I woke this morning to news that Donald Trump was going to solve the crisis over American based refugee children by signing an executive order. This seemed to completely contradict his claims that the problem was all the Democrat’s fault but when has that ever stopped the orange one?
But there is a large sting to the announcement. Children will now not be taken from their parents but instead will be locked up with them. And given the current turmoil in the branch of the Judicial system that deals with Immigration cases this could take a long time. The Guardian reports there is currently a backlog of 714,000 cases, an increase of 171,000 since Trump took power. The article also suggests that Jeff Sessions and the Trump Administration are trying to only appoint Judges with the “right” world view.
This is also in breach of existing US law as well as International Conventions on the rights of children. From the New York Times:
The order said that officials will continue to criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the border illegally, but will seek to find or build facilities that can hold families — parents and children together — instead of separating them while their legal cases are considered by the courts.
Mr. Trump’s executive order directed the government’s lawyers to ask for a modification of an existing 1997 consent decree, known as the Flores settlement, that currently prohibits the federal government from keeping children in immigration detention — even if they are with their parents — for more than 20 days.
But it is unclear whether the court will agree to that request. If not, the president is likely to face an immediate legal challenge from immigration activists on behalf of families that are detained in makeshift facilities.
Get that. Same mass prosecution of anyone entering the US “illegally”, but instead of their children now being separated from them they will be imprisoned with them.
I think that claims of a back down and of success are premature.
And the chaos within the Republican Party’s ranks continue with former Trump lawyer and deputy finance chair of the Republican Finance Committee resigning his Party position and saying this about the separation of families at the U.S. border:
As the son of a Polish holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family separation policy is heart wrenching. While I strongly support measures that will secure our porous borders, children should never be used as bargaining chips.”
It appears that Cohen is also willing to give information to Federal Investigators about Trump.
One wonders if the two events are linked. There does seem to be spike in outlandish attention seeking behaviour by Trump every time he is under personal pressure.
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