President Trump Donald John TrumpJimmy Fallon responds to Trump: I'll donate to pro-immigrant nonprofit in his name South Carolina GOP candidate expected to make full recovery after car accident Official: US to present North Korea with timeline, 'specific asks' MORE on Friday again blamed Democrats for his administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border. 
 
 In an impromptu interview on “Fox & Friends,” Trump said he “hates” the policy, and claimed the Democrats could change the “law” if they voted with Republicans on immigration reform. 
 
 “Democrats forced that law on the nation,” he said. 
 
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 Trump’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsMigrants told they’ll be reunited with children if they sign voluntary deportation order: report Christie: Trump 'enormously ill-served' by DOJ on 'zero tolerance' policy 'Occupy ICE' protests emerge across the country MORE, enacted a “zero tolerance” policy at the border last month, mandating that everyone apprehended illegally entering the U.S. will face criminal charges. 
 
 The policy is resulting in parents being separated from their children while facing legal prosecution. 
 
 Sessions says the measure is necessary to increase border security. Trump has blamed Democrats in the past for the policy, citing inaction on immigration reform. 
 
 The policy has drawn significant criticism from lawmakers and immigration advocates, who have raised concerns about the treatment of migrant children in custody. The White House has repeatedly defended the policy. 
 
 Trump said on Friday during the same interview that he would refuse to sign the more “moderate” of two immigration bills proposed by the House GOP. 
 
 Republican leaders agreed to hold two votes next week on a compromise immigration bill that included a measure that would end the separation of migrant children and parents at the border, and on a more hard-line immigration measure. ||||| The Trump administration’s move to separate immigrant families at the border and detain children apart from their parents spiraled into a humanitarian and political crisis Monday as the White House struggled to contain the growing public outcry. 
 
 The situation has become a moral test for President Trump and his administration. The president on Monday voiced defiance and continued to falsely blame congressional Democrats for what he decried as a “horrible and tough” situation. But Trump is empowered to immediately order border agents to stop separating families as a result of his “zero tolerance” enforcement policy. 
 
 The president asserted that the parents illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with their children “could be murderers and thieves and so much else,” echoing his incendiary remarks about immigrants at his campaign launch in 2015. And in a series of dark tweets, he warned that undocumented immigrants could increase gang crime and usher in cultural changes. 
 
 “The United States will not be a migrant camp, and it will not be a refugee holding facility,” Trump said in a midday speech. “You look at what’s happening in Europe, you look at what’s happening in other places. We can’t allow that to happen to the United States. Not on my watch.” 
 
 More than 2,300 children were taken from their parents at the border between May 5 and June 9, according to statistics released Monday by the Department of Homeland Security, with the pace of family separations growing over that period to nearly 70 a day. 
 
 The separations were roundly condemned — including by all four living former first ladies — as cruel, inhumane and un-American. Administration officials rejected former first lady Laura Bush’s comparison of the detention centers to Japanese American internment camps during World War II. 
 
 [Laura Bush: Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart’] 
 
 The White House said people killed by illegal immigrants were the true victims because they were “permanently” separated from their family members, even listing crimes in a document that Trump aides shared with allies. 
 
 Though the administration has tried to present a public picture of steely resolve — vowing not to apologize for enforcing the law, as Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said Monday — senior officials have disagreed behind the scenes about the merits and morality of separating children from their parents. 
 
 “Parents who entered illegally are, by definition, criminals,” Nielsen told reporters during an unusually contentious White House news briefing. “By entering our country illegally, often in dangerous circumstances, illegal immigrants have put their children at risk.” 
 
 Nielsen maintained that her agency was merely enforcing existing law and said it was up to Congress to change the policy. “It is the beginning of the unraveling of democracy when the body who makes the laws, instead of changing them, tells the enforcement body not to enforce the law,” she said. 
 
 
 
 Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen speaks during a contentious news briefing at the White House on Monday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) 
 
 But many lawmakers disagreed with that assessment. 
 
 “The White House can fix it if they want to,” said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). “I don’t think there’s any question about that.” 
 
 Nielsen also said the administration is not using its “zero tolerance” policy to pressure Congress to act on Trump’s broader immigration agenda or to deter migrants from coming to the country, contradicting comments from other administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and senior adviser Stephen Miller. 
 
