Leading Republicans Join Democrats in Pushing Trump to Halt Family Separations

By Peter Baker @ NYTimes.com, June 17

[....] Republican lawmakers, the former first lady Laura Bush and a onetime adviser to Mr. Trump joined Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, in condemning the family separations [.....]

Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, condemned the separations on Sunday, except in cases where there is evidence of abuse or another good reason. “What the administration has decided to do is to separate children from their parents to try to send a message that, if you cross the border with children, your children are going to be ripped away from you,” she said on “Face the Nation” on CBS. “That is traumatizing to the children, who are innocent victims. And it is contrary to our values in this country.”

“We know from years of experience that we need to fix our immigration laws,” she added, “and that using children is not the answer.”

Mr. Clinton likewise spoke out, suggesting that Mr. Trump was using the widely condemned practice to leverage Democrats into accepting immigration limits in legislation they would otherwise oppose.

“These children should not be a negotiating tool,” he wrote on Twitter. “And reuniting them with their families would reaffirm America’s belief in & support for all parents who love their children.”

Hillary Clinton retweeted that message, adding, “YES!” [....]

“President Trump could stop this policy with a phone call,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and often an ally and golfing partner of the president’s, said on CNN on Friday. “I’ll go tell him. If you don’t like families’ being separated, you can tell D.H.S. stop doing it.”

Anthony Scaramucci, who served briefly as White House communications director last year, said separating children from their families is not “the Christian way” or “the American way,” and made clear he thinks Mr. Trump can end it on his own. “The President can reverse it and I hope he does,” he wrote on Twitter. [....]

ran across this May 25 Washington Post piece on Nielsen which explains a lot of things in one sentence:

the strains illustrate the difficulty faced by Trump subordinates who are tasked with delivering policy solutions to match his most soaring promises.

“The president has a very rudimentary understanding of what the border is all about and how you secure it,” said a former Department of Homeland Security staffer who worked closely with Nielsen. “And she’s also not one of the border fire-eaters that have his ear right now."

What Obama's last Sec. of Homeland Security, Jeh Charles Johnson,  sez about it and what needs to be done, @ WaPo op-ed today.