Sarah Sanders fires back at Laura Bush over her criticism of family separations

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Monday responded to former first lady Laura Bush’s criticism of the separation of families on the US border.

“The president himself said that he doesn’t like this process,” Sanders said when asked about the White House’s reaction to Bush’s scathing column in the Washington Post.

However, Sanders said, “it’s Congress’ job to change the law. We’re calling on them to do exactly that. And frankly, this law was actually signed into effect in 2008 under her husband’s leadership. Not under this administration.”

“We’re not the ones responsible for creating this problem,” Sanders added. “We’ve inherited it, but we’re actually the first administration stepping up and trying to fix it.”

In her op-ed, Bush called the separations “immoral.”

“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,” she wrote.

“Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. 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,” Bush added. “In 2018, can we not as a nation find a kinder, more compassionate and more moral answer to this current crisis? I, for one, believe we can.”