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Last Tuesday, a video went viral of a DOJ lawyer telling a court that “a longstanding settlement agreement requiring sanitary conditions for detained immigrant children may not necessarily mean a toothbrush and soap must be provided for shorter stays.” The hearing involved an appeal from a 2017 ruling relating to treatment under the previous administration. AP News
On Saturday, “President Donald Trump… delayed a nationwide immigration sweep to deport people living the United States illegally… saying he would give lawmakers two weeks to work out solutions for the southern border.” AP News
Leaders in the House and Senate are currently working on similar but distinct bills to provide approximately $4.5 billion in emergency spending for the border. Roll Call
The left opposes increased deportations, and condemns the mistreatment of migrants in custody.
“Undocumented or not, rousing a family out of bed at 6 a.m. to abruptly end their lives in the U.S. seems heartless. We don’t do that in America, or at least we shouldn’t… Before we’re called naive, we are not saying that undocumented criminal immigrants shouldn’t be removed. They are a public menace and should be deported. Yes, go after criminals. And yes, people should not have overstayed their tourist visas, which a fair amount of the undocumented have done. But the round up is a Gestapo tactic unworthy of us… Let’s hope [Trump’s] correction is a return to some sanity and a show of compassion.”
Editorial Board, Miami Herald
Regarding migrant detention centers, “Trump essentially dismissed the plight of migrant children while speaking with Chuck Todd on Meet the Press. ‘This has been happening long before I got there,’ the president said when pressed about the conditions. ‘We’ve ended [family] separation. Under President Obama, you had separation. I was the one who ended it.’ ‘We’re doing a fantastic job, under the circumstances,’ he added. None of this is true. Families attempting to cross the border under President Obama were separated only in rare circumstances, such as when there was concern for the safety of the child, or when the adult could not be confirmed to be the child’s parent…
“Though Trump signed an executive order to suspend his own administration’s zero-tolerance policy, children are still being separated from their parents if authorities deem the parent poses a risk to the child. Such separations are on the rise, often for reasons as petty as the parent having a traffic violation on their record.”
Ryan Bort, Rolling Stone
“US Border Patrol is holding many children, including some who are much too young to take care of themselves, in jail-like border facilities for weeks at a time without contact with family members, regular access to showers, clean clothes, toothbrushes, or proper beds. Many are sick. Many, including children as young as 2 or 3, have been separated from adult caretakers without any provisions for their care… The Trump administration wants more money to build more child detention centers to hold even more children… But that ask glosses over the fact that more children are in immigration custody because over the last several years the government has slowed down the rate at which children are reunified with their families…
“Based on our interviews, officials at the border seem to be making no effort to release children to caregivers-- many have parents in the US -- rather than holding them for weeks in overcrowded cells at the border… Congress should take action -- not by approving more money for detention -- but by requiring immigration agencies to cease separating children from family members unless that's in the interest of the child, release and reunify children as soon as possible and cease using them as bait to arrest family members.”
Clara Long and Nicole Austin-Hillery, CNN
Some point out that “The government’s ‘safe and sanitary’ argument did not arise from a new case generated by Trump-administration policies. It arose in 1985, during the Reagan administration, when a 15-year-old Salvadoran child named Jenny Lisette Flores was detained after entering the United States illegally, hoping to escape her country’s vicious civil war. Flores spent two months at a facility in California, confined with adult strangers in poor conditions and strip-searched regularly…
“It is right and fit to condemn the Trump administration for its argument and its treatment of children. But… this administration is merely the latest one to subject immigrant children to abusive conditions. It’s been 35 years since Jenny Flores was strip-searched in an adult facility. Before Sarah Fabian defended concrete floors and bright lights for President Donald Trump, she defended putting kids in solitary confinement for President Barack Obama… This stain on America’s soul will not wash out with an election cycle.”
Ken White, The Atlantic
“The political calendar and Trump's approach could give grounds for optimism. Kim, who has presided over a limited form of economic development inside North Korea, is under pressure to deliver improvements in the lives of his people… So he has an incentive to try to seek economic benefits or aid from the United States and wants punishing economic sanctions lifted — a potential opening for US negotiators… Kim must realize that his chances of basking in this kind of legitimacy with a US President other than Trump are slim. So if he fears Trump could lose in 2020, he may reason the time may be ripe for a deal. And Trump wants nothing more than a big diplomatic breakthrough months before the election.”
Stephen Collinson, CNN
Regarding the Cadillac tax, “high-premium employer-based plans raise the cost of health care for everyone by encouraging the overconsumption of expensive services. This means that even Medicare and Medicaid face higher prices. Quite aside from its benefits for the health-care market, the Cadillac tax would also have the effect of expanding the tax base and making the tax code more efficient. It would raise revenues by about $15 billion a year… Rather than killing or delaying the Cadillac tax, Democrats should be trying to make it operational. The tax would raise revenue, lower costs, increase the efficiency of the tax code and give the Obamacare individual market its best chance at success.”
Karl W. Smith, Bloomberg
“The two issues with which he is most often associated, support for a balanced budget and opposition to free trade, put him at odds with both of our major political parties. An old-fashioned, soft-spoken Southerner, he nevertheless held views on so-called ‘social issues’ that would be to the left of the mainstream of the Republican Party, both then and now. He was a fervent supporter of the Vietnam POW/MIA movement in the late '80s and early '90s, but he was not in any sense a hawk. Never mind 2003. Perot opposed the first war in Iraq in 1990… Perot's death should be mourned by all Americans who regret the fact that it is no longer possible to make reasoned, non-ideological arguments about questions of public import, and by the devolution of our political life into mindless partisan squabbling.”
