President Donald Trump’s campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh is sharing his thoughts regarding a report indicating 545 parents have been separated from their children at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Host of CNN’s “New Day” John Berman noted the Trump administration is struggling to find the parents of these children. He asked Murtaugh if the president regrets that this situation exists.
“It’s a regrettable situation, certainly and it’s a very dangerous journey that people undertake to cross. In many cases coming all the way through Mexico and it’s why we should not lay out the welcome mat and encourage people to do that,” Murtaugh said.
He added, “The fact is it’s not as simple as you make it sound or as Joe Biden made it sound on the stage last night to locate the parents who are in other countries and when they do locate them it has been DHS’s experience that in many cases the parents do not want the children returned.”
Watch his comments below:
“It's a regrettable situation,” Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh says about 545 parents separated from their children at the border.
— CNN This Morning with Kasie Hunt (@CNNThisMorning) October 23, 2020
"…We should not lay out the welcome mat and encourage people” to travel through Mexico, he adds. https://t.co/KoamPX0XDl pic.twitter.com/H1CQBi2KrL
Murtaugh argued the cages in question were built under the Obama administration.
Berman pushed back and claimed while some cages existed under the Obama administration, the separation policy began during the Trump administration.
He asked Murtaugh if Trump is directly involved in reuniting these children with their parents.
“Well certainly that’s under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security and ICE and all of the other associated agencies,” Murtaugh said.
He claimed the immigration policies put forth by Biden “openly invite people to come and try to enter this country illegally.”
According to a filing from the ACLU on Tuesday reported by NBC News, lawyers are afraid the Trump administration deported two-thirds of those parents to Central America, as IJR previously reported.
The group Justice in Motion announced it is searching for the parents in Mexico and Central America.