Trump launches new immigration attack on Democrats as separation crisis mounts – claiming they 'want open borders which means crime'

  • President Trump spoke to GOP lawmakers last night in a closed-door session on Capitol Hill 
  • He's refusing to back down from his immigration agenda and continues to say that Democrats must embrace his agenda
  • Claimed Wednesday that they want 'open borders which means crime' in his latest assault 

President Trump ratcheted up his attacks Wednesday on Democrats opposing his immigration agenda as the opposing party pummeled his administration as cruel and inhumane for splitting families up at the border.

Trump said in a tweet that Democrats 'want open borders which means crime' as he saddled them with the burden of changing America's immigration laws, which he said are the 'weakest and worst anywhere in the world.'

He said in another that he is 'working on something' pertaining to immigration without saying what it is.

The president signaled this morning that he would not back down from his administration's position on family separation, putting lawmakers in the hot seat to make changes to the legal system in order to address the crisis. 

President Trump says he wants to cut off aid to Central American countries that he claimed Tuesday are sending migrants to the U.S.

President Trump ratcheted up his attacks Wednesday on Democrats opposing his immigration agenda as they continued to pummel him as cruel and inhumane for splitting families up at the border.

 

 

Immigration reform legislation was no closer on Wednesday to gaining majority support in the House, however, even after a closed-door session between Republicans and the president.

GOP leaders were looking at two pieces of legislation that would fund the president's border wall, one of which also takes steps to end family separation for Central American migrants.

Conservative lawmakers were also crafting a 'back-up' bill that they hoped to sub in if the other two fail. Their bill sets aside most of Trump's other immigration priorities and deals solely with the detention of children coming across the border in family units.

Trump said in a speech Tuesday that he supports a 'third option' and even claimed credit for it.

In morning tweets in which Trump insisted that Democrats are to blame for family separation because they will not bend to his will, he alluded to the measure again as he said he was 'working on something' that he suggested would change the conversation.

'It’s the Democrats fault, they won’t give us the votes needed to pass good immigration legislation,' he said. 'They want open borders, which breeds horrible crime. Republicans want security. But I am working on something - it never ends!'

Coming out of the meeting with GOP lawmakers, the White House said that Trump was '100 percent' behind the two bills House leadership plans to bring up for a vote.

Trump reportedly did not talk to lawmakers at all about family separation. 

Immigration reform legislation was no closer on Wednesday to gaining majority support in the House, however, even after a closed-door session between Republicans and the president

Immigration reform legislation was no closer on Wednesday to gaining majority support in the House, however, even after a closed-door session between Republicans and the president

At a news conference on Wednesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to entertain questions about stand-alone bills that narrowly deal with the issue of young children being detained in cages and tents while their parents await prosecution for the crime of unlawfully entering the country.

'We're trying to pass this legislation right now. This is very good compromise legislation,' Ryan told reporters.

It solves the border crisis, he claimed, and stabilizes the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, better known as DACA.

'And then when other situations arise, whatever the circumstances are, we'll cross this bridge when it comes to it,' he asserted.

Ryan rejected Democrats' allegations that the GOP is using the immigrant children as bargaining chips to get more of the president's immigration priorities passed.

'That's a ridiculous assertion,' Ryan said as he stormed out, having already deemed it the last question.  

Democrats have pummeled the GOP for coupling family separation - a policy introduced in April by the Trump administration - with comprehensive immigration reform.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said in a Tuesday email to members, 'There is no universe in which forcibly separating now thousands of young children from their parents is acceptable. The practice is an abomination. It’s not part of any solution to fix our immigration system.'

Van Hollen said he spent his Father’s Day visiting immigrant detention centers on the border and 'there is no doubt that the Trump administration’s family separation policy is cruel and inhumane.'

'In McAllen, Texas, I saw a facility people called “the dog kennel” which housed children separated from their mothers and fathers lumped into holding pens made of chain-link fence. It was a disturbing and shameful scene that should have no place in America,' the Maryland Democrat wrote.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi similarly wrote in an email on behalf of the lower chamber's campaign arm: 'I have never been more horrified by this President. His choice to separate immigrant children from their mothers at our border is heartless. It’s cruel. It’s immoral. And -- it’s all for political leverage.'

House Homeland Security Chairman Mike McCaul, a Texas Republican, admitted to Fox News on Tuesday after the meeting with the president that family separation was a policy of this president. 

