Trump has invented a new excuse to blame Democrats for his policy of child separation, and that involves falsely claiming that Congress needs to authorize family detainment.
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Trump said, “We want to solve this problem. We want to solve family separation. I don’t want children taken away from parents. And when you prosecute the parents for coming in illegally, which should happen, you have to take the children away. Now, we don’t have to prosecute them, but then we’re not prosecuting them for coming in illegally. That’s not good. We want to end the border crisis by finally giving us the legal authorities and the resources to detain and remove illegal immigrant families all together and bring them back to their country. We have to bring them back to their country. Now, think of all that aid that we give some of these countries. Hundreds of millions of dollars we give to some of these countries. And they send them up. Well, I’m going to go, very shortly, for authorization that when countries abuse us by sending their people up, not their best, we’re not going to give any more aid to those countries. Why the hell should we? Why should we?”
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Trump was lying
The president doesn’t not need Congressional authorization to implement the immigration laws. The Executive Branch of the government implements the laws. Trump decides how those laws will be implements. Trump and his administration implement the laws through policy. Trump has made the policy that children will be separated from their parents at the border. Blaming Democrats for how the president implements policy isn’t just a lie. It’s a crazy lie.
Trump could keep the families together. Trump could decide not to prosecute the parents of children who were seeking asylum. Trump and his administration can’t justify the policy, so the lies are getting crazy, which is a sure sign that the White House is losing.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
