Wednesday, June 20, 2018

I Don't Understand This, Either!

Suddenly It's Just Awful that families who are entering the U.S. illegally (note that word, folks) have been separated and put into separate holding facilities.
     Including older children who may have been sent separately in the first place, on purpose, figuring they could slip in when their adult parents could not.  (See further comments on this in a bit.)

Like you, I've heard all sorts of brouhaha from every celebrity on the planet, saying how terrible this is. One even had the temerity to announce that Barron Trump, poor kid, should be 'ripped from his mother's arms' and thrown into a cage of pedophiles.  (To his credit, Peter Fonda did apologize for being such a jerk. But he never should have said it in the first place.)

Even ex-President Obama got into mode, with a long Facebook post on World Refugee Day. Same subject -- how cruel to have families broken apart, we can use our votes to change things (hint, vote Democratic next time!)...and so on. What a noble gesture, right?

Except there's a problem. 

This policy didn't start with Trump -- it began in 2014, during President Obama's administration.

Families were put in detention centers while awaiting trial...in the same 'cages' and under the same conditions that Mr. Obama and others are decrying now. (This was particularly the case for young migrants who came separately. Thousands of them.)

Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy, separating children from adults, has been going on since April 19. Why has it suddenly exploded into such a brouhaha? Is this a camouflage to keep our attention turned away from something else that's going on?

I know, I know. Way too suspicious for my own good. What about the recent North Korea summit meetings, that seem to have gone well? (God forbid that anyone admits anything the Trump administration did was effective.)

Perhaps the United Nations' frantic stance on Israel?

Hmmm.

At any rate, the outcry has worked. Today, President Trump signed papers reversing the separation part of the 'no tolerance' policy, after bipartisan pressure to do so. "I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated," the president said.

[Update: Poor Mrs. Trump. She stops by one of the centers to try and encourage -- so what does the media do, but focus on her silly jacket.  Sure, it's trendy...that's why she wore it. President Trump tweeted that it really was a message to the media...but I don't believe that. Just a slipup, an incredibly foolish fashion choice -- and a strong reminder that when you're in the public eye, people notice everything.]


Back to the subject at hand.

I don't like seeing families separated, either, if those children really were little kids. That's heartless. This article mentions more than 2,300 children being separated...but then says 'more than 100' were under four years old. Awful....glad that's not happening anymore. 

But what about the other 2,200+ kids? How old, really, were they? (No doubt there were some slightly older, but the photos show a lot of older teenagers.) See the Border Patrol's statement on this subject, suggesting that some of these kids are showing up because they've largely been 'immune from prosecution.'  In other words, they can slip through and go on to foster care in the U.S. Paid for, of course, by us -- the U.S. taxpayers.

Double hmmmm.

So now we're back to the Obama plan: holding families jointly while they're waiting for trial. (In other words, they're still being prosecuted for attempting to enter the States illegally. Same as other presidents' administrations have been doing for ages.)

And when they're deported, the kids and the adults get sent back. Together.

Let's see ex-President Obama, and his raft of celebrities, blame Trump for that.

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Figures...