Today in one sentence: Hundreds of children separated from their parents are living inside cages; lawmakers from both parties demanded that Trump stop his policy of separating children from their parents at the border; the White House continued to falsely blame Democrats for the Trump's policy; and Roger Stone met during the 2016 campaign with a Russian national who wanted Trump to pay $2 million for the political dirt on Hillary Clinton.

1/ Hundreds of children separated from their parents are living inside cages in an old warehouse in south Texas while they wait to be turned over to shelters funded by the Department of Health and Human Services. The cages were described as the the type you’d see at a batting cage or a dog kennel. More than 1,100 people are being held inside the facility, which is divided into separate wings for unaccompanied children, solo adults, and mothers and fathers with children. (Associated Press / NBC News)

  • Ann Coulter called the children crying at the border after being separated from parents “child actors.” Trump Jr., meanwhile, liked a Breitbart tweet that quoted Coulter, who said the separated children had been “coached” by liberals and “given scripts to read.” (The Hill / Newsweek)

  • Audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility captures a Border Patrol agent joking above crying children: “Well, we have an orchestra here. What’s missing is a conductor.” (ProPublica)

2/ Lawmakers from both parties demanded that Trump stop his policy of separating children from their parents at the border. Republican lawmakers, Laura Bush, a conservative newspaper, and a former Trump adviser joined with Democrats in condemning the policy that has removed nearly 2,000 children from their parents over the last six weeks. Melania Trump, meanwhile, placed the blame on “both sides,” saying that she “hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together.” (New York Times)

  • New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he will not deploy National Guard troops from his state to the U.S.-Mexico border, citing the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy as justification for the move. (The Hill)

  • Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker canceled the deployment of the state’s National Guard troops to the border, “because the federal government’s current actions are resulting in the inhumane treatment of children.” (WGBH)

  • Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an executive order barring state resources from being used for the purpose of separating children from their families for violating federal immigration law. (ABC News)

  • All four living former first ladies condemn Trump’s border policy. (NBC News)

  • Jeb Bush called on Trump to end the “heartless policy” of separating parents and children who cross the U.S. border illegally, saying “children shouldn’t be used as a negotiating tool.” (Politico)

3/ The White House continued to falsely blame Democrats for the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families. The separations stem from Jeff Sessions’ “zero-tolerance” policy announced last month. Via tweet, Trump blamed Democrats for being “weak and ineffective with Border Security and Crime” while urging them to agree to immigration legislation and to fund his border wall. Trump added that “the United States will not be a migrant camp… not on my watch.” (Washington Post / New York Times / NBC News)

  • Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the Trump administration’s immigration policy, saying “we will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do.” Nielsen added: “Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards.” (CNN)

4/ The United Nations’ top human rights official called for the U.S. to immediately stop separating children from their families at the border. Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein condemned the practice as “government-sanctioned child abuse,” saying “the thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable.” Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the U.N., called al-Hussein’s statement hypocritical, saying that “neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders.” (New York Times / The Hill)

5/ Trump warned that the U.S. must avoid Europe’s immigration problems, falsely claiming that “crime in Germany is way up.” The opposite, however, is true. Germany’s crime rate has fallen to its lowest level since 1992. (New York Times / Vox)

6/ The Trump administration thought its zero-tolerance policy would deter immigrants from trying to enter the country illegally. Instead, internal Department of Homeland Security documents show a 5% uptick in the number of people caught crossing the border illegally since April, when Jeff Sessions’ policy was announced. (CNN)

7/ White House policy adviser Stephen Miller said the Trump administration is planning additional immigration crackdowns before the midterm elections. Miller and officials from the Justice Department, Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of Management and Budget have been meeting for months to find ways to use executive authority and rule changes to strengthen hard-line U.S. immigration policies. (Politico)

8/ Peter Strzok said he would be willing to testify without immunity and without invoking the 5th Amendment before the House Judiciary Committee and any other congressional committee. Strzok was removed from Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election for sending anti-Trump texts. Strzok’s lawyer said: “He thinks that his position, character and actions have all been misrepresented and caricatured, and he wants an opportunity to remedy that.” Trump, meanwhile, tweeted that Strzok was a “sick loser.” (Washington Post / CNN)

9/ Roger Stone met during the 2016 campaign with a Russian national who wanted Trump to pay $2 million for the political dirt on Hillary Clinton. Stone failed to disclose the May 2016 meeting with Henry Greenberg, who also goes by the name Henry Oknyansky, to congressional investigators. The meeting was set up by Trump campaign aide Michael Caputo. Stone rejected the offer, and soon after Caputo texted Stone asking if anything interesting came of the meeting. Stone replied: “waste of time.” Both Stone and Caputo did not disclose the Greenberg meeting during testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Caputo said he failed to disclose the encounter because he had “simply forgotten” about the meeting. Mueller is now investigating the previously undisclosed meeting. (Washington Post / NBC News)

  • Roger Stone is “not concerned” that he failed to tell Congress about his 2016 meeting with a Russian national offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. “I just didn’t remember. 2016 was a pretty busy year,” Stone said. “I don’t think a failure of memory constitutes a perjury.” (ABC News)

poll/ 56% of Americans oppose the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy of separating undocumented children from their parents. 27% of respondents, meanwhile, said they agreed with the policy. (Daily Beast)

poll/ 54% of Americans believe it’s unlikely that Trump’s sit-down with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will lead Pyongyang to give up its nuclear arms. 42%, however, believe the meeting lessened the chance of war. (ABC News)

poll/ 57% of Americans approve of how Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau is handling Trump’s personal attack and trade dispute. 37% approve of how Trump is handling the situation. (Globalnews.ca)

poll/ 45% of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance, his highest approval rating since shortly after he took office. 50% disapprove. (Gallup / The Hill)

Notables.

  1. The Supreme Court declined to decide two challenges to partisan gerrymandering, allowing controversial district maps to stand and be used in the midterm elections. The justices sidestepped the question of whether the the maps are legal. (New York Times / Washington Post / CNN)

  2. The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to overturn a nationwide injunction that blocks the government from punishing sanctuary cities for declining to help the federal government enforce immigration laws. (NBC News)

  3. FBI Director Christopher Wray stands by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, saying “I do not believe Special Counsel Mueller is on a witch hunt.” (Bloomberg)

  4. Trump signed a space policy directive making it easier for commercial companies to operate in space. The directive also asks NASA to establish new guidelines to avoid the creation of new space debris. (Politico)

  5. Trump directed the Department of Defense and the Pentagon to establish a Space Force as the sixth branch of the Armed Forces, saying: “We are going to have the Air Force and we’re going to have the Space Force, separate but equal. It is going to be something, so important.” (The Verge / CNBC)

  6. The Trump Tower in Chicago has never followed EPA rules for documenting how its use of the Chicago River for cooling water impacts fish. The Trump International Hotel and Tower is one of the largest users of Chicago River water for its cooling systems and is the only one that has failed to comply with the fish-protecting regulations. (Chicago Tribune)

  7. Steve Bannon said Trump has never lied to the American people, because he “speaks in a particular vernacular that connects to people in this country.” In reality, Trump has made more than 3,000 false or misleading claims since taking office. (ABC News / PolitiFact)