Olivier Douliery/Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — First lady Melania Trump traveled to Tucson, Arizona, on Thursday where she is set to make her second visit in a week to a border detention facility holding undocumented immigrants arrested at the southern border.
“This facility is about two hours away from the actual U.S. border, but is the first place individuals — parents and children together — are brought immediately after detention at the border,” the first lady’s communications director, Stephanie Grisham, said on Thursday, according to a pool report. “At the facility, she will participate in a roundtable with U.S. marshals, U.S. Border Patrol agents and local ranchers who will share their stories about what they have seen across the border, like the story of a 6-year-old boy who was found alone in the desert in Arizona.”
The first lady’s office revealed Tuesday that she would be making another visit to a detention facility as the administration continues to face questions over the status of the more than 2,000 children separated from their parents due to the president’s “zero-tolerance” policy.
On Tuesday, a federal judge in California ordered a temporary halt to the separation of families at the border and ruled that children taken from their parents must be reunited within 30 days. The court also prohibited — absent a waiver — the deportation of parents without their children, and it said that, in the future, children can only be separated from a parent if said parent poses a threat to the child.
The first lady’s visit last week drew significant controversy regarding her choice of a jacket that included a graphic on her back reading, “I REALLY DON’T CARE, DO U?”
Melania Trump’s office said in a statement that the jacket was in no way intended as symbolic or sending a message, but that claim was immediately undermined by a tweet from President Trump who reacted to the mounting criticism.
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