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Melania Trump Travels To Arizona To Visit Migrant Detention Facilities

First lady Melania Trump talks with Border Patrol agents as she visits a processing center of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility in Tucson, Ariz. Thursday.
Carolyn Kaster
/
AP
First lady Melania Trump talks with Border Patrol agents as she visits a processing center of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility in Tucson, Ariz. Thursday.

Updated at 7:28 p.m. ET

First lady Melania Trump paid a second visit Thursday to children detained under her husband's "zero tolerance" policy for illegal southern border crossings.

She traveled to Tucson, Ariz., where she visited a Customs and Border Protection facility and participated in a roundtable discussion with Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Marshals Service and a local rancher. After the roundtable, the first lady toured an adjacent short-term detention facility.

Mrs. Trump also visited a separate private facility housing detained children and teens that is run by Southwest Key, an organization that receives grant money from the Department of Health and Human Services.

During the roundtable discussion at the government facility the first lady asked officials how often they see children crossing the southern border alone, not accompanied by an adult. She was told 1,100 unaccompanied children had entered Arizona's ports of entry since October 2017.

At the Southwest Key facility, the first lady held another roundtable discussion with the organization's employees. She also toured the facility and met some of the children and teens there.

First lady Melania Trump participates in a roundtable discussion at Southwest Key Campbell, a shelter for children that have been separated form their parents in Phoenix, Ariz., Thursday.
Carolyn Kaster / AP
/
AP
First lady Melania Trump participates in a roundtable discussion at Southwest Key Campbell, a shelter for children that have been separated form their parents in Phoenix, Ariz., Thursday.

The trip follows a visit last week to the border town of McAllen, Texas, to a shelter for children separated from their parents.

"She wanted to see everything for herself," her spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said at the time. "She supports family reunification. She thinks that it's important that children stay with their families."

Grisham confirmed on Tuesday that a second trip was being planned, but details were kept under wraps.

During the trip to McAllen, the first lady's choice of a jacket emblazoned with the words, "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?" prompted controversy and speculation about its meaning. Her spokeswoman said it was simply "a jacket" with "no hidden message."

She did not wear the jacket Thursday.

The initial trip took place the day after President Trump signed an executive order aimed at ending family separations. A White House official told NPR that Melania Trump pressed her husband to stop separating children from their parents.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in San Diego ordered the administration to stop separating parents and children and said that all immigrant children detained under the Trump administration policy must be returned to their parents within 30 days.

Since the ruling, Grisham said Thursday, the first lady is "anxious to learn how they're implementing the new process. There was a court case that threw a wrench in the works."

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Sarah McCammon worked for Iowa Public Radio as Morning Edition Host from January 2010 until December 2013.
Sarah McCammon
Sarah McCammon is a National Correspondent covering the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast for NPR. Her work focuses on political, social and cultural divides in America, including abortion and reproductive rights, and the intersections of politics and religion. She's also a frequent guest host for NPR news magazines, podcasts and special coverage.
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