President Trump on Wednesday said he plans to sign an order halting the practice of separating families who are caught crossing into the U.S. illegally, a preemptive move that is expected to alleviate pressure on congressional Republicans who have become increasingly frustrated with the crisis at the border.
“We have compassion. We want to keep families together. So I’ll be signing something in a little while that’s going to do that,” Trump told reporters at the White House during a meeting with GOP lawmakers.
“I’ll be doing something that’s somewhat preemptive, but is going to be matched by legislation,” he said, adding that his administration “wants to be strong on the border” in addition to showing compassion.
The president also said he had canceled Thursday’s congressional picnic because “it just didn’t feel right to me.”
“It doesn’t feel right to have a picnic for Congress when we’re working on something that’s very important,” he said, adding that the annual event could be held at a later date once immigration reform has been dealt with on Capitol Hill.
Sources close to the administration had previously expressed concerns about the potentially disastrous optics of Republican lawmakers partying at the White House while thousands of children remain in detention facilities at the Southwest border.
“Crisis averted,” one former White House official said via text.
The executive action Trump is expected to sign would permit children of illegal immigrants to be detained with their parents as they await court hearings on their status, several news outlets reported Wednesday. The administration has declined to keep families together since enacting a “zero tolerance” policy in April that calls for the criminal prosecution of every individual entering the U.S. illegally.
However, such an order could face legal challenges if children are detained with their parents for more than 20 days, as a decades-old federal consent decree requires that the government release all undocumented children from detention facilities after that time.
Alternatively, the president is reportedly being pressured by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to support a one-off bill in Congress that would end family separations. The legislation would not include wall funding, protections for Dreamers, or other immigration measures requested by the White House, according to Fox News.
EXCLUSIVE: And now another potential track – sources tell @FoxNews that @SecNielsen is encouraging @realDonaldTrump to support a stand-alone “loopholes” bill in Congress and do the broader immigration/border security measures in another bill.
— John Roberts (@johnrobertsFox) June 20, 2018
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-S.C., said Tuesday he plans to introduce a bill this week that would give congressional Republicans an opportunity to prevent more families from being separated at the border before tackling immigration issues that have been included in two separate, broader pieces of legislation. Republicans are still hoping one of those bills can pass this week.
Senate Republicans are also considering legislation, but Senate Democrats on Tuesday indicated they might not support it.
At least 2,000 children have been separated from their parents upon entering the U.S. illegally, according to figures provided by the Department of Homeland Security last week. Altogether, an estimated 11,000 children are currently being held in government-run detention facilities, including unaccompanied child migrants and those who made the journey with their parents.
