Last week, in a major reversal, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending his administration's policy of separating immigrant children from families, only days after Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said it was an issue only Congress could fix.
Charles Sennott, executive director ofThe GroundTruth Project, said the reversal was a sign that the administration is struggling to square its hard-line rhetoric on immigration with public outcry over its policies like family separation.
"It really reveals that the administration is in chaos on its immigration policy," Sennott said.
"[The administration] has two things going: It has the rhetoric it likes to put forward, and then it has things that don't poll well with a very important part of its base that it's worried about," he added. "Apparently, suburban Republican women really don't like this idea of separating families."
Sennott pointed to former First Lady Laura Bush's letter condemning family separation as "cruel" and "immoral."
"I think what we're seeing is an immigration policy that's in disarray," Sennott added. "[Trump] is shifting all over the place."
