via pool, Trump on missed deadline to reunite separated parents and kids: pic.twitter.com/nirJa1buNp
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) July 10, 2018
In June President Trump signed an executive order specifically halting his own policy of separating families at the border.
“We want to keep families together, but we want to be strong on the border. Otherwise, you’ll have millions of people coming up — not thousands, but millions — overtaking the country and we’re not letting that happen,” he said then. “So we have to be very strong on the border. But at the same time, we want to be very compassionate.”
The executive order, however, simply traded family separation for indefinite family detention, which a judge ruled was illegal on Monday night. The order also did nothing to fix the damage caused by months of the policy being in place.
Roughly 3,000 children have been separated from their families at the border, and the process to reunite these children with their families has been nothing short of chaotic. Just last week, the government admitted last week it didn’t know how many children it separated from their parents.
On Monday, the administration conceded they will not meet a court-imposed Tuesday deadline to reunify roughly 100 children under five with their parents. An attorney for the Department of Justice (DOJ) said they government had only reunited two children under the age of 5 with their parents so far.
Figures provided by DOJ in court on reunification of kids under age 5: pic.twitter.com/MSH0y0R6fQ
— Elise Foley (@elisefoley) July 9, 2018
The government was supposed to reunite at least 84 families tomorrow, but due to some families being deported already or having a criminal history, the number is closer to 54.