Matthew Walther, The Week
The right supports increased deportations, and highlights that many of the issues involving the treatment of migrants in custody existed under the previous administration and will require a bipartisan solution.
The right supports increased deportations, and highlights that many of the issues involving the treatment of migrants in custody existed under the previous administration and will require a bipartisan solution.
“The fact of the matter is that we’re discussing individuals (and families) who have already had the opportunity to make their case in court, have had their status determined and been issued orders of deportation. Rather than following those orders, they knowingly chose to remain in the country illegally and have been legally subject to arrest and deportation ever since.”
Jazz Shaw, Hot Air
“Remember the great government shutdown that Trump was ‘proud’ to own after he couldn’t get Democrats to give him money to build more wall? He caved on that. Remember when his Justice Department took a ‘zero tolerance’ position on illegal border crossings? He caved on that, too. And now he’s caving on deportations, the least controversial part of immigration enforcement. Trump won the argument on immigration. But when it comes to actually getting anything done he's a lot like a normal politician. All talk, no action.”
Eddie Scarry, The Washington Examiner
Regarding migrant detention centers, “the vast majority of the people and the outlets that shared [the] exchange [about toothbrushes and soap] failed to note that the violations being discussed had occurred during the previous administration… Instead, they jumped straight to the conclusion that the federal government, headed up by President Trump, was deliberately inflicting pain on babies. This isn’t true. It wasn’t true during the Obama administration either. Then, as now, the violations weren’t part of an intentional or evil ploy, but were the product of the system’s being overloaded… Certainly, some facilities have taken shortcuts, as the result of either bureaucratic incompetence or limited resources. But those infractions will be fixed by additional funding, additional facilities, better oversight, and quicker processing, not by pretending that the president is a tyrant.”
A.G. Hamilton, National Review
“This is a bipartisan problem and it started under a previous administration. The name game and blame game suggests partisans are not really interested in a solution so long as they can inflame people over the issue. But this needs to be fixed… The President should allow in charitable relief immediately. Democrats and Republicans should pass expanded funding to improve the detention facilities within the week. And then we really should secure the border. The situation has gotten worse because of a flood of people seeking asylum. Even the New York Times is willing to recognize there is a crisis now at the border.”
Erick Erickson, The Resurgent
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) writes, “The root cause of the record-breaking surge in migrants is the widespread abuse of our asylum system. Because of a massive backlog of asylum cases and an inability to quickly adjudicate and enforce them, more migrants are making the journey to our border. They bring children with them to take advantage of our loopholes, knowing we must release family units within 20 days… As it stands now, the incentives are aligned to permit illegal immigrants to cross the border with a child, knowing full well that they will be caught and released into society without the chance of deportation.”
Dan Crenshaw, Fox News
“To make immigration a winning issue, Trump must own both its security and humanitarian aspects. As it stands, Democrats largely ignore the security crisis and Republicans severely downplay its humanitarian toll. Caught up in their partisan bickering, both parties fail to understand the significance of immigration: Their neglect of the other side’s concerns is proof of that. If this cycle continues, neither side will achieve a permanent solution. By acknowledging the humanity of the migrants seeking asylum while maintaining pressure on congressional Democrats to pull their weight and advocating for enhanced security, Trump might just unite both sides under a coherent policy he can carry into 2020.”
Kaylee McGhee, The Washington Examiner
“NBC and MSNBC embraced Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts in the first debate of Democratic presidential candidates Wednesday night, treating her like the star of the show. The debate led off with Warren, who had a huge popularity advantage from the start… NBC anchor Savannah Guthrie started it off sounding more like Warren’s press secretary. ‘You have many plans – free college, free child care, government health care, cancelation of student debt, new taxes, new regulations, the breakup of major corporations,’ Guthrie said, before teeing up an economy question. Guthrie even used Warren’s plan to break up tech companies as the foundation for a question for Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey… the round-robin final comments also ended with Warren, as Maddow asked her for the ‘final, final statement.’ That let NBC bookend the entire debate with Warren and Warren.”
Dan Gainor, Fox News
“President Trump should be happy. As much as Warren is articulate, obviously intelligent, and energetically supported by Democrats, she would also be far easier to defeat than Joe Biden… Considering Trump's economy, the president is well placed to defeat Warren.”
Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
A libertarian's take
“The fans who avidly followed the men’s tournament certainly weren’t doing anything wrong. And it’s hard to argue that each of them had a moral obligation to be exactly as interested in women’s soccer. Even if we could stop them from watching the men more than the women, should we?…
“It’s tempting to answer that the fan choices aren’t innocent, they’re sexist. But since we can’t peek into their hearts, to say that definitively, we’d have to assume that men’s greater speed, strength and endurance definitely make nodifference to the sport’s quality. Fair enough, but then why do fans prefer to watch Megan Rapinoe play instead of the sedentary elderly who could presumably use some exercise? Alternatively, maybe pay should be equalized precisely because biology is unfair. But that seems to be an argument for curbing the pay of all top-level athletes, who have to hit the genetic lottery just to get on the field. It might be easier to focus on the distributions across society at large, rather than every individual industry, especially when fundamental biology is in play.”
Megan McArdle, Washington Post
Researchers trained seals to sing 'Twinkle Twinkle' and the 'Star Wars' theme song.
Mashable
