Hours after signing his divisive executive order to prevent the separation of immigrant families at the U.S. border, President Donald Trump made a public appearance in Minnesota and defended his decision.
He highlighted that, despite having intentions of keeping families together, he is still looking to push forward border security. While his supporters cheered for his measures, several of them surprisingly stated that they would prefer for the measure to have stayed the same. Many of them echoed the previous arguments given by the Trump administration to defend the legislation, such as saying that the children’s parents were the ones who endangered them by bringing them to the country illegally and that it is the U.S.’ duty to enforce the law.
The event was part of his re-election campaign, and he also addressed the rise in employment, negotiations with North Korea and tax reforms as accomplishments of his administration. He even mentioned the fact that he lost the last election in Minnesota, and that he planned to increase voters for the next election. He said: “We came this close to winning the state of Minnesota and in two and half years it’s going to be really easy, I think. I needed one more visit, one more speech. That’s why — never give up, never, ever give up.” This might not be as easy as Trump sets it out to be, as the state has historically been dominated by Democrats. Trump didn’t go through the rally without his usual mention to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, stating that “A vote for a Democrat in Congress is really a vote for [her].”
Minnesota also features four of the most competitive House districts in the U.S. Democrats are hoping that suburban districts will show their dissatisfaction with the current administration in both the coming elections in November and the ones in 2020.
The latest decision has been quite controversial, as the order says nothing about the children who have already been separated and tries to solve the previous problem by detaining entire families in facilities. This executive order comes after several days filled with criticism towards the Trump administration, which was not eased by its officials during press briefings. The controversy only increased after video and audio recordings of undocumented children surfaced online. The heartbreaking videos showed children being held in cages during the first days of the separation, and the audio featured children crying and calling out for their parents.
Prior to Wednesday’s executive order, The White House defended their policies by claiming that they were merely following existing immigration laws, and blamed the children’s parents for ‘endangering’ them by bringing them to the country ‘illegally.’ They also stated falsely that the measure was set by the previous administration and that only Congress could act against it and stop it. Tensions reached a high point on Tuesday during a press briefing with National Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen. Nielsen echoed the claims previously made by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Press Secretary Sarah Sanders and even stated that the administration would not apologize for their policies.
His officials’ incompetence to help their arguments reportedly angered President Trump, who chose to take the issue himself and called for a press briefing. While Trump still blamed the Democrats for his own administration’s policies, he attempted to humanize his administration by stating his concern regarding the subject.
When it comes to how the President will proceed in the near future, it is still unclear if he will both keep undocumented families together and treat undocumented children humanely while they remain in government custody. Barack Obama faced this same issue during his presidency, and the executive order that Obama signed to solve the problem was heavily criticized by Trump during his 2016 campaign.
These aides have also stated that Trump’s executive order is intended to pressure Democrats to move forward with either Paul Ryan or Ted Cruz’s GOP-backed immigration bills.
