Exclusive: Trump admin thought family separations would deter immigrants. They haven’t.
By Tal Kopan, CNN
The Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy that has resulted in thousands of family separations at the border hasn’t deterred immigrants from trying to enter the country illegally, despite the administration’s predictions that it would, internal Department of Homeland Security documents obtained by CNN show.
The documents, which refer to the effort as the “Prosecution Initiative,” demonstrate that in early April, days after President Donald Trump announced he would send the National Guard to the border and after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced his offices would prosecute all illegal crossings referred to the Justice Department, Homeland Security staff predicted that the deterrent effects of the policies would be visible quickly.
“The full impact of policy initiatives are not fully realized for 2-3 weeks following public messaging — however, some migrants already underway may temporarily halt to determine the effects of the new policy,” the document states.
Instead, publicly released data showed a roughly 5% uptick in the number of people caught crossing the border illegally when compared to figures from April, including a big jump in unaccompanied children.
While the documents don’t speak to the conceptualization of the policy or the internal deliberations that preceded it, they call into question the administration’s justification for the policy. The lack of measurable impact on immigration lends weight to questions about the policy’s effectiveness, going beyond moral issues raised by the policy’s critics.
So far, the policy has resulted in the separations of least 2,000 children from their families.
The administration’s decision this spring to begin referring all people caught crossing the border illegally for prosecution — including those that come with children — has resulted in those families being separated when the adults are sent to face criminal charges, without clear procedures for reuniting them with their children afterward.
Read the whole story: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/family-separation-deterrence-dhs/index.html
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‘We will not apologize’: Trump DHS chief defends immigration policy
By: Tal Kopan, CNN
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the Trump administration’s highly scrutinized immigration policy Monday while at the same time calling on Congress to change the law.
“We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” she said, speaking in front of a friendly audience of the National Sheriffs’ Association about the administration’s policies resulting in family separations. “Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get out of jail free cards.”
She claimed “misinformation” was being spread about the policy, which is that all people caught crossing the border illegally are prosecuted and thus families are separated.
Critics have lambasted the policy calling it cruel, inhumane to unnecessary. Outcry has come from Democratic and Republican lawmakers as well as the United Nations and religious leaders. Many have said the idea of separating children from their parents defies American and human values, as well as not needed when there are pilot programs that have shown that families with the right release conditions do show up for their court proceedings in the vast majority of cases.
Nielsen noted that it is common in all criminal matters that children do not go to jail with their parents, without noting that in most cases, those parents do not return from jail to find their kids transferred to the custody of another government agency and have to figure out how to get those kids back.
President Donald Trump squarely — and misleadingly — blamed Democrats for the unfolding crisis in opening remarks at a space policy event.
“I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault, their obstruction, they’re really obstructionist and they’re really obstructing,” he said.
“The United States will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility, it won’t be,” Trump said. “We want safety and we want security for our country. If the Democrats would sit down, instead of obstruction, we could have something done very quickly, good for the children, good for the country, good for the world. It could take place quickly.”
Earlier Monday he tweeted: “It is the Democrats fault for being weak and ineffective with Boarder Security and Crime. Tell them to start thinking about the people devastated by Crime coming from illegal immigration. Change the laws!”
Though she was not as explicit as the President in characterizing the policy as a negotiating tactic, Nielsen clearly linked the effort with the demands the administration has made on Congress, which include passing laws that even some Republicans don’t support.
“We are enforcing the laws passed by Congress, and we are doing all that we can in the executive branch to protect our communities. It is now time that Congress act to fix our broken immigration system,” Nielsen said. “Surely it is the beginning of the unraveling of democracy when the body who makes the laws, rather than changing them, asks the body who enforces the laws not to enforce the laws. That cannot be the answer.”
Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking at the same event as Nielsen, also defended the Trump administration’s immigration practices Monday morning.
“These children are not entering at points of entry, but dangerous places,” Sessions said. “They can go to our ports of entry if they want to claim asylum.”
Sessions said the children “are taken care of,” at an “enormous cost.” Sessions called the system “generous.” He also emphasized most children have come here unaccompanied and said the Department of Health and Human Services takes custody of them at a cost of more than $1 billion a year.
More: http://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/kirstjen-nielsen-immigration-policy/index.html
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Obviously, academics, knowledge, truth, and history are “out” in the Age of Trump and his White Nationalist Regime. However, as an “oldster” who once studied Modern European history, this is pretty “classic pre-WWII Third Reich.”
These folks really need to be voted out of office! Every day they are in office and their power is unchecked by a spineless and equally corrupt GOP legislative cabal in Congress , we come closer to a national disaster. We’re already sort of there with a national policy of child abuse where the abusers blame the victims.
PWS
06-17-18