Ivanka Trump says 'immigration not part of my portfolio' on being questioned over separation policy
President Donald Trump's daughter and White House adviser, Ivanka Trump, refused to criticize her father's administration over its family separation policy for immigrants along the US-Mexico border. Ivanka, instead, defended her stance of not engaging with the issue and argued that "immigration is not a part" of her portfolio.
She made the statement while appearing in an interview on Face The Nation with CBS host Margaret Brennan which was aired on Sunday. Brennan, during the interview, pointed out that Ivanka was vocal in her opposition to the family separation policy, and asked if she continued to engage in the issue considering there are still hundreds of children who remain separated.
The White House adviser's response, however, appeared to defend the policy of her father's administration which has received worldwide criticism.
“We went and looked and Homeland Security says there are still around 900 children who remain separated from their families,” Brennan told Ivanka. “Is that something that you continue to remain engaged on?”
The president's daughter responded to the question with: "Well, immigration is not in part of my portfolio. Obviously, I think everyone should be engaged and the full force of the U.S. government is committed to this effort of border security, to protecting the most vulnerable.”
“That includes those being trafficked,” she continued, ignoring the main point of Brennan’s question. “Which this president is committed to countering and combatting human trafficking in an incredibly comprehensive and aggressive way. So the full United States government has been focused on this issue starting with the president.”
Although Ivanka has sought to distance herself from President Trump's immigration policy, she had consistently received backlash for advocating family values while not doing enough to address the fallout of her father's 'zero tolerance' policy that resulted in hundreds of children being separated from their families.
The Department of Homeland Security had reportedly been warned against separate families at the border well before Trump took office in 2017. According to documents obtained by the Center for Public Integrity and published in partnership with The Texas Tribune, a child refugee specialist had objected to U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Office of Field Operations (OFO) separating migrant children from their parents in 2016.