At a close-door meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill, Trump expressed concern for the families being separated by the “zero-tolerance” policy, members said, but he did not take responsibility for the practice. Instead the president urged the Republicans in the room to pass legislation that keeps families together.
“The president does want this to end,” the congressman Carlos Curbelo, a centrist Republican from Florida who has led the charge for immigration reform, said after the meeting.
Curbelo said Trump told members his daughter, Ivanka, had appealed to him to stop separating families at the border. And yet Trump gave no indication he was willing to reverse the separation policy and did not acknowledge that he could stop the separations without legislation, he added. Instead, the president insisted Congress deliver a legislative solution.
As Trump left the session with Republicans, he faced a rare protest by members of Congress. The group of House Democrats shouted at the president to abandon his controversial immigration policy while waving signs that read: “Families Belong together”.
“Mr President, don’t you have kids? Don’t you have kids, Mr President?” The congressman Juan Vargas yelled as Trump as he left the meeting room. “How would you like it if they separated your kids?”
