And I say, no matter what Congress does, immigrants will still come.
Remember the folks who jumped out of the World Trade Center to avoid burning to death?
The people fleeing from countries where they're in daily danger from community and domestic violence have a much greater chance of saving themselves by seeking asylum in the US than the people who jumped out the windows. And even if they're told about Trump's policies, it sounds better than the fires burning around them at home.
But the Trump administration thinks taking away the kids - and for many this will mean a life of severe psychological damage, particularly for the youngest kids - will stop people from jumping out of the burning countries.
From the NYTimes:
"But advocates inside the administration, most prominently Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s senior policy adviser, never gave up on the idea. Last month, facing a sharp uptick in illegal border crossings, Mr. Trump ordered a new effort to criminally prosecute anyone who crossed the border unlawfully — with few exceptions for parents traveling with their minor children.How much more of this evil* will the Republicans in the Senate go along with? Certainly those not running for reelection in November need to stand up to this severely troubled man in the White House.
And now Mr. Trump faces the consequences. With thousands of children detained in makeshift shelters, his spokesmen this past week had to deny accusations that the administration was acting like Nazis. Even evangelical supporters like Franklin Graham said its policy was 'disgraceful.'”
*I don't use this term lightly, but these people, who seriously advocate separating young children from their parents, are morally incompetent, not to mention that whatever possible short term gain, will be far offset by the long-term damage to these kids.
Read this Twitter thread by a reporter who was forcibly separated from his father as a young child.
when i was four, i was taken away from my father during an intense custody battle and placed in a group home for several years by an idiot judge. we went to parks and zoos, too, and then i’d cry myself to sleep most nights. the trauma left me bent for years. this is child abuse. https://t.co/3rsFfkIptX— dell cameron (@dellcam) June 16, 2018
Steve, this is what happens when you have years of neglect, border facilities should have been upgraded years ago to deal with families crossing the border illegally. Remember families coming here legally and asking for asylum are not separated (NPR this morning).
ReplyDeleteI do have a lot of compassion for these people , my wife is a naturalized citizen and I have seen close up how precious U.S. citizenship is.
Is this a new immigration enforcement policy?
Not completely. The George W. Bush administration implemented Operation Streamline in 2005, which also referred many people who violated these provisions for prosecution in federal courts, although the majority of prosecutions were for the felony charge of illegal re-entry and not for first-time offenders. The Obama administration continued and expanded the policy through 2014, but later shifted its enforcement priories towards targeting specific criminal populations.
The Obama administration also used family separation when they prosecuted immigration offenses as a deterrent against illegal border crossings after 2014 as more children and families fled violence in Central American countries. However, immigration advocates allege that the new zero-tolerance policy against immigration violations will cause more families to be separated than before, with some claiming to have witnessed an increase in family separations since June 2017
https://shadowproof.com/2018/06/15/separation-immigrant-families-part-deportation-obama-now-trump-expanding-practice/
Oliver
Taking children away from their parents, regardless of the legality of their entrance into the U.S., is wrong. It is cruel. It is inhumane. And to sit and watch AG Sessions smile as he defers to the bible as justification to this abhorrent action, is disgusting.
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