Trump Immigration Policy Unites Condemnation Across The Spectrum
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Haunting images of crying children separated from their parents as they cross the border are fueling a national debate. It's an issue that has people on both sides voicing their opinions.
"It is the president's policy, not the law!" said Rep. John Garamendi (D-Fairfield).
President Donald Trump met with House Republicans about immigration on Tuesday, but many lawmakers say the meeting didn't go as planned.
Opponents of the policy protested in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., some of them directed at U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen. She was confronted by protestors while eating dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
"If kids don't eat in peace, you don't eat in peace," one protester said.
Garamendi spoke out Tuesday, pushing for Trump to rescind his "zero tolerance policy," under which 2,300 children have been separated from their parents.
"This is not America," he said. "This is not what we should expect from a man who occupies the highest office in the land. Is this the America that we want?"
Republicans prepared to discuss a compromise immigration bill with President Trump that would provide billions of dollars in funding for the border wall and reunite separated families.
"This has always been a very frustrating issue, a very emotional issue," said Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Modesto). "But we've never seen it at this magnitude."
Denham says the House bill is the permanent solution that both sides need to pass.
"I think that we have a good compromise that not only has a pathway for 1.8 million but also secures our border," he said.
"We had a good meeting," Trump said, as he was leaving the Republican huddle.
But Pennsylvania Rep. Ryan Costello (D-PA) says the discussion didn't go as many expected.
"The focus of the meeting was not border separation, it was taxes, tariffs, stuff he's done," he said.
This morning, Trump tweeted, in part: "Democrats are the problem. They don't care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country…"
But Garamendi insists this fix is on the White House.
"We need to cry out in moral outrage and say to the president 'Stop it!'" he said. "'Stop it now. It is wrong, it is immoral.'"
Trump has not yet endorsed the House bill. Meanwhile, Democrats have endorsed a Senate bill, introduced by California Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), which would prohibit children from being separated from their parents within 100 miles of the border.
