After a weekend of public uproar over the conditions at immigration processing centers along the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump started the week with an explosive series of tweets that culminated with his seemingly ordering Congress to “CHANGE THE LAWS!”
CHANGE THE LAWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
Trump started his tweetstorm by blaming Democrats for issues within the immigration system — which has sparked widespread outrage in recent days over a recent uptick in the number of immigrant families being separated at the border — and questioning why Democrats won’t “give us the votes to fix the world’s worst immigration laws?”
He then asked why there hasn’t been more “outcry” over the brutal violence of the MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration has used to substantiate its claims of widespread violence committed by undocumented immigrants. He later blamed Democrats again for being “weak and ineffective with Boarder (sic) Security and Crime.”
Why don’t the Democrats give us the votes to fix the world’s worst immigration laws? Where is the outcry for the killings and crime being caused by gangs and thugs, including MS-13, coming into our country illegally?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
It is the Democrats fault for being weak and ineffective with Boarder Security and Crime. Tell them to start thinking about the people devastated by Crime coming from illegal immigration. Change the laws!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
The President then made a series of unsubstantiated claims about the migration of refugees into Germany, claiming that crime in the country has increased and the influx of immigrants has “so strongly and violently changed their culture!”
The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. 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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
We don’t want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
He went on to suggest that children were being used as pawns by “the worst criminals on earth” to enter the U.S. illegally and then claimed he wanted to protect the U.S. from the crime happening in countries south of the U.S. border.
Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country. 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.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018
Uproar over the treatment of children and families who are caught illegally crossing the border increased over the weekend, as journalists tweeted out photos of children sleeping on the floor and people being held in dog kennel-like cages at an immigration processing center in Texas.
That likely prompted Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen to tweet that the Trump administration did not have a policy on separating families at the border, despite Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recently enacted “zero tolerance” policy of arresting and bringing criminal charges against anyone caught illegally entering the U.S.
First lady Melania Trump also spoke out over the weekend as well, saying she “hates” to see families separated and called on “both sides” to find a solution.
