NEW YORK (AP) All four former first ladies have joined the current one, Melania Trump, in an unusual united political front expressing horror at children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mrs. Trump did not go as far as some of her predecessors, though, and criticize the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy that has led to the separations.
But Michelle Obama took to Twitter, in support of Laura Bush, to say, Sometimes truth transcends party.
Mrs. Obama, a Democrat, wrote those words as she re-tweeted Mrs. Bush, a Republican, who first spoke out in an opinion piece Sunday in The Washington Post.
I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart, Mrs. Bush said on Twitter as she shared her column.
Hillary Clinton, speaking at a womens event in New York, said the Trump administrations zero tolerance policy that has separated children and parents at the southern border was a moral and humanitarian crisis.
Their outrage and call for reforms come after nearly 2,000 minors were separated from adults in the six weeks following Attorney General Jeff Sessions announcement of the zero-tolerance approach to illegal border crossings.
In perhaps the most surprising response from a first lady, a statement from Mrs. Trumps office said she hates to see families separated at the border. Her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said Sunday, She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.
The senior among the first ladies, Rosalynn Carter, spoke through The Carter Center: The practice and policy today of removing children from their parents care at our border with Mexico is disgraceful and a shame to our country.
Mrs. Carter led a delegation to Thailand in 1979 for a firsthand look at the plight of Cambodian and Laotian refugees, recalling today the trauma of parents and children separated by circumstances beyond their control.
