First Lady Melania Trump traveled to Arizona Thursday, spending time in Phoenix and Tucson. This was her second visit to monitor and learn about the ICE facilities that house children in America illegally. A previous trip brought the First Lady to a facility in Texas. There was not a repeat appearance of the controversial $39.00 Zara jacket, so this trip didn’t create quite the buzz that the previous one did.
Melania greeted children in Spanish as she toured a shelter in Phoenix. At the Southwest Key Campbell facility, she was told there are 121 children there. 81 have been separated from their families and the rest are unaccompanied minors. Four of the babies there are with their mothers, also minors. The school-age children spend about 6 hours a day in a classroom setting. The younger ones do crafts and watch movies.
It is reported that Trump, usually soft-spoken and reserved, showed emotional responses as she took part in a roundtable discussion in Tucson at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility. Reporters were allowed to tag along with her but not allowed to interact with the children.
She softly said, “Oh, God,” while hearing a story about a 6-year-old boy from Costa Rica who had been abandoned west of Lukeville earlier this month. She saw photos of the boy, who apparently held a Coke bottle and a note, and told agents his uncle dropped him off and that Border Patrol agents would pick him up.
She shook her head when she learned of a 16-year-old girl who had been raped on her journey from Central America.
#BorderPatrol agents rescued a 6-year-old Costa Rican boy after he was abandoned by a smuggler on an AZ border road during extreme heat. https://t.co/osQzeXqobZ pic.twitter.com/b9TBM7tOT2
— CBP Arizona (@CBPArizona) June 30, 2018
It is easy to see Melania Trump as the kinder, gentler face of the Trump administration on the explosive issue of family separation. The First Lady’s spokesperson said that she has the president’s ear on the issue of illegal families and their detention once they cross the border onto American soil.
Grisham told reporters that the first lady “shares her opinions and thoughts about family unification with the president directly and that he supported and urged her to make today’s trip.”
Yesterday, I visited @CBParizona facilities & a nonprofit social service shelter of @hhsgov in #Arizona. Thank you to the compassionate & dedicated law enforcement & care providers working hard to secure our nation & take care of children in a difficult situation. @CBP #USBP pic.twitter.com/goFdaJCaWt
— Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) June 29, 2018
She expressed her support for the law enforcement officials and also for those working in the shelters.
“I know how dangerous and difficult your daily jobs are so I really appreciate all you do for in the behalf of the country,” Mrs. Trump said in her prepared remarks. “And I’m looking forward to our discussion and to tour the facility and I’m here to support you and give my help whatever I can for behalf of children and the families.”
Of course, there is the obligatory article grousing that Trump’s visit did not change anything on the border and that she didn’t go to the border herself. Have those interviewed never heard that the behemoth that is our federal government never moves quickly and rarely without confusion across the board?
“People who come from Mexico in to the United States go through such a hassle to even come here,” he says. Sun talks with customers and friends on both sides everyday. “They are not very happy with how the situation is progressing. But is it what it is.”
“I can’t even imagine being without my baby,” says Erik Manzo, who lives in Nogales. Manzo says he would have liked to have seen the first lady, Melania Trump, make a stop along the border in Nogales. “I hope she fixes all of this up, returns kids to their parents, stops doing all of this.”
“People who live along the border, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, everybody knows this is how the border is,” says Arturo Luevano. “Nothing changes. In the north they are barely figuring things out, but in reality things have been going on like this for years.”
These folks unwittingly expose the harsh reality that all of this has been going on for years and that is exactly the problem. Donald Trump ran on a platform of shaking up the status quo, especially when it comes to illegal immigration. Parents risking their lives and those of their children are not stopped in Mexico, as they should be, so it is America’s task to maintain border security. As a sovereign nation, we are a nation of laws and physical borders. No one is entitled to come into our country without legal documentation.
Interesting enough, Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) told the truth when asked about abolishing ICE. He isn’t in favor of abolishing ICE and even admitted that the previous administration (Obama) separated more families and deported more illegal aliens that are happening now. O’Rourke is running against Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Here's @BetoORourke's response to a question about abolishing ICE at a town hall Friday in San Antonio: pic.twitter.com/BcNoBhYjxn
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) June 30, 2018
Meanwhile, President Trump’s approval rating is now at 47%, according to the latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll during all this family separation chaos. That is 2 points up from last month. Here’s the kicker – he’s up 10% among Hispanic voters. It breaks out to 6% Republicans and 4% Democrats to get the 10%.
President Trump’s approval rating has ticked up to 47 percent in the new Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released exclusively to The Hill, a 2 point hike from last month.
Trump’s approval rating was lifted in part by a 10 point climb among Hispanic voters. His approval rating rose by 6 points among Republicans and by 4 points among Democrats compared to last month’s poll. According to the same poll, Trump’s approval rating reached its highest point last year, at 49 percent.
That increase is, I remind you, in a month’s time. This article points out that Hispanics are mostly a middle class demographic and focus more on economic issues. Trump’s tax reform bill and tax cuts are overwhelmingly popular.
Moreover, in contrast to the assumptions of the leftist identity-politics hucksters, Hispanics are far from uniform on immigration issues, and actually take a very moderate and pragmatic approach to the border and enforcement. In fact, per Zogby Analytics exit polling from 2016, twice as many Hispanics believe immigration enforcement is too lax versus too stringent. Regarding the recent border issues, an Economist/YouGov poll found that only 20 percent of Hispanics support the previous policies of “catch and release” where families entering the country illegally are not detained but summoned to report back for a later hearing – at which many never show up. Instead, 64 percent of Hispanics support either detaining the whole family together, or detaining parents and children separately. This will disappoint the Democrats, to be sure, but legal Hispanics hardly support open borders.
President Trump signed an Executive Order to expedite family reunification and to end the separation of children from their parents. The EO was signed on June 20, 2018, yet protests and fundraising continue from the open borders crowd over this issue.
The post Melania Trump visits young detainees in Arizona holding facilities appeared first on Hot Air.