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This CNN Commentator Ripped Into Melania & Her Border Visits As "Staged Photo Ops"
First lady Melania Trump is still taking heat for the controversial jacket she wore on her first visit to the border. On Saturday, as the "Families Belong Together" marchers descended on 700-plus American cities, CNN commentator and Republican strategist Ana Navarro said Melania Trump's border visit was not enough.
While appearing on CNN Newsroom, Navarro said the president's senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, was not doing enough to end the crisis at the souther border either.
"The very first question that Melania Trump asked when she went on a visit to the border was ‘I really don’t care, do you?' That was the very first question she asked," Navarro said, referencing the writing on the back of the $39 Zara military-style jacket Melania wore on her visit to South Texas last week. "I'm a little over these staged photo ops. I'm a little over, I'm a little unaffected by hearing that Ivanka and Melania are having influence on the president."
Navarro said the calming influence of Melania and Ivanka could not be seen in the administration's zero-tolerance policy that led to parents and children being separated at the border, nor in the executive order that the president signed on June 20 in an effort to reverse his own policy.
"When what we have seen is an executive order, that first of all was a shame because it did not need to be signed," Navarro told the anchors. "It is a unilateral policy created by this administration by this DOJ with the affirmation of this president. So we saw a shame order that was signed that then has not been executed because they have absolutely no plan on how to do it."
Navarro said the Trump administration still has 2,000 children separated from their parents who need to be reunited, but Melania's words about the separated families haven't done much.
"There are still 2,000-plus kids that are separated, that are wailing for their mommy, that are sleeping under foil blankets," Navarro said. "So, really, you know Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, girls, you got more work to do."
Ivanka has been fairly quiet about the issue of immigration and family separations until her father signed an executive order that would detain migrant families together.
Minutes after the order was signed, Ivanka tweeted, "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." Ivanka did not elaborate which "shared values" she was talking about.
The next day on June 21, Ivanka followed her statement up with a brief tweet affirming her desire to see families reunited, "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."
On Thursday, Melania returned to to the border. This time she went to visit U.S. Customs & Border Protection facility and a shelter run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Arizona. She published a minute-long video of her visit on her official FLOTUS account on Twitter.
Per the video, Melania visited with Border Patrol agents and others employed by CBP as well as caregivers and children at the HHS shelter. In the video, the kids seem to be working on shapes. "Thank you to the compassionate & dedicated law enforcement & care providers working hard to secure our nation & take care of children in a difficult situation," Melania wrote with the video.
There are still many unanswered questions about how migrant families will overcome the logistical nightmare that is family reunification. There's scant information publicly available for families, and lawyers are working around-the-clock for their clients. It remains to be seen in Melania or Ivanka will be publicly taking on the alleviating their burden.