Democrat Ted Lieu Slams Melania Trump, Says Separating Immigrants From Their Children Isn’t A ‘Be Best’ Policy

Melania Trump, the First Lady of the United States, revealed her official platform this month. Melania’s platform for children, dubbed “Be Best,” is, according to CNN, a comprehensive program meant to focus on fighting opioid abuse, positivity on social media, and well-being.

Separating children from their parents, however, is most definitely not a “Be Best” policy, according to Ted Lieu, a Democrat currently serving as the U.S. Representative for California’s 33rd congressional district.

Mr. Lieu took to Twitter to launch an attack on the first lady, criticizing her and her husband’s administration’s immigration policies in one fell swoop.

“No one can take your ‘Be Best’ children’s agenda seriously when your husband’s policy rips kids from their parents and loses track of their children,” Lieu tweeted.

Dear @FLOTUS: Separating toddlers from parents is definitely not a #BeBest policy. Are you going to do anything about it?

No one can take your #BeBest children's agenda seriously when your husband's policy rips kids from their parents and loses track of the children. https://t.co/IQTSrvTVP4

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 26, 2018

According to the Huffington Post, tens of thousands of children are separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border each year. The government was unable to locate nearly 1,500 children last month, according to Health and Human Services, demonstrating the repercussions of the strict government system caring for minors traveling to the U.S.

Donald Trump’s administration is, according to HuffPo, stretching the already stern system even further. As of this month, Donald Trump’s administration is adhering to the rules of a new policy referring prosecution of anyone who crosses the border illegally.

These newly-implemented changes send adult immigrants to jails run by the U.S. Marshals Services. Their children, separated from parents, end up in the same agency minors who come to the United States on their own, without parents, wind up in. Oftentimes, data shows, once the system swallows their children up, parents are unable to locate them.

As White House chief of staff John Kelly said, once separated from their parents, the children “will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever.” By this, according to HuffPo, Kelly is referring to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Part of the Department of Health and Human Services, the office is in charge of taking custody of children, who by law may not be immediately deported, but are apprehended at the border.

The First Lady’s “Be Best” platform, which aims to help children is, according to Ted Lieu, in direct collision with the current administration’s policies, but Lieu is not the only person to criticize Trump’s immigration policies. Famous journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Glenn Greenwald, described what’s been happening as “vile and unforgivable.”

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1000344714254651392

Caught in the crossfire between the public, her own platform, and her husband’s immigration policies, Melania Trump has been a target of criticism, not just by Ted Lieu, but by the media as well. Analyzing the First Lady’s official platform, the New Yorker cited its “childlike strangeness,” writing that, while officially presenting her campaign, Melania sounded like “an actor reading from a script that she didn’t quite understand.”