BFF-30 White House chief voices ‘nothing but compassion’ for migrants

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White House chief voices ‘nothing but compassion’ for migrants

WASHINGTON, Dec 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Outgoing White House chief John Kelly
said he had “nothing but compassion” for undocumented migrants crossing into
the US and undercut the idea of a border wall in an interview Sunday that
jarred with President Donald Trump’s tough rhetoric on immigration.

Speaking as a partial government shutdown went into a ninth day due to an
impasse over Trump’s demands for funding for a wall at the US-Mexico border,
Kelly told the Los Angeles Times: “To be honest, it’s not a wall.”

“The president still says ‘wall.’ Oftentimes frankly he’ll say ‘barrier’ or
‘fencing,’ now he’s tended toward steel slats,” Kelly said.

“But we left a solid concrete wall early on in the administration, when we
asked people what they needed and where they needed it.”

A former Marine general who led the military command responsible for Latin
America, Kelly was Trump’s Homeland Security secretary before becoming White
House chief of staff in July last year.

But his relationship with the president reportedly deteriorated and he is
due to be replaced at the end of the year by Mick Mulvaney, who currently
serves as budget director.

Trump has been excoriated by opposition Democrats, who oppose his demand
for $5 billion in border wall funding, after he blamed them for the deaths of
two Guatemalan children in US custody in a tweet on Saturday.

“Illegal immigrants, overwhelmingly, are not bad people…. I have nothing
but compassion for them, the young kids,” Kelly told the LA Times adding that
many had been manipulated by traffickers.

The remarks were a sharp contrast to the rhetoric of the president who
regularly appeals to his overwhelmingly white political base by taking a hard
line on immigration.

Building a wall along the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) US-Mexico frontier
was a central plank of his 2016 election campaign.

He has spoken of an “invasion” of migrants and complained of “many gang
members and some very bad people” among a thousands-strong caravan of
immigrants that traveled to the US in October.

He has also threatened to cut aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,
despite migrants from those countries saying they are fleeing poverty and
gang violence.

In comments that are likely to irritate his boss, Kelly said the way to
halt illegal immigration was to “stop US demand for drugs, and expand
economic opportunity” in Central America.

BSS/AFP/ARS/0938 hrs