We begin today’s roundup with Paul Waldman at The Washington Post and his piece on the administration’s choice to separate children from their parents at the border:
Amid growing outrage over the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents when families arrive at the border, many are asking how the administration can be so cruel as to literally tear children from their mothers’ arms. There’s a clear answer, one that runs through all of the administration’s policies on immigration:
The cruelty is the whole point.
It’s both a reflection of President Trump’s beliefs and those of his key advisers on immigration, and a practical tool they are using to reduce the number of immigrants coming to the United States. There won’t be a more humane set of policies coming out of this administration, because they have no interest in being humane.
Ali Noorani at The Daily Beast explains that not only does the policy not work as a deterrent, it’s cruel and immoral as well:
This is Trump’s mean-spirited attempt to deter immigration and send a cruel message that those fleeing violence and trying to seek asylum will have their children held hostage.
The practice harms children. It does not actually work as a deterrent. And it’s an affront to a core American value: keeping children with their parents.
As Americans across the political spectrum learn about Trump’s policy, the shock settles in.