 The crisis garnered round-the-clock television news coverage, with journalists reporting about their first glimpses of the ­concrete-floor and metal-cage conditions inside the detention centers. 
 
 Nielsen acknowledged that she was not keeping pace with coverage of the crisis, including audio of wailing children published a few hours earlier by ProPublica. She said she did not know why the administration had released images Sunday of young boys in cages at a Texas detention center but not of young girls. 
 
 Trump has been closely monitoring the coverage but has been suspicious of it, telling associates he believes that the media cherry-picks the most dramatic images and stories to portray his administration in a negative light, according to one senior administration official. 
 
 The images in the media contrast with more positive photos that Trump’s aides have shown the president depicting detained children smiling, playing video games and exercising outside, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. 
 
 Meanwhile, Trump and his advisers were unable to stanch the wellspring of public opposition. Some Republican elected officials joined Democrats in expressing moral outrage and calling for an immediate end to the administration’s family separation policy. 
 
 [Photos | This photographer spent a decade at the Mexico border. Here is what he saw.] 
 
 In an indication that GOP leaders fear negative ramifications in November’s midterm elections, Rep. Steve Stivers (Ohio), who chairs the House Republicans’ campaign arm, called on the administration to change its policy and “stop needlessly separating children from their families.” 
 
 Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) said: “It’s time for this ugly and inhumane practice to end. Now.” He added, “It’s never acceptable to use kids as bargaining chips in political process.” 
 
 And Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) tweeted: “The administration’s current family separation policy is an affront to the decency of the American people, and contrary to principles and values upon which our nation was founded. The administration has the power to rescind this policy. It should do so now.” 
 
 Two polls released Monday showed the public overwhelmingly against separating the children of illegal immigrants from their parents at the border. A CNN survey found that 28 percent of Americans approve of the policy and 67 percent disapprove, while a Quinnipiac University poll had a similar finding, with 27 percent of voters approving of the policy and 66 percent disapproving. 
 
 Trump will head to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to meet with House Republicans and push for immigration legislation that would provide funding for his promised border wall, among other priorities. Senior administration officials suggested that the humanitarian crisis at the border was leverage to force legislators to pass such a law. 
 
 “We do not want to separate parents from their children,” Sessions, an architect and key defender of the policy, said in a speech Monday. “If we build the wall, if we pass legislation to end the lawlessness, we won’t face these terrible choices.” 
 
 House Republicans are expected to vote this week on two immigration bills: a hard-line measure drafted by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and a second bill cast as a compromise between the moderate and conservative wings of the GOP. 
 
 House leaders were rushing to insert provisions into both measures that would not separate families, according to a senior GOP aide, and allow children to be detained indefinitely with their parents. The prospect of passage for either bill is murky at best. If neither garners the necessary support, lawmakers would have to decide whether to introduce a stand-alone bill addressing family separation. 
 
 Trump’s position has been unclear. The president said in a television interview Friday that he would not sign “the more moderate” of the two measures, launching a day of confusion and chaos on Capitol Hill that forced White House officials to clarify that Trump, in fact, supported both bills. Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Republicans said they hoped that Trump would personally deliver assurances that he backs their plan. 
 
 Senate Republicans also began working to draft a legislative fix to the growing family separation crisis, even as some in their ranks stressed that Trump had the power to reverse the practice himself. Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said a “handful” of GOP senators had started to discuss a bill that would be “humane and compassionate but also allows the government to enforce the law.” 
 
 One of the other senators working on the fix, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), privately spoke with Nielsen on the phone about the unfolding crisis last Friday and said he was also reaching out to Democratic lawmakers about a bill that could pass. 
 
 “Every direction they go, it’s bad,” Lankford said of DHS officials. “That’s the challenge they have.” 
 
 The president considers immigration a winning issue for him politically, advisers said. He has complained repeatedly in recent months that he looks “weak” on border enforcement and has been concerned that his base could turn on him for not being tougher, according to a senior administration official. 
 
 A second administration official said Trump is in agreement with Miller, a hard-line influence in the administration, in believing that “if we’re having an argument on immigration, we always win because that’s our ground, no matter what the nuances of the argument are.” 
 
 White House officials have said there is no comprehensive strategy at play. “What’s the end game?” another senior administration official asked. 
 
 At a meeting with Sens. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) at the White House on Monday, Trump reupped his threat to shut down the government in September if he doesn’t get money for the border wall, according to two people familiar with the meeting. The president told the senators he was willing to take such a drastic action, these people said, and wanted his wall funding along with strong border security measures. 
 
