House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., issued a stark warning to President Trump as coverage of migrant families being separated at the U.S. border dominated cable news networks, according to a report.
Ryan and McConnell told Trump in June he would “go down big on the issue,” a Republican briefed on the trio’s discussions during the ongoing controversy, sparked by the administration’s decision to implement a “zero tolerance” immigration policy, told Vanity Fair.
Trump eventually issued an executive order that stopped the practice of separating minors from their parents or guardians as all adults were prosecuted by the Justice Department for illegally crossing the border, but not before 2,000 youngsters were detained in separate facilities around the country. The Department of Homeland Security announced Friday that it had reunited all eligible immigrant parents with their children, but hundreds of kids are still without their guardians.
The separations have drawn bipartisan political and legal criticism, including from first lady Melania Trump.
Vanity Fair reported that the first lady’s statement, in which she said that the U.S. needs to be “a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart,” was issued without the approval of the White House communications shop. The magazine also reported that she asked her press secretary to call and thank a Trump surrogate for voicing his concerns regarding family separations.
