Trump: ‘Consequences’ For People Who Cross Border Illegally, Including Families

on July 26, 2018 in Washington, DC.
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 26: Protesters and their children participate in a march prior to a sit-in in the Hart Senate Office Building to mark the court-ordered deadline for the Trump Administration to reunify thousand... WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 26: Protesters and their children participate in a march prior to a sit-in in the Hart Senate Office Building to mark the court-ordered deadline for the Trump Administration to reunify thousands of families separated at the border July 26, 2018 in Washington, DC. Members of the The groups protesting, the Families Belong Together Coalition and the National Domestic Workers Alliance and children and families, protested Òto demand an immediate reunification of all families and an end to family detention.Ó (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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As hundreds of families continue to remain apart due to the Trump administration’s family separation policy, the President was unapologetic Sunday, saying “there are consequences” for people who cross the border illegally, “whether they have children or not.”

The government has failed to reunite hundreds of asylum-seeking and migrant families who were separated at the border as a result of the Trump administration’s family separation policy, with Justice Department lawyers arguing in court that many are ineligible to ever be reunited with their children on U.S. soil.

Seeking asylum, even while crossing the border illegally between ports of entry, is not illegal. And border officers, advocates say, have often refused asylum-seekers at ports of entry. 

Hundreds of parents have been deported without their children, many seemingly without fully understanding what was happening.

“The government is at fault for losing several hundred parents in the process and that’s where we go next,” U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said this week.

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee separately appointed an independent monitor to force the Trump administration to comply with safety standards for children held in detention.

Trump added Sunday that he would be willing to shut down the government if Democrats in Congress didn’t offer “votes for Border Security,” which he defined as more funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border (for which the White House has long stopped asserting the Mexican government will pay), the elimination of the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, and other items.

 

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