 The issue of family separation was mentioned in passing, with Trump putting blame on Democrats. 
 
 Behind the scenes at the White House, aides scrambled Monday to manage the public relations fallout and rally support for their policy. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s daily briefing, first scheduled for 1:15 p.m., was pushed back to 3:30 p.m., then to 4, then to 5, so Nielsen could field questions at the lectern. She was at the White House around 1 p.m. doing extensive prep for the briefing and met with Trump at 3, according to a White House official. 
 
 [Facing outcry over family separations, DHS chief says, ‘We will not apologize’] 
 
 On Monday morning, administration officials from the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security briefed dozens of congressional aides to explain the “zero tolerance” policy in the face of mounting questions from Capitol Hill. 
 
 The White House distributed more than 3,000 words of talking points to Republican allies under the headline “Congressional Democrats’ Policies Are Responsible for the Border Crisis and Family Separations.” The talking points — which included repeated false claims and said that children were being treated well, calling reports of inhumane treatment “bunk” — were largely greeted with amazement, according to senior Republican aides. 
 
 Trump’s spokesmen doubled down on the president’s false contention that Democrats were to blame. The administration pointed to a 1997 legal agreement and a 2008 bipartisan anti- 
 
 human-trafficking bill as requiring the separation of families. But the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations did not share that interpretation. 
 
 Although Trump tweeted, “Change the laws!,” no law mandates that children be taken away from their parents after illegally crossing the border. And Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike contend that Trump could end the separations of his own accord. 
 
 Nielsen defended her agency’s practice of separating migrant families and accused the media and members of Congress of mischaracterizing the administration’s border crackdown. 
 
 “We will not apologize for the job we do, or the job law enforcement does, or the job the American people expect us to do,” Nielsen said in morning remarks to law enforcement officers in New Orleans. 
 
 Democrats, meanwhile, have escalated their campaign to denounce the separations. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and a handful of other Democratic lawmakers visited a detention facility in San Diego. 
 
 In the Senate, all 49 members of the Democratic caucus have endorsed a bill from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would explicitly bar DHS officials from taking children away from a parent at the border, absent evidence of trafficking or abuse. 
 
 And Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), an outspoken critic of the administration’s immigration enforcement policies, called on Nielsen to resign, saying her false and misleading public statements in recent days are “disqualifying.” 
 
 Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said the American people should have expected the current crisis at the border because of Trump’s campaign proposals and rhetoric. 
 
 “I warned about this during the debates and on the campaign trail, that Trump’s immigration policies would entail families being separated,” Clinton said in a speech Monday. “Now, as we watch with broken hearts, that’s exactly what’s happening.” 
 
 Mike DeBonis, Nick Miroff and John Wagner contributed to this report. ||||| FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2017, file photo, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., speaks at a rally in Washington. Merkley, while trying to gain access to a federal facility housing immigrant children in Texas near... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2017, file photo, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., speaks at a rally in Washington. Merkley, while trying to gain access to a federal facility housing immigrant children in Texas near the Mexico border and talk to a supervisor was turned away after police were summoned. (AP Photo/Manuel... (Associated Press) 
 
 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ignited eleventh-hour confusion Friday over Republican efforts to push immigration legislation through the House, saying he wouldn't sign a "moderate" package. The White House later walked back the comments, formally endorsing the measure and saying Trump had been confused. 
 
 The campaign-season tumult erupted as GOP leaders put finishing touches on a pair of Republican bills: a hard-right proposal and a middle-ground plan negotiated by the party's conservative and moderate wings, with White House input. Only the compromise bill would open a door to citizenship for young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, and reduce the separation of children from their parents when families are detained crossing the border — a practice that has drawn bipartisan condemnation in recent days. 
 
 "I'm looking at both of them," Trump said when asked about the proposals during an impromptu interview on Fox News' "Fox & Friends," adding: "I certainly wouldn't sign the more moderate one." 
 
 The comment prompted widespread confusion on the Hill and jeopardized Republicans' plans for votes on both bills next week. Leaders released a schedule for next week that included "possible consideration" of immigration legislation. 
 
 Earlier this week, House Speaker Paul Ryan had told colleagues that Trump supported the middle-ground package. White House aide Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner who has been accused of trying to sabotage immigration deals in the past, told conservative lawmakers at a closed-door meeting that the president backed that plan. 
 
