BORDER/CHILDREN/GOP/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Senate Republicans are openly admonishing the Trump administration’s practice of separating families at the border…Whether the blistering statements will manifest themselves into legislation remains to be seen. Such action would require GOP members to directly defy Trump, something the party has been hesitant to pursue in an election year. And the Senate has already had a bruising fight over immigration earlier this year that resulted in no legislation advancing, making a possible return to debating the subject all the more significant. But saying nothing no longer seems like an option. After a weekend of lawmaker visits to detention centers, images of children behind metal fencing and a growing awareness of what President Donald Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy actually means along the border, a small number of Republican senators are calling for changes. Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Republican from Utah and the longest serving GOP senator in history, called the practice of separating families at the border ‘wrong…’ While Trump has blamed family separations on Democrats, the reality is it is a direct effect of the Trump administration’s decision to criminally prosecute immigrants coming across the border even if they are traveling with children.”
-Lauren Fox, “Senate Republicans did not want another immigration fight. Now they might not have a choice.,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, June 18, 2018 2:58 pm