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Immigration Corner | Immigration policy 'cruel', says Laura Bush

Published:Monday | June 18, 2018 | 12:00 AM
AP
In this June 15, 2018 file photo, Chris Olson of Lake Wallenpaupack, Pa, holds a sign outside Lackawanna College where US Attorney Jeff Sessions spoke on immigration policy and law enforcement actions, in Scranton, Pa. The Trump administration's move to separate immigrant parents from their children on the US-Mexico border has turned into a full-blown crisis in recent weeks, drawing denunciation from the United Nations, Roman Catholic bishops and countless humanitarian groups.

WASHINGTON (AP):

Former first Lady Laura Bush says the policy of separating immigrant parents and children along the nation's southern border is "cruel", ''immoral" and " breaks (her) heart".

Bush was writing a guest column for The Washington Post Sunday and compared the policy to the internment of Japanese- Americans during World War II.

"I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel," she wrote.

She said the US government "should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso".

She added that it was "eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II", which she said are "now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in US history".

 

Melania wades in

 

First Lady Melania Trump is wading into the emotional controversy over policies enacted by her husband's administration that have increased the number of migrant children being separated from their parents.

Mrs Trump's spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said the first lady believes "we need to be a country that follows all laws", but also one "that governs with heart".

She said that Mrs Trump "hates to see children separated from their families" and hopes "both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform".

Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their families over a six-week period in April and May after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new "zero-tolerance" policy that refers all cases of illegal entry for criminal prosecution.

Trump has tried to blame the practise on a law passed by Democrats that doesn't exist.