Heartless and Cruel

Every American presidential administration in modern times has deported undocumented immigrants, including children who accompany their parents. That is nothing new.

Notwithstanding its origin as a nation of immigrants, the reality today is that America is a much harder place to immigrate to than other first-world English-speaking nations like Great Britain, Canada, and Australia. That is because of laws made by Congress and not by any particular President.

Where there is difference, however, is in the severity and selectivity of enforcement. All but one President has focused on the more serious dangers, not every, single undocumented immigrant from south of the border.

For the first time in American history, the presidency of Donald Trump now has "zero tolerance" for people from certain countries, meaning people from nations with citizens of a darker skin. If you're not brown or Hispanic and have money and want to buy a condo at a Trump property, then you're no problem if you fly in with a check and overstay your visa.

More recently, Trump and his administration have dialed up their cruelty when it comes to immigrants from Latin America and other countries with darker-skinned peoples, many of whom are fleeing for their lives from corrupt governments, death squads, and murderous druglords. For the first time in American history, children of undocumented immigrants are being separated from parents and herded into kiddie internment camps (details here), where the youngest prisoners are barely out of diapers.

This is savage and heartless. Even conservative groups that have been strong supporters of Trump are now condemning his administration's brutality. Trump and his people have offered no explanation as to why his administration deviated from the practice of all past administrations, which was to keep detained families together, nor why harsh enforcement was even needed, given undocumented immigration totals are way down.

To add insult to injury, Trump cowardly refused to accept credit for his own brutal policy and lied about a fictional law that mandated separating children from families. He shamelessly lied and said "Democrats forced that law upon our nation. I hate it. I hate to see separation of parents and children."

That is 100 percent horseshit.

Not only does no law exist that children must be separated from parents and held in baby prison, and such a practice may actually violate federal law, a matter expected to be litigated in forthcoming days. Trump and Trump alone is responsible for what is happening to these young children.

I was ten years old when my parents immigrated to the United States. I was a native English speaker, but I nonetheless would have been traumitized if forcibly separated and put into a kiddie internment camp. I have no idea if we immigrated 100 percent legally, either, but then I'm white so Trump wouldn't care about me.

Some of the small children being separated and seized under Trump's order are much younger than ten and speak no English. No one has the communication skills to explain to them in ways they would understand. The psychological trauma they are facing will damage them for years to come.

This whole sorry affair only underscores the complete lack of moral values in the Trump administration. They could have followed the same policy as previous administrations and kept the families together.

But, no, they had to use innocent children as "a message," no matter how heartless and possibly illegal their own administrative actions.