White House press secretary Sarah Sanders addressed a sharp condemnation of the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy for illegal border crossings from former first lady Laura Bush, saying the Trump administration is not responsible “for creating this problem.”
“This law was actually signed into effect in 2008 under her husband’s leadership, not under this administration,” Sanders told reporters during Monday’s White House press briefing. “We’re not the ones responsible for creating this problem. We’ve inherited it. But we’re the first administration stepping up and trying to fix it.”
[Also read: ‘Offensive,’ ‘not true’: Kirstjen Nielsen defends border family separation stance]
Sanders to Laura Bush: “Frankly this law was actually signed into effect in 2008 under her husband’s leadership. Not under this administration” pic.twitter.com/PFxfi5eFtU
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) June 18, 2018
Sanders was referencing a bipartisan anti-trafficking bill signed into law by Bush in 2008 that requires certain unaccompanied minors to be transferred from immigration authorities to the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours.
Bush took to the pages of the Washington Post to assail the Trump administration’s policy, under which illegal immigrants apprehended crossing the U.S.-Mexico border are referred for criminal prosecution. The change has led to children being separated from their parents and guardians.
In her op-ed, published Sunday, Bush called the approach “immoral” and “cruel,” and equated the images of children separated from their parents who are now being housed in makeshift shelters to those of Japanese American internment camps during World War II.
Over the last 24 hours, all four living former first ladies have come out against the zero tolerance policy.
Sanders said that while she had not spoken to President Trump about Bush’s op-ed, the Trump administration shares “the concern.”
“The president himself said that he doesn’t like this process,” she said. “But once again, it’s Congress’s job to change the law. We’re calling on them to do exactly that.”
