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US PRESIDENT DONALD Trump has defended the “zero tolerance” policy leading to thousands of migrant families being split on the US border as the only effective way to fight illegal immigration.
“I don’t want children taken away from parents”, he told a gathering of small business owners, before adding: “When you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away.”
“We don’t have to prosecute them, but then we are not prosecuting them for coming in illegally. That’s not good.”
US officials say more than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents or guardians since early May, when the administration announced its push to arrest and charge anyone illegally crossing the US-Mexico border, regardless of whether they were seeking asylum.
Since children cannot be sent to the facilities where their parents are held, they are separated from them.
A chorus of critics – rights groups, Christian evangelicals, former US first ladies and some within the president’s own Republican party – are demanding an immediate end to the family separations.
But a defiant Trump has vowed America will not become a “migrant camp”.
“We don’t want people pouring into our country,” he told today’s gathering.
We want ultimately a merit-based system where people come in based on merit.
Hammering home the need to combat smugglers who he said “game the system”, Trump accused the media of helping human traffickers.
“Those who apply for asylum legally at ports of entry are not prosecuted. The fake news media back there doesn’t talk about that,” he charged.
“They are fake,” he said. “They are helping these smugglers and these traffickers like nobody would believe.”
‘Using children as pawns’
The president has accused Democrats of provoking the crisis by blocking legislation to combat illegal immigration.
Many Republican lawmakers are also deeply uncomfortable with the separation policy.
Trump said: “We want to end the border crisis by finally giving us the legal authorities and the resources to detain and remove illegal immigrant families all together and bring them back to their country.”
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is expected to consider two immigration bills.
One is a hardline measure favoured by conservatives, and the other a compromise bill – which the White House has signalled has Trump’s support – that would end family separations, protect so-called Dreamer immigrants brought to the country as children, pay for boosted border security and curtail legal immigration.
Today’s Republican huddle will be closely watched, in part to see whether any lawmakers directly confront the president.
Several House Republicans face tough re-election fights in November, and some may worry that public outrage over the family separations could hurt their chances.
Democrats say the crisis is of Trump’s own making, and accuse him of using children as pawns.
Please no one start with that 2016 crap… he’s 88 nanna was 96, Leonard coen was 79 or something… death happens get over it…
Two late Paul! Two late! If i die between now and Sunday, i ask of my loved ones, PLEASE PLEASE do not say ‘ God damn 2016′. I’m begging you!
In 2 years time twink or some sh## will be hit by a 2016 Scania truck n people be like “2016 was just so cruel to the celebrity’s”
No n people be more like shut up ya sap….
You guys are too cool for school.
RIP Anthony, I loved Dead As Doornails
Do you remember the year when no one died, mad so it was….
Anthony Cronin leaves behind him a great legacy of wonderful writing that will endure long after his desth.
I would be disturbed if no talented people were to die. We are all human. Some of us die sooner than others but we all die, even the most talented and gifted of us.
We notice the death of talented people more because they are in the public eye and can even be a backdrop to our lives but they, like us, are not immportal.
Roll on 2017 when no celebrities will die at all.
One of Ireland’s great intellectuals.
Dead as Doornails is a classic, he was always worth listening to in interviews with the incredible company he kept.
Who’s next? 2016 has not been a good year!
@Diarmuid Lucey:
What an original comment
Met him back about 20 years ago. A very nice man. Condolences to his wife and daughter.
RIP. Dead as Doornails is a classic. When people talk about the good old days, get them to read it
Curse of 2016 strikes again
Who is he?
French académicien Michel Deon Who lives in Conemarra is dead too. Bad Day for littérature
” Dead as Doornails “is a classic, excellent read, but rather dated and somewhat indecipherable today to people not necessarily in tune with 50s/60s Dublin Bohemia.
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