Border separation controversy splitting N.H. Republicans, energizing state Democrats

New Hampshire is more than 2,000 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, but the impact of the controversial move by President Donald Trump’s administration to separate families trying to cross the border is being felt in the Granite State.

“Distance does not make the heart grow fonder of the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents,” New England College political science professor Wayne Lesperance said. “Granite Staters, like their counterparts across the country, are treated daily to heart-wrenching images of crying children being pulled from their mothers’ arms on the southern border.”

The president reversed course Wednesday afternoon, signing an executive order that he said keeps “families together while ensuring we have a powerful border.” Trump had previously stated that he had no authority to stop the separation of children from their parents.

But the move by the president – an aggressive enforcement of his “zero-tolerance” policy that separated more than 2,300 minors from their families in just over a month, according to the Department of Homeland Security – once again put New Hampshire’s Republican governor in an uncomfortable political situation.

Read more: http://www.concordmonitor.com/Sununu-Border-National-Guard-NH-18314681