Willie Nelson Wants President Trump to Visit a Border Detention Center With Him
Willie Nelson has reached out to President Trump via his own favorite means of communication, Twitter, to issue an invitation as a crisis that has seen thousands of children separated from their parents continues to rage at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.
The country legend tagged the former reality television star and current president in a tweet on Monday (June 18), writing: "@realDonaldTrump Hey Donald this is @WillieNelson Let’s go down to a border detention center together to better understand what’s happening down there?! Let’s talk!"
The tweet did not come from Nelson's Twitter account, but his publicist, Elaine Schock, has confirmed the message came from Nelson. It was published to an account with the handle @BioAnnie1, which appears to belong to Nelson's wife. There's little doubt where Mrs. Nelson stands politically; she has changed her Twitter name to Happy Blue Year 2018, along with pictures of an actual blue wave and a rainbow.
Nelson has previously been highly critical of the Trump Administration's new "zero tolerance" policy, which interprets existing immigration laws to state that everyone crossing the border illegally must be prosecuted, even if they are trying to seek legal asylum from drug lords or other forms of crime and persecution.
Under the new interpretation, which became effective in May, since children cannot be incarcerated legally, they are separated from their parents and held in detention centers all around the United States. As reported by CNN, a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security states that more than 2 thousand minor children have been separated from their families in the last six weeks since the new policy took hold, causing an outcry from liberals and a growing number of conservatives.
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Nelson previously decried the new border policy as "outrageous."
"Christians everywhere should be up in arms," he tells Rolling Stone Country. "What happened to 'Bring us your tired and weak and we will make them strong?' This is still the promise land."
The United Nations has called for the administration to discontinue the policy, calling the detentions "arbitrary and unlawful," according to Newsweek.
NPR reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions cited Scripture as a precedent for adhering to the zero tolerance policy when he addressed a group of law enforcement officers on June 14.
"Persons who violate the law of our nation are subject to prosecution," Sessions said. "I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order."
According to CNBC, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders got into a terse exchange with reporters at a press briefing when she tried to explain Sessions' remarks by saying, "I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law, that is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible."
Trump has not publicly responded to Nelson's invitation. He has blamed Democrats for the policy via his Twitter feed, most recently on Tuesday.
Democrats and human rights groups have charged that Trump is using the children as pawns in bargaining for his political agenda, including building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.
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