Free Republic

There is a direct line from those who attacked the Trump administration for “family separation” at the border to the current pain and suffering of thousands of migrant children. Now that the Biden administration has carried out a policy these critics argued for, the result is a humanitarian disaster, and those who were most vocal about the care of migrant children are now silent.First, the backstory. A legal ruling says the federal government can’t detain migrant children in the United States for more than 20 days. If adults bring children with them to the southern U.S. border, assuming these children...

On Wednesday, the soft voice of Ventura County Health Director Robert Levin confirmed that the forcible quarantines are underway. He announced a “pilot program that will grow into a larger program” and “we will find everyone with COVID-19 and we will isolate every one of them and we will make sure that they stay quarantined and we will check in with them every day. In other words, what this program means is we’re going to do a more complete job, we’re going to do a more meticulous job of making it less and less possible for others in the county...

President Donald Trump is falsely asserting that the federal policy that split migrant families at the border was practiced by his predecessor, Barack Obama, as well. The Obama and Trump administrations operated under the same immigration laws but the “zero tolerance” policy that drove children from their parents was Trump’s. […] The president is correct, however, in saying that photos of children in holding cells were misrepresented online as showing the effects of Trump’s immigration policy. …

“…demand this administration stop criminalizing undocumented immigrants?” Um, “this administration” didn’t do that. Somebody else did that for them: 8 U.S. Code § 1325 - Improper entry by alien In fact if you want to call enforcing our laws “criminalization” I guess we’ll have to hang this one on George W. Bush, as well as Barack Hussein Obama, who apparently also voted for it before he voted against it:  While immigration is typically handled through civil law in the United States,2 an often-overlooked part of the United States’ immigration system is the criminalization of “illegal” entry or reentry into...

Democrats are positioning themselves to vote down a bill that would permanently prevent the separation of illegal immigrant parents and children. Remember this the next time you see liberals compare President Donald Trump and his administration to Nazis on this issue. Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ordering that families remain together while officials determine the outcome of their case. Illegal immigration activists — yes, you read that right — are likely to sue Trump over that. To understand what’s happening and how to fix it, review the history. In 1997, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the most...

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) on Tuesday introduced legislation that would end the separation of immigrant families at the border as the White House scrambles to contain the fallout from the controversial policy. The bill from Meadows, one of President Trump’s top allies in Congress and a conservative ringleader, would allow children to be detained with their parents. The measure would also make it more difficult to seek asylum in the United States — a top priority for conservatives that could stop Democrats from backing the measure.“We need to better enforce our immigration laws, but we can do so...

"""HORROR! Immigrant Children Stripped Naked, Cuffed, Beaten and Strapped Down with Bags Over Their Heads… Under Obama"""" The Associated Press is running a horrific story today on how immigrant children were allegedly stripped naked, handcuffed, strapped down with bags over their head and beaten at a refugee facility in Virginia. An anonymous plaintiff is suing the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Center for the abuse he endured at the facility. The teen came here from Mexico. He was a troubled kid and wound up in the high security facility. Now he’s suing the government for abuse he says he endured at the...

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson reminded MSNBC anchor Andrea Mitchell Thursday of the Obama administration’s decision to expand the number of immigrant family detentions. A partial transcript follows: JEH JOHNSON: Illegal migration reacts sharply to perceived changes in enforcement policy — in the short term — but it always reverts back longer term to the longer term trends given the underlying condition of the so-called push factors in central America. So that is what President Trump and his administration have seen now over the last year. The numbers are 40 or 50,000 per month and they are obviously...

The father of the Honduran girl who became the face of the family separation crisis has revealed that he still has not been in touch with his wife or daughter but was happy to learn they are safe. Denis Javier Varela Hernandez, 32, said that he had not heard from his wife Sandra, 32, who was with his two-year-old daughter Yanela Denise, for nearly three weeks until he saw the image of them being apprehended in Texas. In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Hernandez, who lives in Puerto Cortes, Honduras, says that he was told yesterday that his wife and...

A reader in a previous article I did on the illegal immigrant detention center in Texas, asked me a question about the Wal-Mart centers. which closed in 2015 due to plumbing issues. As I was trying to find an answer, I came across a list of Obama 2014 Detention Centers. It states under them if they were implemented, failed, or under proposal. The list goes on and on, and it is only for unaccompanied minors. Their parents sent them across the border alone – I cannot imagine that. One must realize it is, in fact, the parent who is responsible...

Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is calling on President Donald Trump to end the “heartless” policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at the U.S. border. “Children shouldn’t be used as a negotiating tool,” Bush tweeted on Monday. “@realDonaldTrump should end this heartless policy and Congress should get an immigration deal done that provides for asylum reform, border security and a path to citizenship for Dreamers.” The failed presidential candidate’s plea came in response to President Trump’s tweet in which he vowed to stop “some of the worst criminals on earth,” from using children to illegally enter the U.S....

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei slammed the Trump administration on Wednesday over the U.S.'s policy of separating migrant families who cross the border illegally for prosecution and detainment. In comments posted on his website reported by Reuters, Rouhani wrote that he was "exasperated" to see pictures and video of migrant children as young as toddlers being kept in cages, which have caused widespread outrage in the U.S. “Seeing the images of the crime of separating thousands of children from their mothers in America makes a person exasperated,” Khamenei said, according to Reuters. “But the Americans separate the children from...

A majority of voters blame the parents of the separated children at the southwestern border for the current immigration crisis, not the federal government, according to a new poll. “When families are arrested and separated after attempting to enter the United States illegally, 54 percent of likely U.S. voters say the parents are more to blame for breaking the law,” says a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday. Rasmussen found 35 percent believe the federal government is more to blame for enforcing the law, while 11 percent are not sure about the situation. “A closer look shows that 82 percent of...

The media is making hay over President Trump's executive order stipulating that families entering the U.S. without authorization be detained as family units, calling it a 'cave-in' or else, as Washington Post's Karen Tumulty put it, "forced into retreat by babies." Yeah, sure. As Brian Joondeph superbly points out here: Trump’s executive order stipulates that the government will continue to prosecute illegal border crossers. And instead of separating families, they will be kept together, in detention facilities, while waiting for their cases to be heard by the courts. Is this what Democrats wanted when they urged Trump to use...

President Trump is planning to sign an executive order to allow children to stay with parents caught crossing the border illegally -- a step that could avoid the family separations that have triggered a national outcry and political crisis for Republicans. The action under consideration would allow children to stay in detention with parents for an extended period of time, Fox News has learned. This comes as congressional Republicans scramble to draft legislation to address the same issue, but face challenges mustering the votes. Trump previewed the new measure, while holding out hope for legislation, during remarks to reporters during...

The latest outrage by the Trump administration is its policy of "ripping" children away from parents who've crossed the border illegally. As with so many other things involving Trump, there's plenty of emotion but precious little in the way of facts. The furor reached critical mass after the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that 1,995 children had been separated from their illegal border crossing parents from mid-April through May. That number included, DHS said, cases where the adults were arrested for illegal entry, immigration violations, or possible criminal conduct. The practice has generated a rising storm of protests,...

Hillary Clinton weighed in Monday morning on the ongoing controversy regarding the Trump administration’s "no-tolerance” border policy, suggesting that Jesus would not condone the actions of the American border authorities. At an awards lunch for the Women’s Forum of New York, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee called out “those who selectively use the Bible” to give grounds for the separations, which were reported by the Department of Justice on Friday. “I went to a lot of years of Sunday school — even taught it from time to time. I’ve studied both the Old and New Testament, and what is being...

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Crocodile tears are flowing from Democrats and their allies in the Democrat Media Industrial Complex (DMIC) over the Trump administration’s enforcement of immigration laws signed by then-President Bill Clinton in 1997, followed by then-President Barack Obama’s decisions and policies. Immigration laws are a function of every country on the planet. Otherwise, why have borders? Which is something Democrats would apparently prefer not to have — or enforce. Because they want a recurring wave of new underclass voters, dependent upon the state for all their needs. Illegal aliens fit that description perfectly. The latest salvo in the immigration imbroglio stems from...

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen defended the Trump administration’s highly contentious “zero tolerance” immigration-enforcement policy Monday as the inevitable result of congressional inaction on immigration.“We will not apologize for the job we do or for the job law enforcement does, for doing the job that the American people expect us to do,” Nielsen said during her Monday address to National Sheriffs’ Association in New Orleans. “Illegal actions have and must have consequences. No more free passes, no more get-out-of-jail-free cards.”Nielsen went on to decry inaccurate media portrayals of the Trump administration’s enforcement policy, which requires the detention and prosecution...