Axios

Attorney General Jeff Sessions rebuked critics of the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy on Tuesday, stating that several of them enjoy security themselves, while not supporting the administration's strict approach to border security.

"The rhetoric we hear from the other side on this issue — as on so many others — has become radicalized ... These same people live in gated communities, many of them, and are featured at events where you have to have an ID to even come in and hear them speak. They like a little security around themselves, and if you try to scale the fence, believe me, they'll be even too happy to have you arrested and separated from your children."

Vice President Mike Pence delivered a message on Tuesday "to the people of Central America," while speaking with Brazilian President Michel Temer on the issue of immigration: "If you can't come legally, don't come at all."

There are still 2,047 migrant children who were separated from their parents in the care of Health and Human Services, Secretary Alex Azar said at a hearing in front of the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday, and it is unclear whether any have been successfully reunited with the family they were separated from.

Why it matters: Azar said that "several hundred" children have been placed in the custody of a parent or relative already in the states, but no child can be reunited to a parent still in immigration detention. In a call with reporters later Tuesday afternoon, HHS did not answer whether the agency is still receiving additional migrant children who have been separated from their parents at the border.

18 state attorneys general filed a joint lawsuit Tuesday challenging the constitutionality of the Trump administration's family separation policy and calling for the reunification of the migrant families who were affected.

The details: The multi-state suit was filed by Washington, California, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, New Jersey, Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Rhode Island, New York, Vermont, North Carolina, and Delaware; the Commonwealths of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia; and the District of Columbia (collectively, the states).

In anticipation of a full EU summit on Thursday, 16 European leaders met in Brussels on Sunday for an emergency mini-summit on migration and asylum policy — issues that have roiled the continent for years. On the agenda was a proposal to establish “disembarkation platforms” outside the EU that would process the claims of migrants rescued or intercepted at sea before reaching the bloc.

The proposal appears to be broadly palatable, both to hardliners, who want to see tougher border controls, and to those who urge respect for refugee protection principles.

Yes, but: Establishing migrant processing centers outside the bloc might be easier said than done, due to legal and ethical concerns as well as practical challenges.

Jared Kushner is meeting with Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), as well as Reps. Doug Collins (R-GA) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to strategize on how to move a prison reform bill forward following its passage in the House last month, according to two Hill sources familiar with the meeting.

Why it matters: This comes as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) continues to promote his own, more comprehensive criminal justice reform bill that has received broad bipartisan support. However, the controversial reforms to harsh federal sentencing laws have kept Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Trump from backing the legislation. Instead, the two support Cornyn and Whitehouse's prison reform-only bill. Go deeper: What's in the prison reform bill.

Former Air Force linguist Reality Winner pleaded guilty to illegally disclosing classified information on Tuesday as part of a deal which gives her 63 months in prison— she was the first leak case in the Trump administration.

Flashback: Winner leaked top secret details on Russia hacking during the 2016 presidential election to reporters at the Intercept. The Obama administration prosecuted 9 or 10 different "leakers," according to the New York Times, which was twice as many as the total number of leak-related cases beforehand combined.

A new Monmouth poll shows GOP incumbent Rep. Barbara Comstock is trailing her Democratic challenger by 10 points.

Why it matters: Nearly half of her constituents think she's done a good job for Virginia's 10th district, but they voted for Hillary Clinton by 10 points in 2016 and now 34% of them think she has been too supportive of President Trump — a sign of how POTUS is becoming a liability for vulnerable incumbent Republicans.

NBC’s Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon responded on air Monday night to a Trump tweet, asking his audience: “shouldn’t he have more important things to do?”

Flashback: Trump's tweet — saying Fallon was "whimpering to all that he did the famous "hair show"" and calling for Fallon to "be a man" — came after Fallon expressed regret for messing with Trump's hair in a September 2016 interview on his show.

"Several hundred" of the more than 2,300 children that were separated from their parents have been placed with a parent or relative, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said today.

Where it stands: Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, Azar didn't quantify how many parents have been told where their kids are, but said they have "access" to that information. He also urged Congress to pass legislation addressing the situation.

The topic of immigration reached a tipping point on June 19, 2018, when it rose to the fourth most viewed topic in Parse.ly’s network of thousands of publishers.

The big picture: Stories about immigration received attention from 200,000 people per hour, which made this the biggest political topic in the Parse.ly network, other than Donald Trump himself. To keep up with the demand for this topic, publishers have written over 700 articles about ‘immigration’ since June 13; they’ve also seen seen a huge social uptick from articles about ‘asylum seekers’, and a huge recent influx of attention surrounding Melania Trump.

For President Trump's first term, the domestic agenda appears to be all but over. Congress has little chance of doing anything notable before the election, beyond confirming judges.

Why it matters: Whichever party ekes out a House win in November, the margin will likely be narrow. When we game out 2019 scenarios with administration officials, a number of them assume Republicans will lose the House. So Washington is gridlocked until at least January 2021 — meaning that this is it for signature legislation in Trump's first term.

American allies abroad, NATO allies in particular, tell Axios privately that they're rattled by Trump — but love working with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and are encouraged by the early signs they’re seeing from new Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The big picture: European allies say they're jarred by the contrast between Mattis’ reassuring words, and Trump’s fire-and-fury Twitter feed. They say they see an America that’s still very much engaged on the ground in Europe — the military ties are as strong and deep as ever — but a president who's viewed by some of these European officials as an angry landlord demanding rent payments from his tenants.