WASHINGTON _ House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Thursday he disagrees with the Trump administration policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border.
"We don't want kids to be separated from their parents. We believe because of the court ruling, this will require legislative change," Ryan said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., disputed that legislation is needed.
"This was an act of the administration, they had been planning this for a while," Pelosi said in her own news conference.
"This is barbaric, this is not who America is, and this is the policy of the Trump administration," she said. "The casual attitude that they're having about this ... they could weigh in with the administration and stop it on a dime."
Ryan's reference to a court decision involved a 1997 agreement called the Flores settlement, which requires the federal government in many cases to release immigrant children in its custody. The settlement does not require the government to separate families who arrive together, and previous administrations have not interpreted it that way.
Next week the House is expected to consider wide-ranging immigration legislation. Along with providing a legal solution for young people brought into the country illegally as children, the bill is expected to limit separating parents and children at the border.
It's not clear if the bill, which is still being written by GOP leaders, could get enough support to pass the House, or if it would be brought up in the Senate.
The new zero-tolerance policy requiring prosecution of people arriving illegally at the border has driven up the number of immigrant children in government shelters in the nearly two months since it began.
Previously, border agents tried to keep families together by sending all members to the same family detention facility. Now, under the new policy announced in May, in most cases parents are prosecuted and children are sent to a separate refugee facility.
