President Trump on Tuesday restated his support for his administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the U.S. border, calling Democrats “the problem.”
“We must always arrest people coming into our Country illegally. Of the 12,000 children, 10,000 are being sent by their parents on a very dangerous trip, and only 2000 are with their parents, many of whom have tried to enter our Country illegally on numerous occasions,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!” he continued in another tweet.
Trump’s comments were part of a longer series of tweets on immigration in general, which touched upon Germany’s immigration problems.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the “zero tolerance” policy earlier this year, saying the Department of Justice would criminally prosecute all adults attempting to illegally cross the southern border into the U.S. As a result, families who crossed together would in some cases be separated, he said.
The policy, according to The Associated Press, has resulted in 2,000 migrant children being separated from their parents.
Members of Congress have introduced legislation to end the practice of separating families, but continue to urge Trump to unilaterally stop the separations.
Trump has maintained, however, that Democrats are to blame for the separation, and has defended his immigration policies.
Media figures, authors, comedians and Democratic lawmakers condemned Trump’s language on Tuesday, saying that to compare migrant children with gang members and use the word “infest” was not appropriate.
Conflating gang members with small children being separated from their parents… https://t.co/lVfAnjuexe