And some children, I assume, are good peopl
by digby
I'm going to watch "Sophie's Choice" this week-end to remind myself that we're "the good guys." Sometimes I forget.
Remember Trump was going to get rid of all the "bad hombres" and the "bad dudes" so fast our heads will spin. Well, he's succeeded. He's managed to deter women from coming to America to feed their children. You know, rapists and criminals:
President Donald Trump has won the first major battle in his war on illegal immigration, and he did it without building his wall.
The victory was announced last week by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which released figures showing a 93 percent drop since December of parents and children caught trying to cross the Mexico border illegally.
In December, 16,000 parents and children were apprehended; in March, a month in which immigration typically increases because of temperate weather, the number was just over 1,100.
It was a remarkable decline - steeper than the 72 percent drop in overall apprehensions - but for eight DHS officials interviewed by Reuters it was not surprising.
Trump has spoken about the need to crack down broadly on all illegal immigrants. But, internally, according to the DHS officials familiar with the department's strategy, his administration has focused on one immigrant group more than others: women with children, the fastest growing demographic of illegal immigrants. This planning has not been previously reported.
In the months since Trump's inauguration, DHS has rolled out a range of policies aimed at discouraging women from attempting to cross the border, including tougher initial hurdles for asylum claims and the threat of prosecuting parents if they hire smugglers to get their families across the border.
The department has also floated proposals such as separating women and children at the border.
DHS Secretary John Kelly told a Senate hearing on April 5 that the sharp drop in illegal immigration, especially among women and children, was due to Trump's tough policies.
To date, it has been the threat of new policies rather than their implementation that has suppressed family migration.
DHS says they haven't actually implemented the plans. They're just threatening to in order to keep all those terrible Mexican women and children out of our pristine white country.
Maybe someone should ask the woman everyone thinks is so caring and compassionate why it's ok to threaten to separate women from their kids if they cross the border without documents.
