Trump says he will sign 'something' soon to keep immigrant families together

June 20, 2018June 20, 2018 WKXA

ABC News(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump, under growing pressure to act unilaterally to address the immigration crisis, said Wednesday that he would be “signing something” soon that would keep immigrant families together.

“I’ll be signing something in a little while that’s going to do that,” Trump told pool reporters regarding the crisis over children being separated from parents who cross illegally into the U.S.

He later said he would sign an executive order.

The president’s move comes amid growing outrage over the practice and on the eve of House votes Thursday to address the immigration problem.

The president said he’s facing a dilemma between being weak and strong on the issue of immigration, and that it’s hard to have both heart and be strong.

The president said images of children in detention “affect everyone,” but said images from the Obama administration were worse.

“You have double standards,” Trump said. “This has been going on for 50 years.”

“We want to be strong at the border, but we also want to be compassionate,” Trump said.

First lady Melania Trump has been pushing behind the scenes for days to get her husband to end the child separation policy, according to a White House official.

The official said Melania Trump has been speaking with her husband often about this in recent days and has been encouraging him to do all he can to end the separations however he could.

Last night, Trump told lawmakers his daughter Ivanka had shown him images of children in detention facilities and urged him to end the separation practice.

While it’s not clear exactly what the president will sign, it will not end the “zero-tolerance” policy of prosecuting everyone who tries to cross the border illegally, a source involved in the drafting told ABC Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl.

The directive prepared for the president would instruct the Justice Department to allow children to be detained along with their family members while they await a hearing — even if that process takes more than 20 days.

Right now, under what’s called the Flores consent decree, children can be detained for only 20 days. The president will instruct DOJ to challenge that decree and to not abide by it while it is being challenged, the source said.

This move will almost certainly be challenged in court.

This is a developing story. Please refresh for updates.