--- title: Living First Ladies Speak Out Against Zero Tolerance Policy description: All four living first ladies have now decried the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy and separating children and parents at the border. canonical: https://time.com/5315482/first-ladies-trumps-border-family-separation-policy/ author: Alix Langone article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-19T01:19:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T19:14:47.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Living First Ladies Speak Out Against Zero Tolerance Policy og:description: Rosalynn Carter has now weighed in on the controversial policy og:url: https://time.com/5315482/first-ladies-trumps-border-family-separation-policy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafa3309276895882/6989335a4ee2625d5c312213/gettyimages-484518322.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6792 og:image:height: 3821 og:image:alt: McCloskey Speaker Series - A Conversation With Jimmy Carter And Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Living First Ladies Speak Out Against Zero Tolerance Policy twitter:description: Rosalynn Carter has now weighed in on the controversial policy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafa3309276895882/6989335a4ee2625d5c312213/gettyimages-484518322.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # All Five Living First Ladies Speak Out Against Trump's Border Family Separation Policy > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:14 PM UTCPublished: Jun 19, 2018 1:19 AM UTC  Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter speaks during the McCloskey Speaker Series on June 23, 2015 in Aspen, Colorado. Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter speaks during the McCloskey Speaker Series on June 23, 2015 in Aspen, Colorado.Leigh Vogel—Getty Images by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Updated: Dec 12, 2023 7:14 PM UTCPublished: Jun 19, 2018 1:19 AM UTC With Rosalynn Carter adding her voice to the choir of political figures who are speaking out against the Trump administration’s [zero tolerance immigration policy](http://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/), all five living first ladies have now publicly come out against the controversial policy, which separates children from their parents as families try to cross the border into the U.S. Carter called [the practice of removing children from their parents](http://time.com/5315484/listen-to-audio-of-children-separated-from-their-parents-inside-border-patrol-facilities/) “disgraceful and a shame to our country,” while recalling the work she did to raise awareness about the plight of refugees in Cambodia in the late 1970s. > [](https://twitter.com/CarterCenter/status/1008805106287071232) Laura Bush [published an op-ed in the Washington _Post_ ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/laura-bush-separating-children-from-their-parents-at-the-border-breaks-my-heart/2018/06/17/f2df517a-7287-11e8-9780-b1dd6a09b549%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.8f4c90432ba2)on Father’s Day calling family separations “immoral” and “cruel” while noting that more than 100 of the detained children are under the age of four. Bush also compared the current administration’s warehousing of immigrants in detention facilities to the internment camps in the U.S. during World War II. “These images are eerily reminiscent of the internment camps for U.S. citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent during World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history,” wrote Bush. Hillary Clinton, who lost the 2016 presidential election, also made her stance on the zero tolerance policy known, writing in a Twitter thread that what’s happening at the border is a “humanitarian crisis.” Clinton also applauded Bush’s decision to speak up and shared links to organizations accepting donations to help the separated families. > [](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/1008806592400314368) Michelle Obama made her thoughts on the zero tolerance policy known by sharing Bush’s op-ed, simply writing “Sometimes truth transcends party.” > [](https://twitter.com/MichelleObama/status/1008768272895012867) Current first lady [Melania Trump issued a statement](http://time.com/5314447/melania-trump-immigration-statement/) through her office saying, “Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” according to the statement. “She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.” Although many applauded her for breaking from her husband President Donald Trump’s stance on the policy, others have pointed out that she still assigned blame to the Democrats for what is happening at the border by using “both sides” in her statement. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5315482/first-ladies-trumps-border-family-separation-policy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5315482/first-ladies-trumps-border-family-separation-policy/"},"headline":"All Five Living First Ladies Speak Out Against Trump's Border Family Separation Policy","datePublished":"2018-06-19T01:19:08.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T19:14:47.000Z","description":"Rosalynn Carter has now weighed in","url":"https://time.com/5315482/first-ladies-trumps-border-family-separation-policy/","keywords":["Immigration","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafa3309276895882/6989335a4ee2625d5c312213/gettyimages-484518322.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alix Langone","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alix-langone/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafa3309276895882/6989335a4ee2625d5c312213/gettyimages-484518322.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"McCloskey Speaker Series - A Conversation With Jimmy Carter And Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter","caption":"McCloskey Speaker Series - A Conversation With Jimmy Carter And Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter","creditText":"Leigh Vogel—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5315482/first-ladies-trumps-border-family-separation-policy/","name":"All Five Living First Ladies Speak Out Against Trump's Border Family Separation Policy"}}]}] ```