The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“We meet, my friends. In the face of evil. . . . [Six] children . . . have perished in—or right after release from—U.S. custody. Before 2018, it had been about a decade since a child died while being held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
“But [CBP] has never held so many people in such close and unsanitary conditions, either. And as for ‘short term’: unaccompanied children are supposed to remain in custody no longer than 72 hours. They are routinely being held days, even weeks, longer. . . . There is something niggardly and petty about the meanness . . . of an Administration that shrugged off an 11-year girl crying for her father after he was swept up in an ICE raid in Mississippi. That was unmoved by the sight of a man and his toddler daughter, face down in the Rio Grande. . . .
“[Adolph Eichmann] just did his job. He just followed orders. Something to bear in mind as our government inflicts needless cruelties upon the vulnerable and dispossessed. After all, evil puts its pants on one leg at a time, just like you and I, Evil fixes breakfast. Evil gets the kids off to school.” – Caged Children and Everyday Evil, Leonard Pitts, The Seattle Times, 8/25/19 [Link]
Fact Check of Quote Above: This article sees little shade of gray in anything. It portrays President Trump as a purely sinister being, on the order of Nazi henchman Adolph Eichmann. And it paints ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies with pretty much the same brush. There is no effort to consider any motive, other than pure malice, for Trump and enforcement officers. This portrayal has more in common with comic books than serious journalism.
Yes, migrant children have had problems in recent years. It was during that time that growing numbers of adult migrants realized that they could game our immigration system—especially if they brought children with them. The result was a surge of adults and youngsters crossing the border which simply overwhelmed our ability to process them in a regular and orderly fashion.
This the proper perspective to view wire enclosures, mischaracterized as “cages,” where migrant youngsters have been sent. Their stay is supposed to be short, while the authorities sort out their cases. But the sheer number of these young migrants has often slowed the process down and made their stays longer than intended. One point to keep in mind is that this problem did not begin during the Trump Administration. It existed under President Obama, a fact the media usually don’t report.
To prevent our border from getting completely out of control, the Trump Administration has taken some strong measures, including the requirement that supposed asylum seekers apply for it in Mexico first before applying in the U.S. These are hardly acts of malice, but the legitimate actions of a government trying to hold off chaos and protect national sovereignty.
Real blame for the problems of migrant children lies on those who encourage illegal migration and the asylum scam. It lies on American politicians who refuse to end the legal loopholes that invite adults to bring children with them. And further it lies on the adults who recklessly expose children to the danger of long and dangerous treks to make an illegal crossing of the U.S. border. The children that died in U.S. custody suffered great stress beforehand which probably contributed to their deaths.
Donald Trump was not responsible for what happened the father and daughter mentioned in the article. That responsibility falls squarely on the father who placed his life and hers in jeopardy. The man’s mother tried to persuade him not to go, but she said he wanted the “American Dream,” meaning a better standard of living. America doesn’t have the resources to provide that for most of the world’s poor people. That why we must restrict immigration.
As for the child separated from her father in Mississippi, the article neglected to note that ICE tried to make provisions for children of people arrested. A spokesman for ICE also made the following point: “There are countless children across Louisiana and Mississippi who have a parent currently incarcerated due to their parent being arrested for breaking the law. The reality is adults with children are arrested everyday—and every arrest by any law enforcement agency, by definition, “separates” a person from their family. The use of sensationalist language applied to ICE arrests—and only ICE arrests—only fuels misinformation and is an unfair double standard.”
It is reasonable to ask if this writer for the Times and pundits like him believe in any kind of immigration law enforcement. If not, they should be honest enough to say so and thereby admit that they care nothing for the security of our border and the country it defines. Those who liken our president and his policies to Adolph Eichmann shouldn’t be too surprised if many Americans start likening them to Benedict Arnold.