'The parents are now being prosecuted but we would like to see the family stay together and not separated,'he said. 'But I think most importantly from my position as the chairman of homeland security is to have a border security bill passed.'

Unless Congress acts, he said, smugglers and traffickers will continue to sell entry to the United States for for $6,000 a person.

'We will never stop this problem until we dry up the deterrent issue and the legal loopholes that existed currently,' he stated. 

President Trump suggested Tuesday that he could cut down on unlawful migration by ending aid to the Central American countries that he claimed are 'sending'migrants to the U.S. 

Trump said he'd be asking for authorization to end assistance to the region that includes Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

'We're not going to give any more aid to those countries,' he asserted during a Washington, D.C. speech to the National Federation of Independent Business. 'Why the hell should we?'   

The president told attendees of the conference, 'I don't want children taken away from parents. And when you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away.'

'Now, we don't have to prosecute them. But then we're not prosecuting them for coming in illegally. That's not good,' he added.

The president said then that he'd be championing legislation to make sure that families that are flooding the border from Central America are not being separated as he lit into lawyers for migrants and judges he claimed are abusing the system.

'We want a great country. We want a country with heart,' Trump said. 'But when people come up, they have to know they're not going to get in. Otherwise it will never stop.' 

The president said he doesn't like that children are being separated from their legal guardians- even though it's a policy that was implemented by his administration.

'We can't let people pour in. They've gotta go through the process,' he stated. 'And maybe it's politically correct or maybe it's not - we've gotta stop separation of the families.'

Standing his ground, Trump said, 'But politically correct or not, we have to be a country that needs security, that needs safety, that has to be protected.' 

'And remember, these countries that we give tremendous foreign aid to in many cases, they send these people up, and they're not sending their finest,' he claimed.  'Does that sound familiar? Remember, I made that speech and I was badly criticized....Turned out I was 100 percent right. That's why I got elected.' 

Trump was referring to his 2015 announcement that he would be seeking the Oval Office. In the speech he referred to illegal immigrants as rapists and criminals.

Revisiting the charge on Tuesday, Trump said that many immigrants who come to the U.S. illegally will never appear at their court dates. 'If they're good, that's great. And if they're bad, you'll have killings, you'll have murders, you'll have this, you'll have that, you'll have crime.'

The president rejected Democratic demands that the country hire more judges to adjudicate the cases of legitimate asylum seekers faster as part of the solution.

'I don't want to try people. I don't want people coming in,' he asserted. 

Trump said the ease of entry has led to a 1,700 percent increase in asylum claims. 

'They game the system. They game it. It's so easy for them. They're smart. They didn't go to the Wharton School of Finance,' he said, name-checking his alma mater, 'but you know what. They're really smart.' 

Trump pounded Democrats for refusing to back his immigration agenda, which he said earlier in the day was allowing violent criminals 'to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13,' a violent illegal immigrant gang.   

'They don't want to give it, because Democrats love open borders. Let the whole world come in. Let the whole world. MS-13 gang members from all over the place, come on in -- we have open borders,' he said.

'And they view that possibly intelligently, except that it's destroying our country. They view that as potential voters. Someday they're going to vote for Democrats. Because they can't win on their policies, which are horrible. They found that out in the last presidential election.'  

Immigrant children are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas

Immigrant children are led by staff in single file between tents at a detention facility next to the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas

A view from Mexico of the US Customs and Boarder Protection is housing underage people caught illegally entering the United States at the Tornillo Port of Entry in Guadalupe Bravos

A view from Mexico of the US Customs and Boarder Protection is housing underage people caught illegally entering the United States at the Tornillo Port of Entry in Guadalupe Bravos

US Border Patrol agents patrol the bed of the Rio Grand in front of where the US Customs and Boarder Protection is housing underage people

US Border Patrol agents patrol the bed of the Rio Grand in front of where the US Customs and Boarder Protection is housing underage people

Locals walk along the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana

Locals walk along the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana

A remark on Tuesday about crime-committing illegals that 'infest' the U.S. immediately stoked controversy, with the president's detractors saying the blanket description was not only wrong but inhumane. 

Another incident earlier this year caused outrage when the president called gangster immigrants 'animals' in another statement his critics cast as incendiary. 

Monday in unscripted remarks Trump said that he's implementing strict immigration policies because he doesn't want the United States to end up like Europe.

'The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. Won't be,' he charged in fiery remarks at a White House event.