 But a senior White House official later said Trump had misspoken and believed his Fox interviewer was asking about an effort by GOP moderates — abandoned for now — that would have forced votes on a handful of bills and likely led to House passage of liberal-leaning versions party leaders oppose. The official, who was not authorized to discuss internal conversations by name, spoke on the condition of anonymity. 
 
 The interviewer had specifically asked whether Trump supported a conservative bill penned by Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., o or "something more moderate," and asked whether he'd sign "either one." 
 
 The White House later put out a statement formally endorsing the measure. 
 
 "The President fully supports both the Goodlatte bill and the House leadership bill," said White House spokesman Raj Shah, adding that Trump would sign "either the Goodlatte or the leadership bills." 
 
 Trump also weighed in by tweet, writing that any bill "MUST HAVE" provisions financing his proposed wall with Mexico and curbing the existing legal immigration system. Those items are included in the middle-ground package. 
 
 "Go for it! WIN!" Trump wrote in a tweet that stopped short of explicitly endorsing the compromise plan. 
 
 Despite their policy clashes, both Republican factions have been eager for the votes to be held as a way to show constituents where they stand. In addition, party leaders want to move on from an issue that divides the GOP, complicating their effort to retain House control in November's elections. 
 
 The more conservative measure is seen as virtually certain to lose. Party leaders have nurtured hopes that the compromise version could pass, but Trump's backing would be crucial. His opposition would be an embarrassing and likely fatal setback. 
 
 Conservatives are leery of legislation protecting from deportation immigrants who arrived illegally, calling it amnesty. 
 
 After Trump made his comments on Fox, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the GOP's No. 2 vote counter, told reporters that leaders were seeking "clarity" from the White House. He suggested that plans for votes next week were being reconsidered. 
 
 "House Republicans are not going to take on immigration without the support and endorsement of President Trump," McHenry said. 
 
 Democrats are expected to solidly oppose both GOP bills, giving Republicans little leeway for losing support. 
 
 "When the president says he's not going to sign it, just shows how low his standards are," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. 
 
 The compromise bill would mandate that children with families seized entering the U.S. be kept together for as long as they are in the custody of the Homeland Security Department, which staffs border facilities and enforces immigration laws. Critics say family separation would still be possible because another agency could take parents being prosecuted into custody. 
 
 Spotlighting the political sensitivity of the issue, congressional Republicans have distanced themselves from the Trump administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border. The White House has cited the Bible in defending its "zero tolerance" approach to illegal border crossings. 
 
 Both the conservative and compromise bills would provide money for Trump's long-sought border wall with Mexico. Each contains other strict border security provisions, and would end a visa lottery and tighten rules that let U.S. citizens sponsor relatives for legal status. 
 
 Both bills, which are still undergoing changes, contain provisions aimed at helping young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, often called Dreamers. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of them have been protected by the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump has terminated that program, though federal courts have temporarily kept it functioning. DACA has let the immigrants live and work in the U.S. in renewable two-year increments, but does not give them permanent legal status. 
 
 The latest version of the conservative bill would extend DACA protections for renewable six-year periods. They could later apply for permanent residency and eventually citizenship. 
 
 An expanded number of children who arrived legally with parents who have obtained work visas would also be covered. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press reporters Lisa Mascaro, Matthew Daly and Padmananda Rama contributed to this report.
– Lawmakers from both parties have been criticizing the Justice Department's tough new policy that requires immigrant children to be separated from their parents at the border. On Friday, President Trump joined the critics, with a familiar caveat. "I hate it," he said. "I hate to see separation of parents and children." But he suggested the administration had no choice, asserting that "the Democrats forced that law upon our nation." A host of outlets, including BuzzFeed, CNN, and the Washington Post say Trump is incorrect about that. Under the administration's new zero-tolerance policy, every adult caught crossing the border illegally is being prosecuted, and the children are being separated while their parents await their legal cases to play out. Related coverage: Compromise in peril: House Republicans were poised to float two immigration plans, the more moderate of which would hit many of Trump's wishes (including $25 billion for border security) while ending the separation policy, reports the Hill. (See below for more on the latter.) However, Trump may have torpedoed its chances Friday when he told Fox that he wouldn't sign it, reports the AP, which now sees "eleventh-hour confusion" on the issue.