Ivanka Trump appeared today on CBS’ Face the Nation where host Margaret Brennan asked her a direct question as to whether she was “personally engaged” in ensuring migrant families that were separated as a result of DHS’ zero tolerance policy(aka family separation policy) are reunited in a timely manner. Ivanka surprisingly gave a very generalized, even noncommittal answer that left one with the impression that she has never been personally involved in the issue as many including Yours Truly, had assumed.

Host Margaret Brennan said, “You were vocal in your opposition to the family separation policy when it came to immigration in the U.S. border. You said that was a low point for you. We[CBS] went and looked and Homeland Security[DHS] says there are still around 900 children who remain separated from their families. Is that something you continue to remain engaged on when it comes to immigration?” Any reasonable person reading this would conclude that this was a specific question as to whether Ivanka was personally/actively involved with the migrant family reunifications and not a general question about Trump administration’s immigration policy. Ivanka however treated it as a general question and cleverly dodged dealing with the issue at hand–her specific role in resolving the family separation crisis.

Specifically Ivanka replied, “Well immigration is not part of my portfolio obviously. I think everyone should be engaged, and the full force of the U.S. government is committed to this effort, to border security, to protecting the most vulnerable. That includes those being trafficked across our border which this president has committed to countering and combating human trafficking in an incredibly comprehensive aggressive way. So the full United States government has been focused on this issue starting with the president.”

It also bears pointing out that Ivanka takes a lot of heat on social media related to the family separation policy every time she shares pictures of her children. One would think such sustained public pressure would have moved her by now into taking a more active role in resolving the migrant family separation crisis, or at least creating a public impression that she has.

Ivanka Trump, children’s advocate, has nothing to say about family separation https://t.co/FzXIqETkDU — Vox (@voxdotcom) June 19, 2018

Bottom line even though immigration is not in Ivanka’s portfolio as she correctly pointed out in her Face the Nation interview, the child separation policy in particular, is a topic she cannot be seen to be noncommittal about if she expects the public to take her seriously in her other women empowerment campaigns. Reasonable people will agree that as a champion for women empowerment, Ivanka has a duty to get involved and actively push her father’s administration towards a timely resolution of the migrant family separation crisis. Ivanka herself has expressed frustration with the child separation policy so she has no excuse for looking the other way. Simply put, do something about the migrant family separation crisis Ivanka, it is the moral thing to do.

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