The Trump administration owns its cruel policy of separating families
By Paul Waldman
June 15 at 1:21 PM
Most administrations have to face this public-relations problem at one point or another: They make a decision for reasons they think are good ones, then are surprised to receive a wave of negative press coverage and public revulsion, so they have to scramble to come up with a palatable justification that makes them look like they aren’t foolish, insensitive, or in some cases, morally monstrous.
That’s what’s happening to the Trump administration right now, as outrage grows over their policy of separating children from their parents when they arrive at the southern border — not just people crossing illegally, but in some cases, families who arrive and present themselves to American authorities to request asylum. The pictures and descriptions of terrified children and anguished parents have produced a rising backlash, to which the president, the attorney general and other officials have responded by essentially arguing that they have almost nothing to do with their own policy.
Meanwhile, Republican members of Congress are spooked enough by the bad publicity that they inserted into their latest hard-line immigration bill — which is supposed to get a vote next week — a provision allowing children to be detained with their parents. Yet President Trump, for reasons that aren’t yet clear, said today that he won’t support such a bill.
Before we get to the laughable defenses the administration is using to justify its family-separation policy, we should look back to see how that policy — and what the administration says about that policy — has evolved just over the last couple of months. Because it has changed dramatically.
Though the policy change happened recently, the idea of separating families as a deterrent to illegal immigration was being contemplated from the beginning of the Trump presidency.
In March 2017, while he was the secretary of Homeland Security, White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly said he was considering separating families “in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network. I am considering exactly that.” Soon after, Kelly backed off the idea, but it continued to circulate within the administration as a potential step to take.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/06/15/the-trump-administration-owns-its-cruel-policy-of-separating-families
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