Republican Senate candidates in red-state battlegrounds on Tuesday affirmed their support for President Trump’s zero tolerance policy of splitting families apprehended crossing the Southern border illegally.
In interviews and statements to the Washington Examiner, Republicans running for Senate in states that flocked to Trump in 2016 joined the president in putting the onus on Congress to halt the administration’s politically charged policy of forcibly separating migrant children from illegal immigrant parents.
The tactic has come under withering public criticism — particularly from House Republicans who worry it could sink their majority in the midterm elections. But GOP candidates in targeted Senate races have declined, seeing their path to victory runs through demonstrated loyalty to Trump.
“When it comes to what’s going on with the families and the children, of course nobody wants to see families separated from their children. The President has said that himself. Congress should fix that,” Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, the Republican challenging Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said, in comments to a local radio host that were forwarded to the Washington Examiner by his campaign.
Trump is not the first president to preside over the separation of families with small children that cross the Mexican border illegally.
But the administration signaled months ago that it would ratchet up the policy to deter against illegal immigration and close a loophole enabling undocumented immigrants to game U.S. asylum laws. Rather than splitting families only in cases where parents are subject to outstanding criminal matters, the policy is being applied to all illegal crossings other than ports of entry designated for asylum applications.
Heart-wrenching video and audio clips of separated parents and children have gone viral, leaving some Republicans to fret that that this issue could spiral out of control and spoil the party’s prospects for holding the House and padding its thin Senate majority.
“There are, and will continue to be, pictures of these kids,” Republican pollster Chris Wilson said. “That takes it from an intellectual debate to an emotional one and emotional messages can be game-changers.”
It has made some red state Republican Senate candidates cautious about backing Trump’s zero-tolerance separations policy.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., running to succeed retiring Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., distanced herself from the presidenton Wednesday, just hours before the Trump administration backed down and said it would permit families with young children to stay together after all.
“As a mother, my heart breaks for the families who are separated at the border. No one wants to see families separated and this practice needs to end. We are in this position because liberals would not pay to enforce our immigration laws or build appropriate facilities for asylum seekers,” Blackburn said in a statement.
But other Republicans challenging the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable Senate incumbents are making a different calculation.
In Missouri, North Dakota, and West Virginia, where Trump’s job approval ratings have been consistently above 50 percent and support runs high for cracking down on illegal immigration, GOP candidates are standing by Trump and parroting his position. The president on Tuesday continued defending his separation policy, insisting his hands are tied unless Congress acts.
“Democrats must set aside their political ambitions and work with Republicans to fix our broken immigration system and secure our borders,” Rep. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., who is challenging Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, said. “Only then will we truly address the problem in a way that prevents separation of children from their families.”
This fidelity to Trump is part of Senate Republicans’ broader strategy for ousting Democrats in red states. They’re determined to avoid messy disagreements with the White House that play out over social media and depress GOP turnout, and win with the support of a base that treats a vote for Republican Senate candidates as equal to a vote for Trump.
“The president’s in very, very strong shape with Republican voters and in a number of key states where we have an opportunity to pick up seats,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview. “So we certainly do want to minimize our differences, and mostly we’ve been on the same team.”
Initial polls on the family separation policy have shown voters overwhelmingly opposed; Democrats and independents are strongly against, a small majority of Republicans favor it. Those political warning signs could explain why Senate Republicans are moving to put a stop to it with narrow legislation that satisfies Trump’s demand for Congressional action.
McConnell, hesitant to consider immigration legislation this close to the election, has said that gaining Trump’s advance approval of any bill is a prerequisite for putting it on the floor to be debated. Even with White House sign-off, McConnell is reluctant to move forward, given the president’s proclivity for changing his mind.
So it’s significant that Senate Republicans are moving ahead with a proposal to address the family separations dilemma without receiving Trump’s okay on the specifics. Republican insiders familiar with the process said the issue too politically explosive to wait on the mercurial Trump.
That simmering concern was evident in the vague manner in which some Republican Senate candidates are discussing the matter.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, challenging Sen. Joe Manchin, blamed the incumbent Democrat for obstructing a solution and criticized him for supporting a liberal proposal that he charged would lead to more illegal immigration. Indeed, Senate Democrats rejected a GOP proposal to halt the separations policy.
But Morrisey declined to specifically answer whether he thought Trump had the power to immediately end the policy of splitting families with children that cross the border illegally. Appointed Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., running in a potentially competitive fall special election, similarly sidestepped that direct question.
“I just hope we come to a solution because nobody’s happy separating families,” Hyde-Smith said. “I just hope we find a solution that is much better than what we have.”
This story was updated to account for Rep. Marsha Blackburn’s opposition to the family separations at the Southern border, and Trump’s change in policy away from zero tolerance.
