President Donald Trump said Tuesday that illegal immigrants and migrants continue flooding into the United States and defended his enforcement policies, telling reporters that the infamous “cages” used to hold migrant children were “built by President Obama’s administration.”
“They are coming like it’s a picnic, because [it’s like], ‘Let’s go to Disneyland,'” Trump said, expressing his frustration with the ongoing struggle to secure the border.
Trump told reporters he was not looking to reinstate the child separation policy, despite reports from the White House suggesting that he would do so, although he admitted that it was effective.
“When you don’t do it, it brings a lot more people to the border, we are not looking to do it,” he said.
The president commented on the news during a White House visit with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
Trump claimed that President Barack Obama also separated children at the border and put them in “cages.”
“Take a look. The press knows it. You know it. We all know it,” Trump said, referring to pictures in the media. “Those cages that were shown, I think they were very inappropriate, they were built by President Obama’s administration. Not by Trump. I’m the one that stopped it. President Obama had child separation.”
Trump said he was not pleased by the judicial obstruction of his agenda trying to stop the flood of illegal immigrants and migrants crossing into the United States as well as Democrats obstructing his reforms.
“They don’t want to fix it,” he said.
Trump defended his actions to improve the Department of Homeland Security, including his decision to remove Sec. Kirstjen Nielson.
“I never said I’m cleaning house, I don’t know who came up with that expression,” Trump said. “We have a lot of great people over there.”
He said that the acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan would do a great job in the position in the meantime.
“Homeland Security, that’s exactly what we want. There’s no better term, there’s no better name,” he said. “We want homeland security.”
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