Democrats are seeing kids in cages and deplorable living conditions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Melania Trump lit up when a 3-year-old boy darted out of “Family Unit 8” at a migrant center in Tucson, Arizona.
“Hello!” said the first lady, brightening amid the semicircle of eight cells in a short-term holding center for migrants. “How are you?”
Mrs. Trump, an immigrant and a mother herself, wanted to find out more about how her husband’s strict immigration policy was playing out on the ground, especially among families that have been separated at the border. Two tours of migrant detention centers in a week gave her a sometimes grim view.
Now the question is what she does with that knowledge — and how she meshes it with her dislike for dividing up families and a concurrent belief in strong borders.
Spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham says more border visits or talks with lawmakers are possible, but it’s not clear what lessons the first lady took from her visits and what she’ll communicate to her husband.
“She cares about children deeply,” Grisham said. “She also believes in strong border laws and treating everybody equally.”[…]
A few protesters screamed from a nearby balcony that overlooked the compound’s playground as Mrs. Trump’s retinue shifted buildings.
Then came perhaps the most sobering stop, to another cooled room containing nine babies and toddlers, and four of their moms.
Mrs. Trump stepped onto the carpet in her sneakered feet and squatted down to get closer to the children, still sleepy from recent naps. She glanced up toward the women standing nearby and asked, “Who are the moms?” One woman from Honduras raised a hand. “Where is your baby?” the first lady asked. A translator helped the young woman point out a boy, 14 months old. An official traveling with Mrs. Trump said there were 121 children there and their average stay was 48 days.
The balcony was empty by the time Mrs. Trump departed.
At the gates of the compound, some protesters tried briefly to jog alongside the first lady’s motorcade as it sped, lights flashing, toward the airport and the four-hour flight back to Washington.