Trump repeats assertion that democrats are to blame for separating children at border

“We want a safe country, and it starts with the borders, and that’s the way it is.”

For several days, senior members of the administration, some declining to speak on the record, have used blame as a roundabout defense tactic for a policy that has seen nearly 2,000 children taken away from their parents in a six-week period and drawn condemnation from a chorus of Republican and Democratic critics.

Those critics have included a group of Democratic lawmakers, President Bill Clinton and Laura Bush, the last Republican first lady. The current first lady, Melania Trump, also weighed in, calling for “a country that governs with a heart.”

In a series of tweets and speeches Monday, Donald Trump instead relied on fear to curry support for a “zero tolerance” policy that refers for criminal prosecution all immigrants apprehended crossing the border without authorization. The president used the threat of gang violence and other crime, and a change in the fabric of American culture as a means to stoke support among supporters and push Congress into figuring out a way to drum up funding for his long-promised border wall.

“Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country,” he wrote. “Has anyone been looking at the Crime taking place south of the border. It is historic, with some countries the most dangerous places in the world. Not going to happen in the U.S.”

Trump repeated his running blame of Democratic policies — “CHANGE THE LAWS!” — despite the fact that no law requires families to necessarily be separated at the border.

Across the country, senior administration members echoed his message, equating a rise in border crossings with a rise in crime and suggesting that the people who were separated at the border were not families at all.

In a speech at a law enforcement conference in New Orleans on Monday, Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of homeland security, piggybacked on the president’s claim, and said that between October and February, there was a 315 percent increase in the number of unauthorized immigrants “fraudulently” using “unaccompanied alien children” to pose as a family unit in order to enter the United States.

“This must stop,” she said. “All this does is put the children at risk.”

The large percentage that Nielsen cited refers to a sliver of overall data: During that time frame, there were 191 cases of fraudulent family claims reported, up from 46 cases for all of 2017, when more than 303,000 crossing attempts were recorded. Still, Nielsen, who on Sunday said that the administration did not actually have a policy of separating families, held firm.

“We do not have the luxury of pretending that all individuals coming to this country as a family unit are in fact a family,” Nielsen said. “This administration has a simple message: If you cross the border illegally, we will prosecute you.”

At the same conference, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of the policy’s most vocal defenders, said that Americans would have to decide whether to be a “country of laws, or whether we want to be a country without borders.” He said that families had for too long taken advantage of lax immigration laws to gain entry to the United States.

“Why wouldn’t you bring children with you,” Sessions said, “if you know you’ll be released and not prosecuted?”

In another tweet, Trump looked to Germany, one of the United States’ closest allies, to warn the public about what might happen if the policy was relaxed. The president falsely claimed that crime in Germany is on the rise, and railed against immigration policies in Europe.

“The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition,” Trump wrote. “Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!”

Germany’s government is on precarious political footing as disputes grow about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-door refugee policy for those seeking asylum.

While Trump’s assessment of Germany’s crime problems is not accurate — crime in the country is the lowest since 1992, according to the most recent German data available — the brutal murder of a 14-year-old German girl has fueled Merkel’s opponents who are against the country’s migration policies that provide entry to some 10,000 asylum-seekers each month.

Over the weekend, Trump spoke with Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister who is known for his anti-immigration rhetoric. Both men agreed that strong borders are needed, according to the White House.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Trump repeats assertion that democrats are to blame for separating children at border

“They could be murderers and thieves and so much else,” Trump said of the people crossing the border, as he delivered somewhat incongruous remarks during a meeting of the National Space Council on Monday.

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