Limits to Power

21 June 2018

 

Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Trump Caves on Separating Asylum Families 

 

The Trump administration decided it has had enough of the embarrassment and political heat that came with creating detention camps for the children of people seeking asylum in the US. Yesterday, after weeks of enforcing a policy that split roughly 2,500 children (including newborns) from their parents, the president finally signed an executive order halting the practice. The disastrous policy was further exacerbated by gross incompetence in implementing the bad idea, and much of the damage cannot be undone. The good news is that Mr. Trump and his authoritarian allies have discovered the moral limits of the American people.

The administration is on record saying it wanted to split up families as a deterrent. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who shames the Marine uniform he once wore, said last year told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "I'm considering [separation], in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network. I am considering exactly that. They will be well cared for as we deal with their parents." Or to paraphrase from the Vietnam era, "To save the family, we had to destroy the family."

The order that began this stupid, vicious and un-American folly came from Attorney-General Jeff Sessions, who was denied a seat on the federal bench back in the 1980s for plain racist attitudes that time does not seem to have eroded. In a major change in policy, he decreed that anyone crossing the border illegally would be prosecuted for the misdemeanor crime of entering the US improperly. Children were taken away from their parents as a result, on the rather suspect theory that children shouldn't be held in prison while their parents await trial. So, they went to child detention centers where the writ of habeas corpus does not apply. Some have been resettled in the east, like the 300 in New York State. All of which could have been avoided by granting the asylum-seeker bail, common for misdemeanors in the US.

The Trump administration started to feel the heat thanks to a free press that smelled several rats. The White House claimed Congress had to act, that it was all the Democrats' fault, that no executive order could fix it. When the press uncovered "Tender Age Shelters" housing detainees under four, the camel's back broke, and an executive order was quickly drafted, signed and celebrated.

Now that the policy is reversed on family separation, cleaning up the mess remains. There is a massive backlog in the immigration courts because the Attorney-General failed to increase staff to prosecute under his zero-tolerance stance. If one isn't going to tolerate, if one is going to prosecute thousands of people more than previously, one really needs more prosecutors. Mr. Sessions has handled this so badly that the Department of Justice has asked the Pentagon to send over military lawyers to help with the prosecutions. This may be a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, but the Pentagon has agreed.

In addition, the law requires would-be asylum-seekers to present themselves at a port of entry rather than just wander into the US. However, the ports of entry lacked the staff to handle those trying to enter legally. People were turned away or forced to wait weeks. Indeed, some border personnel failed to execute their duties; in mitigation, no one had any idea what the rules were thanks to Mr. Session's cack-handed planning.

As for the 2,500 kids who don't have any idea where mom and dad might be, they are out of luck. There is no way for them to be reunited under the current set-up, and the White House has said there won't be any effort expended to do so. New York State has already filed a lawsuit.

This journal believes that following the law protects both US residents and the asylum-seekers. Punishing law-breakers is part of that arrangement. However, when the punishment is excessive, counter-productive or simply vindictive, then one must agree with Dicken's Mr. Bumble, "the law is a ass." Any law that results in detention of diaper-wearing children is prima facie ridiculous. Executive discretion in enforcement is the only correct policy, and legislation to repeal the stupidity is in order.

© Copyright 2018 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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