I have a suggestion. And that suggestion is that the two words “Mission Accomplished” should be permanently stricken from the political discourse dictionary, on pain of being thrown out of office for life. First, Alfred E Newman plays Barbie dress up on an aircraft carrier, and proudly proclaims “Mission Accomplished” before a decade of senseless slaughter and misery, and now you’ve got the Orange Howler Monkey, screeching about what heroes they are for kinda-almost-semi-sorta reuniting a bunch of families that they tore apart. Enough already!
Now, the first thing that I want to know, is why does that Himmler in a skirt get to pick who is eligible to see their parents again, and who isn’t? If they come in with kids, then they ;eave with the same kids, it’s that simple. What they did is like me strolling to the store with my kids and jaywalking. The cop catches me doing it, and they throw us in the back of a cruiser and take us to the station. Then, they grab my kids and ship them off to Grand Rapids while they decide whether to charge me or not. And when they finally turn me loose, they tell me to hire a private detective if I want to see my kids again. Letting this I’m-too-lazy-to-clean-up-my-mess mob decide who deserves to be reunited is like letting a defendant tell the judge whether he can send him to jail or not.
Fortunately, according to what Lee Galernt of the ACLU is saying, the judge doesn’t think that this is a load of horse feathers he is going to be very receptive to. And reporters that were in court yesterday seem to agree with Galernt. The judge seems to be signalling that while HHS and DHS made a good start, he is about to give them a time limit on telling him exactly when and how those parents already deported are going to be reunited with their children again. And he may also put a hold on deportations while remaining parents have the chance to consult with attorneys on their rights and chances for asylum before choosing to leave their children behind. He doesn’t seem very hep on the idea of the toddler telling his mother which toys they have to pick up before they go to bed.
This whole program was engineered to be sadistic from the start. Clearly, the object was to slingshot the migrants back out of the country, as quickly as possible. But there was a much simpler and easier way to do it. We’re talking about the United States government here. Put a hospital like wrist band on each child and parent. Lock up the parents, and commandeer a goddamned Holiday Inn for the kids. Let ’em splash in the pool and watch Nikelodeon until the case is decided, then scan the bracelets, bring the kids back, and ship them across the border. The fact that the children were scattered like dandelion fluff with no tracking documentation makes it abundantly clear that there was neither a plan, nor a desire to reunite these families in the first place.
But the worst part of this whole debacle for the Trump administration is that it directly contradicts what they set the program up to do in the first place. The stated objective was to strengthen the borders by kicking these people out, and the unstated objective was to sow terror into the process to keep others from making the trek. But they’ve already deported 450 parents, leaving the kids stranded here. What are they going to do with them? The stated object was to get them out! You can’t stick them in an airplane seat, with or without a HHS escort, and then dump them in the terminal in Tegucigalpa or San Salvador before your return flight, that would be begging for formal human rights charges. Are you going to feed, house, clothe, and educate these kids until they turn 18, and then deport them to a country they don’t even remember? Even Scott Pruitt isn’t that stupid and arrogant. Are you going to give them green cards? That should go over like a lead balloon. Parents would come streaming across the border just to give their precious children a shot at a better life. Are you going to turn them loose at 18, give them a 24 hour start, and then play a game of “the Fugitive” with them? What’s the end game for those kids?
Oh, and one more thing before I go and lie down in a dark room and scream into my pillow for a while. I really, really, really don’t want to hear any more of this “I was just following orders” shit from DHS and HHS.The Nuremburg court in the late 40’s determined that having a guy with shiny braid on his hat order you to massacre innocent civilians didn’t excuse you for pulling the trigger. Following orders doesn’t mean telling panic stricken parents that you’re going to reunite them with their children on the airplane, already knowing that they’re still in New York or Cleveland, and then slamming the door. And it doesn’t cover telling terrified toddlers that their mommy or daddy dumped them because they didn’t want them anymore. I’m not saying that every employee of DHS and HHS is a heartless thug, but they are out there, and DHS and HHS had damn well be better to deal with that in the aftermath. And news flash for some of those far flung child care workers. Criminal child sexual assault is why Roy Moore is still sitting in Alabama, and not in a Senate office in Washington DC. Better watch your ass, the investigations are coming. And judging from the leaked tapes from workers with a conscience, your days may be numbered.
This entire sorry episode has been a national shame from the moment it started, but I’ll be damned if I’ll sit here and let these ghouls stand around, pounding themselves on the back, and saying “well done!” Not on my watch
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