Hostage Choice<\/p>\n
In the \u201cpost truth\u201d world it is difficult to find \u201ca real\u201d fact.\u00a0 President Trump\u2019s rant on the White House lawn on Friday exemplified this, with multiple statements that simply were not true.\u00a0 He claimed the Inspector General\u2019s Report on the FBI Clinton email issue completely cleared him of any wrongdoing in the Russia scandal.\u00a0He claimed the Democrats have total control of the immigration debacle on the Southern border.\u00a0 Both of these statements are false.<\/p>\n
Secretary of Homeland Security Kirsten Neilsen claims that there is no policy of separation at the border.\u00a0She is parsing the legalities of the situation.\u00a0 Her stand:\u00a0if migrants cross legally with an asylum claim, they are not separated from their children.\u00a0 If they cross in any other way, either not at a \u201cport of entry\u201d (cross the border illegally) or without a prior asylum claim, they are \u201ccriminals\u201d and therefore lose their children.<\/p>\n
The change is not in the law, it is in the policy of enforcement.\u00a0 Prior to April, immigrants who claimed asylum were processed as families regardless of how they crossed the border.\u00a0 In April, a \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy, developed and pressed by White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller, was instituted.\u00a0 Everyone who came across the border without the full legal niceties was considered a criminal.\u00a0 Criminals go into the criminal justice system, they are not processed in the immigration system.\u00a0 Since they are in the criminal system, they lose their kids.<\/p>\n
So when President Trump says this is a Democratic law, and their problem to fix, it simply isn\u2019t true.\u00a0What is true is that the Miller created and driven policy has generated the crisis, putting thousands of children in Federal custody, without their parents.\u00a0 Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said, \u201cPresident Trump can stop this policy with a phone call.\u201d\u00a0 So why doesn\u2019t the President make the call?<\/p>\n
The President and the Republicans in the House of Representatives are using the children as hostages to force their border wall agenda.\u00a0 A bill soon to be introduced in the House will offer to end the family separation policy, and give Dreamers special status allowing them to remain in the US; in exchange for the $25 billion border wall.\u00a0 Whether that bill can pass the House (the Freedom Caucus radical Republicans aren\u2019t sure it\u2019s tough enough) or the Senate (Senate Democrats aren\u2019t interested in hostage blackmail) remains to be seen.\u00a0 But Trump and Miller are looking for a big immigration \u201cwin\u201d before the November elections and they see this crisis as giving them the legislative leverage to get it.<\/p>\n
First Lady Melania Trump is even part of this strategy, as she chimed in this weekend.\u00a0 A statement released through her spokesperson said:<\/p>\n
“Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” her communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told CNN on Sunday. “She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”<\/em><\/p>\n Steve Bannon, the architect of many of the President\u2019s more controversial policies, returned to the political fray, saying \u201c\u2026It\u2019s zero tolerance. I don’t think you have to justify it.\u201d And, of course, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has quoted the scriptures to justify the policy, quoting Paul\u2019s message to obey Caesar\u2019s laws (Romans:13.)<\/p>\n But to the Administration, this is about politics, not children.\u00a0 They are betting that the Trump base will stand with the President, enforcing the \u201claw\u201d against the \u201ccriminals.\u201d\u00a0 Administration surrogates throw the magic words \u201cMS-13\u201d onto the flames, as if the gang members are bringing kids with them to sneak across the border.\u00a0 And they are happy to have this distraction from the Mueller investigation.<\/p>\n To many, many others, this is seen as a moral crisis.\u00a0 Since April, 1174 children have been separated from their parents at the McAllen Immigration Processing Center alone.\u00a0 We, and this is being done in the name of the citizens of the United States so it is \u2018we\u2019, have put thousands of children in custody.\u00a0 We are imprisoning them, even if the prisons have clean sheets and \u201cthree squares a day.\u201d<\/p>\n But they are not prisoners.\u00a0 They are hostages, taken to secure the President\u2019s border wall and win seats in Congress in November.\u00a0 It will be up to the citizens of the United States to determine the outcomes of this action, through protest, demanding legislators to act, or at the ballot box.<\/p>\n What actions, what morality, are we willing to accept from our government?\u00a0 President Trump admires Andrew Jackson, who had no problem ordering an entire race to be moved across the country in the Trail of Tears.\u00a0 We are setting up camps, just as we did during World War II with the Japanese\/American internment camps.\u00a0We are reproducing some of the most immoral periods of our nation.\u00a0 In the end, it\u2019s our choice.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"