US Chamber of Commerce calls for Trump to end family separations at border

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday demanded that President Trump end a “zero tolerance” policy that separates families at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

“Thousands of children are being forcibly removed from their parents by our government,” the business group’s president and CEO, Thomas Donahue, wrote in a statement. “There is no other way to say it, this is not who we are and it must end now.”

{mosads}Donahue also urged lawmakers to act on the separation of families as well as “permanent protection for Dreamers, and permanent relief for long-term beneficiaries of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program.”

“It is not just that America is a nation of immigrants — it is that since our founding we have embraced certain core values. One of those values is that children should not be punished for the crimes of their parents,” he added. “Yet, today, government policy is running in direct contradiction to that value.”

The statement comes amid pushback from Democratic and Republican lawmakers over a Trump administration policy that has resulted in the separation of undocumented minors from their parents at the southern border.

Trump, however, continues to defend the policy, which has resulted in roughly 2,000 children being separated from their parents between mid-April and the end of May. On Tuesday, he said Democrats are the problem. 

“They don’t care about crime and want illegal immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country, like MS-13,” he tweeted. “They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as potential voters!”