Separate mothers and children: How a Trump threat deterred illegal migrants

Reuters ^ | April 13, 2017 | By Julia Edwards Ainsley

[Oldeconomybuyer]

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.

The policies targeting women and children have their roots in a working group consisting of Capitol Hill staffers and others called together by Trump’s transition team in the weeks after the Nov. 8 election.

The group was asked to develop policies to discourage illegal border crossings and more quickly expel illegal immigrants after they crossed the border, according to two of the DHS officials and a congressional aide.

One goal was to help Trump fulfill a major campaign promise: ending so-called “catch and release,” the practice of apprehending illegal immigrants but then freeing them to live in the United States while their asylum or deportation cases were resolved.

The group quickly identified a major obstacle - the large numbers of women and children continuing to cross the border, said the DHS officials and the aide.

[txrefugee]

And most of the women claim they are fleeing an abusive husband and/or a threat by drug dealers. This may be true in a few cases, but why aren’t their own governments taking care of that? Besides, most of them have abusive husbands over here already, their morals being a little lower than apes.

[Red Badger]

[Lurkinanloomin]

There are 30 million illegal aliens here, this is going to take a long time and we need many more ICE officers.
Starting with felons makes sense, but we should not have to wait until illegal aliens harm or kill Americans before they are removed.
We need to cut off employment and benefits to encourage them to go home on their own.
We should also publicize the fact that deportation results in a 10 wait to re-apply for entry.
If they leave voluntarily they can get in line like they should have to begin with.
DACA must be ended.
Continuing to hand out work permits to illegal aliens under this illegal program undercuts all the other efforts.

[BeauBo]

The flip side is something that the article does not mention - the Obama Administration went to great lengths to assure the population of Mexico and Central America that Obama would take good care of their kids if they sent them.

Latin American media were fed a steady stream of clips of illegal immigrant kids in nice facilities, eating good, and given toys and big screen TVs to watch, and then being met by their relatives in the US - safe, sound and happy. It was a steady advertising campaign to attract illegal immigrants.

Turnabout is fair play.

[fruser1]

When you throw up your hands and say “we can’t possibly deport millions of people!” it’s just another way of saying “come on in”

[utahagen]

“And most of the women claim they are fleeing an abusive husband and/or a threat by drug dealers.”

This isn't directly related, but it reminds me of a speech Melinda Gates gave in which she cited one of the reasons she was dedicating her life to spreading contraceptives all over the world: (I'm paraphrasing): “And there are women whose husbands physically abuse them, so we help them be sexually active without getting pregnant.” I recall thinking, “Ok, so you are asserting that large swaths of a particular African country's men are abusing their wives...and the best you can do is give those wives the Pill?”

[Will88]

Yes, Trump has withdrawn the open invitation to come to the USA that Obama had spread around to all the nations south of our southern border. They just had to come in the proper groupings and everything was fine.

Invitation rescinded.

[Squeako]

Starting with the felons is easy but even easier is the targeting of those overstaying theirs visas, which would take out half of them on their own. The great thing about that is we know who they are.

[Valpal1]

Actually it makes sense. Because being endlessly pregnant by your abuser is physically and emotionally draining and every baby is another hostage further trapping you in the abusive situation.

So birth control is the first step or strand to untangle in the net that ensnares them. And in the context of charitable aid, it’s better than a “stop beating your wives” poster campaign.

[utahagen]

What you wrote makes sense, but if you saw the video of Melinda Gates giving this speech, I think you'd have a sense of what I found incongruous and offensive. One of the richest women in the world, who happens to be white and American, was smilingly talking about how much she wants to help curb the populations of poor countries (that happen to be black). Now, I don't think Melinda Gates has anything against black people. However, I am baffled by the whole “overpopulation” argument. As the American Enterprise Institute often argues, many countries are poor because they have lousy economies and are run by dictators who get their hands on much of the money from charities that is supposed to go to their countries’ poor populations. Yet, only a few people and organizations, such as the AEI, seem to be interested in encouraging INVESTMENT (in the form of businesses) in these countries. Instead, very rich Americans look at these countries and reason, well if there were fewer people in these countries, fewer people would be miserable. Ok, I guess that's true. Also, I am skeptical that many of the women Gates was talking about are in “abusive” relationships. It frustrates many American that poor — but not starving — Africans who are married would rather have six children than two or three. I think it's easy to toss off “abuser” about men who don't want their wives to use birth control — Melinda Gates was referring to contraceptive implants — which isn't quite fair.

[Valpal1]

I wouldn’t invest money in a turd world country with no respect for property rights or the rule of law. That’s just putting it at risk or straight into the pockets of the asshats running (ruining) those countries.

I got no problem with billionaires that use their own money to provide birth control directly to people who voluntarily want to use them. Neither end of that transaction is any of my business.

[tbw2]

Send the children with the mother.