In the three years since Donald Trumplaunched his presidential campaignwith so much controversial bombastin 2015,Laura Bushhas steadfastly kept her counsel about the polarizing first Republican in the White House since her own husbandGeorge W. Bushserved two terms.
Trump’s treatment of migrant children is what broke the former First Lady’s resolve.
As images flooded social media this weekend to show how the Trump administration’s migration policy was tearing families apart at the border, Mrs. Bush took the unusual step of writing an opinion piece for theWashington Postthat was published on Father’s Day. In it, she spoke out about the nearly 2,000 children who were separated from their families during a six-week period in April and May as the Trump administration adopted a“zero-tolerance” policyforillegal entry into the United States,TIMEreported on Saturday.
“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,” Bush wrote.
“The practice and policy today of removing children from their parents’ care at our border with Mexico is disgraceful and a shame to our country,” Rosalynn Carter said in a statement from Georgia. And Hillary Clinton, at a women’s forum in New York, called what’s happening a “moral crisis.”
Bush, in her op-ed saw similarities with the period of Japanese internment during World War II, which she said is “now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history.”
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She continued, “People on all sides agree that our immigration system isn’t working, but the injustice of zero tolerance is not the answer. I moved away from Washington almost a decade ago, but I know there are good people at all levels of government who can do better to fix this.”
Bush’s brother-in-law, Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, joined her protest on Monday, tweeting that children were being “used as a negotiating tool” and Trump should end his “heartless” policy.
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In another surprising move from the first-lady realm, current First LadyMelania Trump, on Sundayreleased a statement about her husband’s controversial immigration policy.
“Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families,” her communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told PEOPLE.
Grisham added that her boss calls on Democrats and Republicans to fix the nation’s immigration crisis.
“[She] hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” Grisham said, adding that Mrs. Trump “believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”
The spokeswoman did not immediately respond to follow-up questions from PEOPLE on Monday about what Mrs. Trump is doing to help change her husband’s policy.
Clinton, speaking at a luncheon of The Women’s Forum of New York, said: “I warned about this during the debates and on the campaign trail, that Trump’s immigration policies would result in families being separated, parents being sent away from their children, people being rounded up into trains and buses. And now, as we watch with broken hearts, that’s exactly what’s happening.”
source: people.com
