U.S. Will Not Be a Migrant Camp: U.S. President Donald Trump Lashes Out At Asylum Seekers

The U.S. will not become a "camp" for migrants, U.S. President Donald Trump today said as he defended his controversial immigration policy of separating children from their parents who illegally enter the U.S. The policy has triggered widespread outrage in the U.S. as well as abroad.

Trump also claimed that criminals are using children to enter the country. "The U.S. will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said at the White House during a meeting for his space council. "You look at what's happening in Europe, you look at what's happening in other places, we can't allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch," he said. Nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their parents in the six weeks following the administration's announcement of a "zero-tolerance policy" against illegal border crossings.

The separations have triggered a nationwide outcry from Republicans and Democrats who say the policy of separating families is inhumane and immoral.

Before his interaction with journalists today, the U.S. President had tweeted that he does not want America to have the same experience as that of Europe. “We don't want what is happening with immigration in Europe to happen with us!” he said. “The people of Germany are turning against their leadership as migration is rocking the already tenuous Berlin coalition. Crime in Germany is way up. Big mistake made all over Europe in allowing millions of people in who have so strongly and violently changed their culture!” Trump tweeted.

He said the U.S. has the worst immigration laws in the world. Trump said the world is watching U.S. economic growth, and a legislative change would be “maybe something for the world to watch” as well. "But a county without borders is not a country at all. People coming into the country are bringing death and destruction," he alleged. “They are thieves and murderers and so much else,” he said. “Why don't the Democrats give us the votes to fix the world's worst immigration laws? Where is the outcry for the killings and crime being caused by gangs and thugs, including MS-13, coming into our country illegally?” he tweeted earlier.

“Children are being used by some of the worst criminals on earth as a means to enter our country. Has anyone been looking at the Crime taking place south of the border. It is historic, with some countries the most dangerous places in the world. Not going to happen in the U.S.,” Trump said.

The opposition Democratic party leadership and rights activists have intensified their attack on Trump over the family separation issue. “In recent weeks and days, Americans have been shocked by heart-breaking images of screaming children being taken away from their parents by U.S. immigration officers along the border. In just six weeks nearly 2,000 children, many of them below the age of 5, have been sent to mass holding centres or foster care,” Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a statement.

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi described Trump as the “Family-Separator in Chief.” Trump is simply lying when he blames family separation on Democrats, she said. "Trump's barbaric family separation policy will be a stain on our history. It's up to Trump and Sessions to stop ripping children from the arms of their parents. It is cruel and un-American,” Pelosi said.

Trump Administration’s policy has drawn the ire of the United Nations as well. The top U.N. human rights official called on the Trump administration on Monday to halt its "unconscionable" policy of forcibly separating children from migrant parents irregularly entering the country via Mexico. Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the policies "punish children for their parents' actions."

"The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable. I call on the United States to immediately end the practice of forcible separation of these children," Zeid said in his final speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council before his term in office ends.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) now refers all unlawful border- crossers/ asylum seekers to the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecution, providing the basis for separating children from their parents. The children are then classified as "unaccompanied alien minors" and remanded to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). The ORR and public defenders in border states are finding themselves overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of cases that are now coming before them. (With Agency inputs)

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 19, 2018 12:31 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).