Trump bends, agrees to sign order ending separation of migrant kids

Washington, June 20 

Facing nationwide protests and global outrage over his decision to separate children from their parents who cross the border illegally, US President Donald Trump today said he is working on a new executive order to prevent such a situation.

“We’re going to be signing an executive order in a little while... We’ve got to be keeping families together,” Trump said, as he met lawmakers on the issue.

“I’ll be doing something that's somewhat preemptive and ultimately will be matched by legislation I’m sure,” said the President, who till a night ago was asking the Democrats to come out with a legislative fix in Congress.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was at the White House to discuss the language of the executive order. Trump is expected to sign the order later today.

In recent weeks, some 2,500 children who crossed the US border illegally along with their parents have been separated from them. Media reports have appeared about heart-rending scenes of children crying for their parents.

A day earlier, Trump blamed the opposition Democrats for the current impasse and asked them to come out with a legislative fix.

Senate Minority Leader Senator Chuck Schumer said the Trump administration has been sending babies and young children to what they call “tender age facilities.” 

“It is unconscionable, unconscionable, that the government of the United States is warehousing babies and toddlers, alone, in an institutional setting,” he said.

Schumer alleged that this crisis was wilfully and purposefully created by Trump through his zero tolerance policy at the border.  

“It can — and should — be ended by the same mechanism. With the simple flick of the pen, a simple flick of the pen, the president can end this policy. If the president wants to borrow my pen, he can have it. But he can do it quickly and easily if he wants to. It's on his back," he said.

“The administration must end this gratuitous, cruel, and counterproductive policy that has brought such pain to innocent children and so much shame on this nation,” Schumer said, adding that no law requires the separation of children from their families.

“No law says you must send babies to detention facilities. And no law is required to end it. Nineteen Republicans here in the Senate have already called on the Trump administration to reverse or suspend this policy administratively, without any Congressional action. If our Republican colleagues, and the Republican leadership in particular, want to solve this problem, they ought to be directing their attention to the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House because that's where it can get done, done well, and done quickly," he said. — PTI 

Pope: Populism is not the answer   

Pope Francis has criticised the Donald Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the Mexican border, saying populism is not the answer to the world’s immigration problems Speaking to Reuters, the Pope said he supported recent statements by US Catholic bishops who called the separation of children from their parents “contrary to our Catholic values” and “immoral”. “It’s not easy, but populism is not the solution,” Francis said on Sunday night.

Deeply disturbing: May    

British Prime Minster Theresa May today said images from the United States of migrant children being held in cages were “deeply disturbing” and that she would press President Donald Trump on the issue. “On what we have seen in the United States, pictures of children being held in what appear to be cages are deeply disturbing... this is wrong,” she told MPs.

US President’s ‘zero-tolerance’ on immigration fills worldwide media

• President Donald Trump’s policy of separating immigrant parents and their children at the US-Mexico border has invited widespread criticism as images of youngsters in cages and an audiotape of wailing children affected by Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy filled worldwide media
• The policy, announced in April, directed that all immigrants apprehended while crossing the US-Mexico border illegally should be criminally prosecuted. Parents referred by border agents for prosecution are held in federal jails, while their children are moved into border shelter facilities 
• US Customs and Border Protection said on Tuesday that 2,342 children had been separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border between May 5 and June 9. The policy has sparked condemnation from Democrats, some Republicans, UN officials and rights activists

EU leaders to hold mini summit on migration in Brussels

• Several key EU leaders will hold crisis talks on migration in Brussels on Sunday to try to find answers ahead of a major summit next week, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said
• The leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Austria and Bulgaria will be involved, European sources told AFP, while Malta’s prime minister said he had also accepted an invitation from Juncker
• Immigration is increasingly shaping politics in rich countries, and in Germany, threatens to wreck Chancellor Angela Merkel's relationship with her CDU's Bavarian sister party, part of her coalition
• Trump, defending his own tough anti-immigrant polices, waded into Germany's debate  with a series of tweets criticising Merkel's open-border policy as a "big mistake" that had fuelled crime in Europe