Fox News host Laura Ingraham defended the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy toward illegal immigration on Monday by offering flattering descriptions of the detention facilities in which children separated from their families are being housed, while her colleague Tucker Carlson slammed the media for its coverage of the issue.
“So since more illegal immigrants are rushing the border, more kids are being separated from their parents and temporarily housed in what are essentially summer camps,” Ingraham said on her program, “The Ingraham Angle,” Monday. “Or, as the San Diego Union-Tribune described them today, as looking like basically boarding schools.”
Ingraham walked back her comments in a later segment, saying she retracted her summer camps remark but would “stick to there are some of them like boarding schools.”
Carlson, instead, tore into lawmakers and news outlets for forming a “ruling class” that cares “far more about foreigners than about their own people.”
“No matter what they tell you, this isn’t about helping children,” he said on his show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” “A lot of people yelling at you on TV don’t even have children, so don’t for a second let them take the moral high ground. Their goal is to change your country forever, and they’re succeeding.”
.@TuckerCarlson: “This is one of those moments that tells you everything about our ruling class. They care far more about foreigners than about their own people.” #Tucker pic.twitter.com/ZtGITDMj9A
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 19, 2018
The Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy, announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April, has attracted heightened scrutiny in the past week as more children are separated from their parents or guardians.
The increase is a result of President Trump’s decision to refer all illegal immigrants to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. This is because minors cannot be held in detention facilities for long periods of time while members of their family unit are prosecuted for illegally crossing the U.S. border.
Trump is expected to meet with the entire GOP caucus on Capitol Hill Tuesday to push congressional Republicans toward passing legislation that may address the family separation matter.
