“I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. That’s not pro-life. That’s Pro-Birth”
The words of Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister are part of a larger quote that makes what’s going on with Trump child deportations all the more damning. Deporting children, even unaccompanied children? OF COURSE Trump is that cruel. Even children with CANCER. Again, it’s appalling but we are talking Trump, who instead of dressing as a scary clown PAINTS HIS FACE ORANGE. But for Trump and his Eichman clone pal Stephen Miller even that’s not cruel enough – now the administration is deporting children who are U.S. Citizens, including kids with CANCER. The GOP’s attitude seems to be ‘If the little bastards could make the effort (?) to be born to citizen parents then to hell with them. Or at least some other country.
However that’s where things are these days. It’s not news that Republicans wrap themselves in the mantle of their “Christianity” and promote “family values” or that they just love them those babies growing in women’s wombs. BUT that as soon as that kid is born they don’t care two cents about those babies they obsessed over! Often that’s quite literal given the unwillingness to have the government shell out so much as one dime for the care, feeding, housing and education of those babies as the grow into children, and eventually adults. Nope, to conservatives once the little bastards are born they aren’t worthy of jack. Unless of course they are of a certain type, with certain traits and born to the “right” kind of parents.
None of the children being deported asked to be born. None of us do. The couple that contributed egg and sperm to make an embryo, cum fetus and eventually baby made the decision for all of us. Alas, in his zeal to make the United States not MAGA but MAWO (Make America White Only) Trump has proven a willingness to rip infants from mother’s arms at the border (Miller I’m sure had a network set up to create a new form of slavery!) but also find and deport children already in the U.S. Even if the child has cancer or some other critical medical condition. The excuse being not BOTH parents were U.S. citizens. Talk about visiting the “sins” of the father/mother on the child!’
Still, as this article from Raw Story tells us a two-year old American citizen undergoing treatment for cancer has been deported. FYI she’s not the first with an age in single digits this has happened to. It’s a short article that addresses a set of deportations effected by ICE in New Orleans this past Friday. The children had mothers who (so ICE claims) weren’t citizens. One of the three kids is the 2 year old with cancer I mentioned. Oh, and one of the deported mothers whose citizen children were deported with his is pregnant. No matter. Trump might as well sign a decree that all non white and non-conservative people have a week to get out of the country. Or find themselves on a plane or ship to El Salvador or some godforsaken place. (Of course a carefully selected number of non-whites will get to stay on as slaves/servants, at least for rich folks)
I think this business with American citizen children is part of a larger strategy as is playing out in the Garcia case. It’s a deliberate attempt to get the courts, especially SCOTUS to rewrite the law and Constitution to Trump’s liking. And if they refuse (as he thinks they might) he will simple ignore them! After all, it’s not like even before the immunity ruling SCOTUS could have him arrested! Trump WANTS such a Constitutional Crisis so he never has to be constrained by the rule of law again. So, in addition to what he’s chosen to do with Garcia he wants to make clear if HE deems even U.S. citizens should be deported he’s by god has the power to do so. Finding some particular provocative cases forces the issue:
Among the children deported with their mothers, says the ACLU, are three U.S. citizens aged two, four, and seven. One of the children is a U.S. citizen child suffering from a rare form of metastatic cancer and was deported out of the country without medication or consultation with their treating physicians – despite ICE being notified in advance of the child’s medical needs. The civil rights organization says that one of the mothers is pregnant, and was deported without ensuring any continuity of prenatal care or proper medical care.
This is all part of a larger, orchestrated pattern of using CHILDREN to force a confrontation with SCOTUS and a Constitutional crisis. A different new story from The Independent covers a growing effort to force unaccompanied children, some as young as four years old to attend immigration courts ALONE. No parent, relative or guardian. And for damned sure no lawyer! The Independent notes in the story this new tactic with children comes after the Trump administration (in March) ended a contract that provided legal help to migrant children entering the country without a parent or guardian. It’s tough enough for an adult, even one reasonably smart to navigate our legal system alone. Especially if they speak little or no English. Now Trump is demanding grade school age children do so!
Republicans are of course silent about all this. Except for the Trump fluffing MAGA a-holes trying to “out Trump Trump” to gain his favor. I don’t remember when it was when I first read Sister Joan’s quote about the Forced-Birth folks. However her words really stuck it to them but instead of most of them taking their shame and changing they have grown either MORE cowardly. Or Cruel. The famous (sort of) quote about being only pro-birth instead of pro-child (and family) is one of a number of pearls of wisdom she’s put out there. It’s a shame that the Catholic Church doesn’t allow women to be even priests, much less Cardinals. I think she’d make more than a worthy successor to Pope Francis.
Well, my point with all this is to explain why I think Trump always had more than someone like Abrego Garcia in mind when it came to crushing the authority of the courts. Using CHILDREN, denying them any sense of due process is bound to wind up in front of SCOTUS. He WANTS an epic confrontation because mark my words he will when he loses tell SCOTUS in so many words to eff-off. Some GOPers in the House and Senate are getting ansty, but I fear not enough of them. But maybe, just maybe using freaking children in his quest to crush all resistance will backfire on Trump.
**Friends, if you can spare a small donation, we could use it. We’re devoted to the mission of bringing you little viewed aspects of what is happening in this country and seeing the Democrats back in power. In all events, thank you for coming here to read. Ursula**
Remember, the cruelty is the point.
He has to hurt the ‘right people’.