First lady makes second visit to children separated from parents at border after jacket controversy overshadowed previous trip

Melania Trump has travelled to the US border with Mexico for a second time in a week to see immigration centers housing apprehended migrant children, following widespread outcry over the separation of families under the president’s “zero-tolerance” migration policy.

Melania Trump visits child detention center as fate of families remains unclear Read more

During her visit to Tucson on Thursday, the first lady visited a Customs and Border Patrol facility, for a roundtable discussion with the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Marshals Service and a local rancher. She was also expected to tour the Tucson Coordinating Center, a short-term holding facility, and an intelligence center.

The visit comes a week after Trump’s wardrobe choice overshadowed her visit to the border town of McAllen, Texas, to meet officials dealing with detained families, and with children at one of the facilities.

During that trip, the first lady wore a jacket that said “I really don’t care. Do U?” on the back. Trump’s spokeswoman said there was no hidden message intended. Donald Trump undercut that statement, tweeting that it had been a statement about his wife not caring about “fake news”.



The choice overshadowed the trip to visit children detained at the border under the president’s zero-tolerance policy to prosecute all people who cross the border illegally.

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More than 2,300 children have been separated from their parents at the border and some were placed in government-contracted shelters hundreds of miles away from their parents.



Donald Trump last week signed an executive order to halt the separation of families at the border, at least for a few weeks, but the order did not address the reunification of families already separated.

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered that thousands of migrant children and parents be reunited within 30 days – and sooner if the youngster is under five. The order poses logistical problems for the administration, and it was unclear how it would meet the deadline.