Pence says family separations won’t return

Vice President Mike Pence in a CNN interview that aired Friday doubled down on President Trump’s statement that the administration will not resume family separations at the border.

In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash at the U.S.-Mexico border, Pence said that the president had made it “clear” that if a zero-tolerance immigration policy was reinstated, family separations would not be a part of it.

{mosads}”Will you vow…that family separations will never be reinstated?” asked Bash.

“The president made it very clear this week that we’re not bringing back family separations,” Pence responded. “But it’s absolutely essential to end a humanitarian crisis that really threatens the security of the American people, and is creating hardships on both sides of our border.”

“Congress needs to act [on immigration reform],” Pence added.

His comments follow Trump’s remarks this week denying reports claiming that his administration was preparing to restart the policy.

“We’re not looking to do that, no,” Trump said Tuesday.

Trump did say, however, that rescinding the policy had lead to higher levels of migration.

“Once you don’t have it, that’s why you see many more people coming. They’re coming like it’s a picnic because, ‘let’s go to Disneyland,'” the president asserted.