Trump hosts victims of undocumented migrants
Washington, June 23 : US President Donald Trump has hosted the relatives of victims killed by illegal immigrants amid outrage over the separation of migrant families.
"Your loved ones have not died in vain," he told the group of so-called Angel Families at the White House on Friday, BBC reported.
Trump has faced global condemnation for the US immigration policy that has seen more than 2,000 migrant children stripped from their families.
He bowed to public pressure and reversed the policy earlier this week.
The president signed an executive order on Wednesday to end the separate detention of undocumented immigrant children from their parents after illegally entering the country.
As part of the the administration's "zero-tolerance" policy, which seeks to criminally charge and jail undocumented border crossers, children cannot legally be held with their parents. They have instead been kept in separate facilities.
"These are the American citizens permanently separated from their loved ones," he said on Friday, before introducing family members of victims.
"I cannot imagine it being any worse, but we promise to act with strength and resolve.
"We'll not rest until our border is secure, our citizens are safe and we end this immigration crisis once and for all," Trump added.
Laura Wilkerson, whose son was killed in 2010 by an undocumented immigrant, told audience members: "None of our kids had a minute to say goodbye. We weren't lucky enough to be separated for five days or 10 days.
"We were separated permanently."
Approximately 2,300 children have been removed from their families since Mr Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy began in May, and housed in detention centres run by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Some shelters, including three in Texas, house so-called "tender age" children, who are under five years old.
About 500 children have been reunited with their families since May, a Homeland Security official said on Thursday. But it is unclear how the remaining families affected will be reunited.
Images of children in metal cages, and audio of young migrants crying out for their parents sparked protests and drew international condemnation from world leaders and organisations.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
