Just five months before the midterm elections, Republicans are scrambling to distance themselves from the Trump administration’s widely panned “zero tolerance” immigration policy that has resulted in the separation of children from their families at the southern border.

As images of children being held in cages at detention centers near the border flash across television screens, Republicans are being pressured to take a stand on Trump’s controversial policy, as the President and the administration continue to place blame on Congress for inaction on immigration legislation.

One of the strongest statements criticizing the administration came late Monday from Rep. Steve Stivers, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP’s campaign arm. In a sign of just how damaging Republicans believe this issue can be in the fall, Stivers said he was writing a letter “to understand the current policies and to ask the Administration to stop needlessly separating children from their parents.”