McALLEN, Texas (AP) – Melania Trump visited with migrant children Thursday during a brief stop at a Texas facility housing some of the youth separated from their parents as her husband’s administration prosecutes adults who enter the U.S. illegally from Mexico.
The first lady, who has a 12-year-old son, smiled and laughed with the migrant children. “Be kind and nice to each other, OK,” she said as she left one classroom at Upbring New Hope Children’s Center and headed for another.
First lady Melania Trump, left, and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, center, take a tour of the Upbring New Hope Children Center run by the Lutheran Social Services of the South in McAllen, Texas, Thursday, June 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)Plans for her to visit a second facility where children housed in cages were seen by The Associated Press last week were canceled because of flooding there.
The first lady said in a written statement after she returned to the White House that the visit had “impacted me greatly.” She called on Congress to work together on immigration legislation that would benefit the children.
“Spending time with them reinforces the fact that these kids are in this situation as a direct result of adult actions,” she said. “It is my hope that Members of Congress will finally reach across the aisle and work together to solve this problem with common sense immigration reform that secures our borders and keeps families together.”