The House Democrats released a report on what’s being done in our name at the border. CNN has a summary here and links to a PDF of the complete report here.
The report says 18 infants and toddlers under two years old were snatched from their parents and held “for 20 days to half a year.” It details the pointless and cruel ways hundreds of kids have been shuffled around like lost baggage and in some cases held after their parents were deported without them. Here’s the conclusion of the executive summary:
The information obtained by the Committee indicates that the Trump Administration’s decision to separate thousands of babies, toddlers, and children from their parents and put them in government custody for months or years is causing immense suffering. This staff report provides numerous case studies that illustrate their trauma in stark terms. These child separations were not required by law and were not in the best interest of the children. Instead, the policy of separating children from their parents appears to be a deliberate, unnecessary, and cruel choice by President Trump and his Administration.
There are horrifying new details in the report, but we’ve known about the abuse for a long time. We’ve also known Trump uses family separation as a “deterrent” for a long time, and there was extensive coverage of the child camps in recent weeks.
Despite these facts, Trump’s approval rating ticked up slightly. He’s still historically unpopular, having never cracked 50% approval in a reputable poll despite a strong economy, etc. But still, somewhere north of 40% of our fellow citizens think he’s doing a good job, child caging and all.
The cruelty is the point with Trump, and the same must be said of anyone who approves of him. They’re either enjoying the spectacle of pain and heartache inflicted on desperate people, or their indifference amounts to a depravity in its own right. Shameful.