Obama administration official: Separating migrant families undermines Melania Trump’s ‘Be Best’ initiative

“I think it’s safe to say that if there was any shred of substance or meaning left to the #BeBest campaign, it disappeared instantly with the forced separation of parents from their children,” Little, who served in the Obama administration, tweeted. 

I think it’s safe to say that if there was any shred of substance or meaning left to the #BeBest campaign, it disappeared instantly with the forced separation of parents from their children.

— George Little (@georgelittledc) June 16, 2018

The Trump administration has come under intense public scrutiny in recent weeks for its “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which seeks to prosecute migrants who enter the U.S. illegally. 

{mosads}

The policy has led immigration officials to separate thousands of children from their parents at the Southern border, due to adults and children being prosecuted separately. The Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that nearly 2,000 minors had been separated from their “alleged adult guardians” between April 19 and the end of May. 

Trump has sought to place blame on Democratic lawmakers for the family separation policy, telling “Fox & Friends” in an interview on Friday that “the Democrats have to change their law.”

But the policy was announced last month by Trump’s Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who said the changes aimed to deter future immigrants from attempting to cross into the United States illegally.

The policy has been widely denounced across the political spectrum, but Democrats in the Senate have introduced legislation that would ban separating families at the border.