'You look at what's happening in Europe. You look at what's happening in other places. We can't allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch.'  

The White House has spent the past week fighting with Democrats accusing theTrump administration of exploiting migrant families instead of taking an expected post-Singapore Kim summit victory lap.

Each side has condemned the other for using children as 'pawns' in a raging illegal immigration debate. 

Trump suggested the United States' could bolster its credentials as leader of the free world by passing merit-based immigration laws that put a premium on high-skilled workers and lock down America's porous borders

Trump suggested the United States' could bolster its credentials as leader of the free world by passing merit-based immigration laws that put a premium on high-skilled workers and lock down America's porous borders

'The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. Won't be,' he charged  later in fiery remarks at a White House event.

'The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. Won't be,' he charged  later in fiery remarks at a White House event.

A rotating cast of Trump administration officials appeared on national news networks to buttress the president's arguments and assail Democrats using family separation as a cudgel against the Republicans' in their war over illegal immigration.

Hogan Gidley, a deputy spokesman for the president, appeared on Fox News and asserted that Democrats are 'playing politics with people's lives. They're doing it on the backs of children. It's absolutely grotesque.' 

'All they want to do is go down and grandstand and try to use this to political gain to try and get reelected in a few years, and it's grotesque,' he told reporters as he walked back inside the White House to his office. 'We can fix it right now, we can protect our citizens, but more important protect all the children around the world who are trying to come here.' 

The Trump spokesman claimed that migrant families 'separate themselves a lot of times,' sending their children with coyotes promising to bring them across the border for a hefty price.

'It's a deplorable situation, we've gotta fix it. And Congress could do it tomorrow, if you close the loopholes, the situation's solved,' Gidley stated. 

The president's pitch: ''This could really be something very special. It could be something. Maybe even for the world to watch. Just like they're watching our great economy, how it's soaring, they could watch this'

The president's pitch: ''This could really be something very special. It could be something. Maybe even for the world to watch. Just like they're watching our great economy, how it's soaring, they could watch this'

A view of inside U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention facility shows detainees inside fenced areas at Rio Grande Valley Centralized Processing Center in Rio Grande City, Texas, U.S., June 17, 2018. Picture taken on June 17, 2018

A view of inside U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) detention facility shows detainees inside fenced areas at Rio Grande Valley Centralized Processing Center in Rio Grande City, Texas, U.S., June 17, 2018. Picture taken on June 17, 2018

Immigrants wait to head to a Catholic Charities relief center after being dropped off at a bus station shortly after release from detention through "catch and release" immigration policy on June 17, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. 
The man said he was separated from his son while in detention. "Catch and release" is a protocol under which people detained by US authorities as unlawful immigrants can be released while they wait for a hearing

Immigrants wait to head to a Catholic Charities relief center after being dropped off at a bus station shortly after release from detention through "catch and release" immigration policy on June 17, 2018 in McAllen, Texas. The man said he was separated from his son while in detention. "Catch and release" is a protocol under which people detained by US authorities as unlawful immigrants can be released while they wait for a hearing

White House Director of Strategic of Communications Mercede Schlapp said on Fox that Democrats are 'using children as political pawns' and are essentially 'advocating for the smugglers who are bringing these children over' the border.

'We have our hands tied and the smugglers have the advantage,' she said, insisting that MS-13 gang members are bringing over small children as leverage.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen says Democrats bludgeoning the administration for its 'zero tolerance' policy at the border are acting 'cowardly' and could change federal immigration law if they wanted to.

Nielsen stood at the White House podium on Monday and argued that DHS was just doing its job in enforcing a Trump administration policy that has led more than 2,000 children to be separated from their parents or guardians in the last six weeks.

'If an American were to commit a crime anywhere in the United States,' she told a room full of reporters, 'they would go to jail and they would be separated from their family.'

Nielsen said, 'This is not a controversial idea.'

When asked by reporters if the policy amounts to 'child abuse', Nielsen denied the accusation.

'We have high standards. We give them meals and we give them education and we give them medical care. There are videos, there are TVs. I visited the detention centers myself.' 

Immigrants are dropped off at a bus station shortly after being released from detention through "catch and release" immigration policy on June 17, 2018 in McAllen, Texas

Immigrants are dropped off at a bus station shortly after being released from detention through "catch and release" immigration policy on June 17, 2018 in McAllen, Texas

A gate on the US side of the US-Mexican border

A gate on the US side of the US-Mexican border