Tag: Trump immigration policy

Reliable Source How Melania Trump’s jacket choice overtook her visit to the Texas border shelters

The following article by Emily Heil was posted on the Washington Post website June 21, 2018:

First lady Melania Trump wore a jacket that caused a stir on social media as she boarded a plane to Texas on June 21 for a border visit. (The Washington Post)

Melania Trump took a surprise trip to Texas to speak to children and officials at a shelter for migrant children. But her message and the carefully crafted visuals showing a first lady rushing to the scene of a crisis touching the lives of children were soon obliterated by other words and images.

“I’m here to learn about your facility,” Trump said Thursday afternoon, telling the people who run the facility that she wanted to know how she could “help these children to reunite with their families as quickly as possible.” Continue reading “Reliable Source How Melania Trump’s jacket choice overtook her visit to the Texas border shelters”

THE LATEST: Trump Admin Keeps Thousands Of Children Separated From Their Families

The Trump administration failed to meet a deadline to reunite young children with their families, and the thousands of children remain separated from their families. As parents still don’t know when they will see their children again, the Trump administration is already preparing for another surge in children detentions.

The Trump administration failed to meet a court-imposed deadline to reunify young children with their families, as the fates of thousands more remain in limbo.

CNN: “The Trump administration was only able to reunite fewer than half of the eligible separated migrant families in its care by a court-ordered deadline Tuesday — as the fates of thousands more remain in limbo.”

Continue reading “THE LATEST: Trump Admin Keeps Thousands Of Children Separated From Their Families”

Ivanka Trump Finally Speaks About Separating Immigrant Families — And It’s Totally Absurd

The following article by Cody Fenwick was posted on the AlterNet website June 20, 2018:

The president’s daughter has made family policy her defining issue.

Credit: U.S. State Department

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and top White House adviser, remained curiously silent as the crisis surrounding the administration’s policy of separating immigrant families swelled, despite her previous stance as an advocate for family policy.

But after President Donald Trump signed an executive order addressing the issue — an act he had said just days before was impossible — the first daughter finally spoke publicly.

“Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border,” she wrote on Twitter. “Congress must now act + find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values;the same values that so many come here seeking as they endeavor to create a better life for their families.” Continue reading “Ivanka Trump Finally Speaks About Separating Immigrant Families — And It’s Totally Absurd”

The series of choices faced by immigrants fleeing Central America

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website June 19, 2018:

There’s a uniformity to President Trump’s depictions of the immigrants crossing the border with Mexico. They are “bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists,” according to his campaign announcement. Those entering the country illegally are an infestation, per a Trump tweet Tuesday. Mexico isn’t sending their finest, Trump said, both at his announcement and during a speech Tuesday. He’s been consistent.

That view of immigrants coming to the United States — latent criminals sneaking across the border to plunder — intentionally ignores a more accurate depiction of migrants: people driven from their home countries seeking a better life in the United States. Continue reading “The series of choices faced by immigrants fleeing Central America”

More than 600 members of Jeff Sessions’ church just charged him with violating church rules

The following article by Daniel Burke was posted on the CNN website June 19, 2018:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Credit:
Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

More than 600 members of the United Methodist Church have issued a formal complaint against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a fellow church member, charging that his “zero tolerance” policy on immigration violates church rules and may constitute child abuse

The complaint charges Sessions with violating the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline, its code of laws and social principles. The charges could lead to a church trial, though few expect that to happen to the attorney general, the country’s top lawman

Instead, the 640 Methodists charging Sessions, who include both clergy and lay members, have asked for a “reconciling process that will help this longtime member … step back from his harmful actions and work to repair the damage he is currently causing to immigrants, particularly families and children.” The complaint is addressed to the pastors at two churches Sessions attends, in Mobile, Alabama, and Clarendon, Virginia. It charges Sessions with violating church rules or principles on child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and “dissemination of doctrines” contrary to those of the United Methodist Church. Continue reading “More than 600 members of Jeff Sessions’ church just charged him with violating church rules”

Ann Coulter calls children separated from families at border “child actors” and begs Trump: “Don’t fall for the actor children”

The following article from the Media Matters Staff was posted on their website June 18, 2018:

Conservative author Ann Coulter claimed children being separated from their parents at the border by the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy on unauthorized immigration are faking their emotional trauma. According to news reports, the children can suffer from “toxic stress” caused by the separation.

Coulter appeared on the June 17 edition of Fox News’ The Next Revolution and attempted to directly address President Donald Trump, who routinely watches Fox News. She stated: “These child actors weeping and crying on all the other networks 24/7 right now — do not fall for it, Mr. President. I get very nervous about the president getting his news from TV.” Coulter added: “Don’t fall for the actor children.”

Coulter’s language echoes that of fringe and conspiracy theorist media figures like Alex Jones who routinelyaccuse school shooting survivors of being “crisis actors.”

What separation from parents does to children: ‘The effect is catastrophic’

The following article by William Wan was posted on the Washington Post website June 18, 2018:

Dr. Louis Kraus, a child psychiatrist at Rush University Medical Center, said the separation of migrant children from their families could have severe effects. (Video: Patrick Martin/Photo: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)

This is what happens inside children when they are forcibly separated from their parents.

Their heart rate goes up. Their body releases a flood of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. Those stress hormones can start killing off dendrites — the little branches in brain cells that transmit mes­sages. In time, the stress can start killing off neurons and — especially in young children — wreaking dramatic and long-term damage, both psychologically and to the physical structure of the brain. Continue reading “What separation from parents does to children: ‘The effect is catastrophic’”

Sessions says family separation is ‘necessary’ to keep the country from being ‘overwhelmed.’ Federal immigration data says otherwise.

The following article by Christopher Ingraham was posted on the Washington Post website June 18, 2018:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions says the Trump administration’s tough approach on illegal immigration is the result of a crisis: a mass influx of people coming in over the country’s southwestern border.

“We are not going to let this country be overwhelmed,” Sessions said in a May 7 speech  announcing a new “zero-tolerance” policy on southwestern border crossings. “People are not going to caravan or otherwise stampede our border.” Continue reading “Sessions says family separation is ‘necessary’ to keep the country from being ‘overwhelmed.’ Federal immigration data says otherwise.”

The order Trump holds in contempt was once America’s proudest creation

The following commentary by Johnathan Fenby was posted on the Guardian website June 17, 2018:

Seventy years ago, as a new major book suggests, America helped rebuild Europe and assumed the role of global peacemaker

Donald Trump: ‘He sets a pattern of reaching for his six-gun regardless of others.’ Credit: Brendan Smialowski, AFP Getty Images

Behind the Twitter storms and hyperbolic self-promotion, Donald Trump is nothing if not consistent in his approach to the world. A single aim runs through his international policy – to liberate himself and his country from constraints and to leave it free to pursue whatever he determines to be its destiny.

Thus, this month, he has rounded on allies in the G7 and formed a “partnership for peace” with Kim Jong-un. His complaints about how America has been ripped off may not be unjustified, as when they target China’s commercial behaviour or the low European contribution to defence. But in the broad sweep of the president’s view of the world, that is becoming rather beside the point as he sets a pattern of reaching for his six gun regardless of others, proclaiming victory come what may and gingering up his electoral base. The rest of the world has only been able to stand by, trying to absorb each bump as if they were isolated incidents. Trump’s shock-jock style obscures the way in which the global order of the past seven decades is being shifted amid the constant agitation from the White House and Air Force One. Continue reading “The order Trump holds in contempt was once America’s proudest creation”