WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on immigration legislation (all times local):
5 p.m.
The Pentagon says it is searching nationwide for space on military installations that could be used to house adult migrants who have tried to cross the U.S. border illegally.
In a brief statement, spokesman Lt. Col. Jamie Davis says this is part of “prudent planning” in case the Department of Homeland Security asks for the Pentagon’s help. He says there has not yet been any DHS request.
Such planning is standard procedure for the Pentagon.
On Thursday the Pentagon said it would support a request by the Department of Health and Human Services to find temporary shelter on military installations for up to 20,000 unaccompanied children who are detained for illegally crossing the border.
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1:35 p.m.
Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu of California has aired audio on the House floor of sobbing children in a detention center crying out for their parents....
He was quickly gaveled by the presiding officer, Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga., who told him to stop playing the audio because it was against House rules.Lieu responded that Americans need to hear the tape.The dramatic audio, first reported by ProPublica and later provided to The Associated Press, roiled the national debate over the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” approach to border crossings. The policy has resulted in more than 2,300 children being separated from their parents.Within a minute, Lieu yielded back his time and the audio was cut off.___11:45 a.m.White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Democrats and the news media exploited for political purposes a widely circulated photograph of a 2-year-old Honduran girl as her mother is searched near the U.S.-Mexico border.It was widely assumed the toddler and her mother had been separated under President Donald Trump[1]’s now-rescinded policy that resulted in separating families entering the U.S. illegally.But the girl’s father told The Washington Post on Thursday that his daughter and her mother are together.Sanders tweeted Friday: “It’s shameful that dems and the media exploited this photo of a little girl to push their agenda. She was not separated from her mom. The separation here is from the facts.”She called on Democrats to help Trump[2] fix the immigration system - after Trump[3] said Republicans should wait until after November’s congressional elections.___10:15 a.m. President Donald Trump[4] is accusing Democrats of circulating “phony stories of sadness and grief,” amid a global uproar over his ‘zero tolerance’ policy for illegal border crossings.Calling for a “strong” border, he says: “We cannot allow our Country to be overrun by illegal immigrants as the Democrats tell their phony stories of sadness and grief, hoping it will help them in the elections.”He adds: “Obama and others had the same pictures, and did nothing about it!’”Trump[5] issued an executive order Wednesday to move to halt family separations, saying he was affected by the same images.In another