Melania Trump tries to quell outrage over family separations, but courts controversy instead
McAllen — Melania Trump made a surprise trip to the US-Mexican border on Thursday as her husband’s administration seeks to quell a firestorm over migrant family separations, while Republican legislators were forced to delay a high-stakes vote on the crisis. While President Donald Trump’s administration struggled to formulate next steps, the Pentagon signalled officials were bracing for a lengthy ordeal. The military said it would prepare to house up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on its bases. The first lady’s unannounced visit came a day after the president — in a stunning about-face — moved to end the practice of splitting migrant families, which had prompted outrage at home and abroad. There was, however, no immediate plan in place to reunite the more than 2,300 children already separated from their families — igniting a fresh controversy over the conditions in which the children are living. In McAllen, Texas, Trump visited the Upbring New Hope Children’s Shelter, a fed...
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