Just a month ago, I began to be concerned about President's Trump's desire to be a dictator (to appear strong) because he started to use dictatorial phrases in all caps (e.g. I DEMAND an investigation),* and it seemed as if at least the House of Representatives felt that was all right. Trump gloried in things he had control over like pardons and using claims of national security (if phony) to invoke tariffs.* My concern increased as he continued to use words in all caps, like we will IMMEDIATELY stop military exercises near North Korea, something that was news to the US. military and South Korea. A real surprise to me was Trump's edict that we will IMMEDIATELY form a Space Force. I was worried that some terrible Trump dictatorial demand was about to occur. My guess was that Trump might try to cancel the fall election.
What did happen was that President Trump began a policy of separating children from their illegal immigrant mothers, a policy endorsed by Attorney General Sessions.** This was done in a slapdash dictatorial manner with no plan on how to reunite the children with their mothers upon deportation. Was the "American system" going to permit Trump to do this? As it has turned out, in response to the increasing and overwhelming opposition to Trump Policy of separating children from illegal immigrant mothers,** President Trump found that he could, after all, sign an executive order keeping families together without immediate congressional action.
The executive order is welcomed but is only a partial correction and does not address reuniting children already separated from their parents. These children are scattered all over the U.S. and there are greater than 2,342 of these as of June 19th and counting (currently 64/day), perhaps as many as 3,000 by now.
Once the children are separated from their mothers, they are reclassified as "unaccompanied alien children" in the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS and given a new number so all connection with their mothers is gone. There is no spreadsheet somewhere that has a column for mothers' name, another for child's name, and succeeding columns telling where the child is at present. Some parents have been deported without the parents, complicating the problem.
What a terrible mess.
Perhaps the most discouraging fact on the Trump Separation Policy is that 58% of Republicans agreed with the Trump Policy as of June 17 (CNN/SSRS Poll from June 14-17).*** But the good news is that 80+% of Republicans say Trump is doing a good job so maybe about a third of the faithful are not with Trump on his family separation Trump Policy.
As for those who support Trump's Policy, perhaps nothing can be done. Interviews with attendants of the rally in Duluth, MN, say such things as the pictures are faked or photoshopped or that it is all made up by the Fake News media. Here is one quote by an attendee:
"I think it's being too lenient," she said. "They are still breaking the law. ... If you keep them together, 'Oh, we're going to give you free housing, all this food. And you get to stay together.' What's going to prevent them from coming here illegally?"****
and another attendee Amber Lewis of Superior said she reserved tickets immediately after learning of Trump's visit. He's basically said everything we live and breathe by," she said****.
One gut-wrenching fact is that there was never a plan to reunite the children with their parents. Mika Brzezinski said on Morning Joe (June 21) that reuniting children with their parents would be a good task for Ivanka Trump. It may take DNA tests in many cases and some of the mothers are already deported. But what about cases where the child was brought into the U.S. by someone other than the mother (or father)? Can this guardian tell where the birth mother is? What if the birth mother is dead?
But the overall response to the Trump Policy has been such that maybe there is hope that democracy will survive this administration.
* http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/05/can-president-trump-cancel-november.html
http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/06/president-donald-bully-trump.html
** http://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/06/american-gulag.html
*** https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-score/2018/06/19/trump-family-separation-policy-roils-swing-district-republicans-258162
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/19/17479138/how-many-families-separated-border-immigration
**** https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/government-and-politics/4463194-cheers-jeers-classic-trump-rally
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