Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., on Wednesday distanced herself from President Trump’s zero tolerance policy on illegal border crossings resulting in family separations.
Blackburn, the presumptive Republican nominee for Senate in Tennessee this fall and a conservative favorite, called on the Trump administration to halt the separating migrant children from illegal immigrant parents or guardians while Congress works on legislation to close loopholes in U.S. asylum laws.
“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,” Blackburn said in a statement provided to the Washington Examiner by her Senate campaign.
However, Blackburn blamed Democrats for the politically charged policy, which Trump insists the law forces him to continue absent congressional action. The congresswoman said Democrats are blocking legislative fix, emphasizing that she supports her for the president’s push to improve security along the border with Mexico.
“We are in this position because liberals would not pay to enforce our immigration laws or build appropriate facilities for asylum seekers,” Blackburn said.
The House was scheduled to vote on Republican legislation to address the matter on Thursday. Republicans in the Senate were forging ahead with their own bill, narrowly tailored to deal with the separations issue. Senate Democrats have indicated their opposition, putting its viability in doubt since passage requires 60 votes.
A handful of Republican Senate candidates running in red state battlegrounds are hewing closer to Trump’s position — decrying the separation of families, but agreeing that the administration has little choice without a change in the law.
Blackburn’s position on the zero tolerance policy is now more in line with Senate Republicans who are not on the ballot in this midterm election — or represent swing states disinclined to support the policy. She is running against former Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, to succeed retiring Rep. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., in a GOP-leaning state whose voters have been satisfied with Trump’s leadership.
On Tuesday, more than a dozen Senate Republicans signed a letter to the Trump administration calling for an immediate stop to the separation of immigrant families while Congress crafts legislation to change the law and address the president’s concerns that asylum laws are being gamed by illegal immigrants.
“Although enforcing our immigration laws is an essential responsibility of the federal government, it must be done in a way that is consistent with our values and ordinary human decency,” the letter, spearheaded by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, read. “We support the administration’s efforts to enforce our immigration laws, but we cannot support implementation of a policy that results in the categorical forced separation of minor children from their parents.”
Trump is not the first president to preside over the separation of families with small children that cross the Mexican border illegally.
But under the Trump administration, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has sought to close a loophole enabling undocumented immigrants to game U.S. asylum laws and announced the zero tolerance policy in April, citing a “crisis” that “necessitates an escalated effort to prosecute those who choose to illegally cross our border.” 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.
