Ivanka Trump Calls Family Separations a “Low Point”

Ivanka Trump has called the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy a “low point,” offering up her most public statement on the national controversy.

“That was a low point for me as well,” the first daughter and President Trump adviser said on Thursday during an event hosted by Axios in Washington, D.C. “I feel very strongly about that, and I am very vehemently against family separation and the separation of parents and children.”

She continued, “I think immigration is incredibly complex as a topic, illegal immigration is incredibly complicated. I am a daughter of an immigrant, my mother grew up in Communist Czech Republic, but we are a country of laws. … we have to be very careful about incentivizing behavior that puts children at risk of being trafficked, at risk of entering this country with coyotes or making an incredibly dangerous journey alone. These are not easy issues, these are incredibly difficult issues and, like the rest of the country, I experience them in a very emotional way.”

Watch: Ivanka Trump calls border separations a “low point” for the administration https://t.co/CGRpPw2z7y pic.twitter.com/i1bdQvekzi

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 2, 2018

Ivanka Trump’s comments at the event, which focused on workforce development, follow a private meeting she had with her father last month about the policy. The following day, President Trump reversed course and signed an executive order to end family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border. Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values; the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families,” she had tweeted about her father’s decision. “Now that an EO has been signed ending family separation at the border, it is time to focus on swiftly and safely reuniting the families that have been separated.”

Despite a court-ordered deadline to reunite families passing last week, hundreds of children remain separated from their families, many whose parents have already been deported.

Later on Thursday, President Trump responded to Ivanka Trump’s appearance, but what he addressed was her disagreement with his statements about the media, not her comments on family separations. When asked if she viewed the media as the “enemy of the people,” she had replied, “No I do not.” President Trump wrote on Twitter: “They asked my daughter Ivanka whether or not the media is the enemy of the people. She correctly said no. It is the FAKE NEWS, which is a large percentage of the media, that is the enemy of the people!”

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