EAGER to keep the Republican Party in control of the Senate, President Donald Trump pressed his tough anti-illegal immigration stance before supporters on Saturday, saying “we have to be very strong” as he sought to help boost the candidacy of a one-time critic.

Trump was in Las Vegas to assist Dean Heller, the only Republican US senator seeking re-election in a state that Democrat Hillary Clinton won in 2016. Trump and Heller have papered over their once prickly relationship to present a united front in their shared goal of helping Republicans maintain, if not expand, their thin 51-49 majority in the Senate in November’s congressional elections. Heller was among the officials waiting on the sweltering airport tarmac to greet Trump.

In remarks to several hundred often-cheering attendees at the Nevada GOP Convention, Trump portrayed himself as the toughest against illegal immigration, saying at one point, “I think I got elected largely because we are strong on the border.” But he excluded any mention of the fact that a massive public outcry, including from members of his own family, forced him to reverse course this week and end the practice of separating children from families after they illegally cross the southern border into the US.

“On immigration, we have to be very strong,” Trump said, saying the immigration problem should have been solved years ago and blaming Democrats for causing it. “The fact is we need more Republicans because the Democrats are obstructionists.” Trump said Republicans are for “strong borders, no crime” and called it a winning issue for the party. He alleged that Democrats are for “open borders and MS-13 all over our country,” referring to the violent street gang, adding that stance is a losing issue for the opposition.

Trump praised Heller for voting to cut taxes, and said Senator Jacky Rosen, Heller’s Democratic opponent, would vote to raise them. He declared that he had a “great nickname” for Rosen before allowing the audience to egg him into saying it: “Wacky Jacky.” The president noted that Rosen was in Reno with Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren for the state Democratic Party convention. He again referred to Warren as “Pocahontas” to ridicule her claims of Native American ancestry. “Wacky Jacky is campaigning with Pocahontas. Do you believe this?” Trump said. “When you see that, that’s not the senator you want.”

Rosen responded quickly, first on Twitter, then saying in a statement that Trump’s visit was Heller’s “reward” for his loyalty to Trump. “The President is attacking me with lies and petty insults because I’m not afraid to stand up to him,” she said. “Dean Heller has been a rubber stamp for Donald Trump in Washington, caving to the President’s divisive agenda at Nevada’s expense.”

Outside the convention, at least 300 people protesting Trump’s policy of separating families at the southern border were stretched along a sidewalk outside the casino-hotel where the president met behind closed doors with supporters before addressing the Nevada GOP convention. His motorcade drove past a smaller group of people holding signs that said “Resist” and “History Has Its Eyes On You.” Trump also held a separate event promoting tax cuts he signed into law six months ago.

Heller had renounced Trump during the campaign as someone who “denigrates human beings” and suggested he wouldn’t vote for Trump, but later said he did.

TASK FORCE TO REUNITE MIGRANTS
A task force force has been set up to reunify migrant families divided at the Mexican border under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” approach, a report said, as opposition Democrats on Saturday kept up the pressure against a “barbaric” policy.

Mr Trump ordered an end to the family separations which have sparked domestic and global outrage on Wednesday, but the fate of the more than 2300 separated children remains unclear.

US Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Alex Azar issued an order on Friday to create the reunification task force, the Politico website reported, citing an internal document it had obtained.

Reflecting the breadth and complexity of the challenge, the document orders the department’s preparedness and response office — which deals with emergencies and public health disasters — to assist its refugee resettlement office with the effort.

Politico quoted HHS spokesman Evelyn Stauffer as saying that Mr Azar was “bringing to bear all the relevant resources of the department in order to assist in the reunification or placement of unaccompanied alien children and teenagers with a parent or appropriate sponsor.”

The department did not immediately respond to an AFP request for confirmation. In an effort to staunch the flow of tens of thousands of migrants from Central America and Mexico arriving at the southern boundary every month, Mr Trump in early May had ordered that all those crossing the border illegally would be arrested, and their children held separately as a result.

In an about-face, he then ordered an end the splitting up of parents and children, saying it was administration policy to “maintain family unity … where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”

“I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated,” he said.

PROTESTS CONTINUE
About 500 children have already been reunited with family members, CNN reported, quoting border officials.

Democratic politicians kept up the pressure on Saturday, with roughly two dozen of them again visiting a detention facility where children are being held.

Jackie Speier, a California congresswoman, toured the facility in McAllen, Texas with the group.

In a televised news conference, she said she saw children “under the age of five who were segregated from their parents and were crying … They’re in cells and in cages.”

Another California congresswoman, Barbara Lee, added: “The children especially are traumatised,” and she called the Trump administration’s immigration policy “barbaric.”

Protest marches were scheduled this weekend in several cities, and advocacy groups including the Human Rights Campaign and the American Civil Liberties Union are calling for a nationwide “Families Belong Together” protest on June 30.

The biggest demonstration is planned for Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House.

HOUSING ON MILITARY BASES
It remains unclear how quickly reunifications can be carried out. Lawyers working to bring families back together said they were struggling through a labyrinthine process — while more migrants continue to arrive.

Nearly all of the arriving families have officially requested asylum, citing the high levels of violence in their home countries.

The Pentagon is making contingency plans to house thousands of arrivals on US military bases. Defence Department officials said as many as 20,000 could be sheltered on bases in Texas, Arkansas and New Mexico if need be.

The separations have reportedly sparked intense debate even within the White House, leaving widespread confusion about the road forward.

But Mr Trump has remained unapologetic, accusing his political rivals of exaggerating the problem for political gain.

“Open Borders Democrats … just want everyone to be released into our country no matter how dangerous they are,” he said in his weekly address on Saturday, again trying to link immigrants with crime.

“They can be killers, they can be thieves, they can be horrible people — the Democrats say it’s okay for them to be in our country. I don’t think so.”

In an earlier tweet, Trump accused Democrats of telling “phony stories of sadness and grief, hoping it will help them in the elections.”