Posted on 10/25/2018 7:43:05 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
A former civilian staffer at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wrote Thursday that he quit his job earlier this year out of a belief that the Trump administration was ignoring legal concerns about its family separation policy toward migrant children.
Scott Shuchart wrote in a piece for The Washington Post that he quit his job over the summer as a senior adviser at the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in light of the administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which prosecuted any individual who crossed the border illegally.
He claimed multiple lawyers throughout the government, such as himself, raised concerns that the policy violated U.S. or humanitarian laws.
Schuchart wrote he grew exceedingly frustrated that the political appointees and those enforcing the family separation policy did not heed his or his colleagues' warnings about potential legal and ethical quandaries.
He cited a May 21 meeting in which political appointees carrying out the policy indicated they saw no reason there would be legal concerns about the practice of family separations.
Schuchart, a non-resident senior fellow at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, also recalled a June meeting with Border Patrol managers as a breaking point after he claimed that they did not appear interested in fielding the lawyers' questions or heeding their advice on how to work with migrant children.
"I cast about for more to do, but within a month of that June meeting, I realized there was no way to keep my oath and my job," Schuchart wrote. "I quit."
Thousands of immigrant families remained separated for weeks as a result of the policy.
Schuchart's piece included a comment from DHS spokeswoman Katie Waldman, who said the department does not "disclose or comment on privileged legal advice provided by our attorneys to the Secretary or other officials, and therefore, unfortunately, we are not in a position to refute false narratives put forward by a former employee."
She added that the Trump administration was enforcing "long-standing U.S. law" with its zero tolerance policy.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request from The Hill seeking additional comment.
In a separate statement to The Hill, Waldman accused Shuchart of taking information out of context and disclosing privileged information about the Trump administration's policies.
"Mr. Shuchart, an attorney who just spent many pages in The Washington Post extolling his morality and trashing many of the dedicated public servants at DHS who work hard every day to secure our nation, apparently has no qualms about quoting from a legally privileged memorandum that he obtained when he was a DHS official and taking such quotation out of context," Waldman said.
The practice of separating immigrant families at the border prompted overwhelming bipartisan backlash as images circulated of children being held in government facilities apart from their parents.
President Trump and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen insisted for days that only Congress could address the issue, but the president eventually caved to pressure and signed an executive order halting the separations.
Immigration policy has returned to the forefront in recent days as a caravan of Central American migrants journeys toward the U.S.-Mexico border in search of asylum.
The president has seized on the group's emergence to revive calls for stricter immigration laws, and pledged to deploy the military to the border to stop the caravan from entering the country.
Don’t care.
All Democrats on the government payroll should follow his example.
So now he has a “real” job?
A real “Look at Me! I matter” moment.
How can we get more of them to quit? Another example that Trump’s doing the job we hired him to do.
So what?
Get lost, punk.
I learned early on in my career to be wary of people who quit for “noble” reasons and find it necessary to further publicize it. They never win.
Good, get out.
Encourage your friends to quit ALSO.
Time to improve DHS..!
It was Obozo’s policy. Did he give a crap then?
Oh wait, I get it. This is support propaganda for the derp state "Caravan Op" coming to a theater near you.
you’ve never worked in a place where an employee was killed due to ,management negligence.
..... Buh Bye .... And why are you telling us this now with the bomb stuff going on?
Is that the legal code in the country of "Humanitaria." Or maybe "Humanistan"?
Good.
My policy preferences would make him cry.
so......
I’d bet money that this fraud didn’t “quit” his job but took retirement......LOL
Good riddance.
Any lawyer that claims that enforcing U.S. law violates U.S. or humanitarian laws needs to have the brains curb-stomped out of their ears...
Boo boo, crybaby lib.
Ask me if I care.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.