DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Federal Agencies Lost Track of Nearly 1,500 Migrant Children Placed With Sponsors

WASHINGTON — A top official with the Department of Health and Human Services told members of Congress on Thursday that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States, raising concerns they could end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives.

The official, Steven Wagner, the acting assistant secretary of the agency’s Administration for Children and Families, disclosed during testimony before a Senate homeland security subcommittee that the agency had learned of the missing children after placing calls to the people who took responsibility for them when they were released from government custody.

The children were taken into government care after they showed up alone at the Southwest border. Most of the children are from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, and were fleeing drug cartels, gang violence and domestic abuse, government data shows.

From last October to the end of the year, officials at the agency’s Office of Refugee Resettlement tried to reach 7,635 children and their sponsors, Mr. Wagner testified. From these calls, officials learned that 6,075 children remained with their sponsors. Twenty-eight had run away, five had been removed from the United States and 52 had relocated to live with a nonsponsor.

But officials at the agency were unable to determine with certainty the whereabouts of 1,475 children, Mr. Wagner said.

The new details come as Congress is examining safeguards put in place by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security to make sure children who show up alone at the border are turned over to relatives, and not human traffickers.

Senator Rob Portman, Republican of Ohio and the chairman of the subcommittee, said he was shocked that government officials did not know the whereabouts of hundreds of migrant children released from their care.

“H.H.S. has a responsibility to better track these children so they aren’t trafficked or abused, and so they show up to their court hearings,” he said.

Two years ago the subcommittee released a report detailing how health and human services officials placed eight children with human traffickers who forced the minors to work on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio. The report found that department officials had failed to establish procedures to protect the unaccompanied minors, such as conducting sufficient background checks on potential sponsors and following up with sponsors. As a result, the children were turned over to the people who contracted them out to the egg farm.

To prevent similar episodes, the Homeland Security and Health and Human Services Departments signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016, and agreed to establish joint procedures within one year for dealing with unaccompanied migrant children.

More than a year after the new guidelines were due, the two agencies have not completed them, Mr. Portman said.

Children who show up at the border by themselves are usually apprehended by Border Patrol agents or turn themselves in to customs officers at the Department of Homeland Security. Once they are processed, they are turned over to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ refugee office. The office runs more than 100 shelters around the country where it houses children and provides care until they can be turned over to a sponsor while awaiting their immigration hearings.

The sponsors are usually parents or family members already residing in the United States. The sponsors are supposed to undergo a detailed background check.

After the children have been placed with sponsors, workers at the department follow up with calls to ensure that the minors continue to live with the sponsors, are enrolled in school and are aware of their court dates.

But several immigration advocates who work with unaccompanied children said the department did little follow-up. Allison E. Herre, a lawyer with Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio, said she had seen sponsors who forced the children to work instead of attending school and who failed to ensure that the children attended their court proceedings.

Since 2016, health and human services officials said they have started calling sponsors to check on children 30 days after placement. But the agency said it was not legally responsible for children after they had been released from its refugee office.

Mr. Wagner said the agency was re-examining its interpretation of existing laws to make sure that migrant children were not turned over to smugglers or human traffickers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/politics/migrant-children-missing.html

From "they'll just go to foster homes, they'll be better off" to "a couple thousand kids got lost, probably sold off into human trafficking, we're looking into it, our bad" in less than two weeks.

This is a problem, especially here where human trafficking isn’t talked about nearly at the rate it should be.

Whether US citizens or migrants, when it comes to children going through adoption/foster systems, it’s imperative that we keep track of these kids whereabouts and their health and welfare.

When we found out that they were falling into the hands of traffickers and being subject to sexual abuse, our response was to stop tracking instances of sexual abuse.

You gotta lose a couple thousand kids to slavery and sex trafficking to make an omelette.

I think it's more akin to scrambled eggs with Chorizo.

Hopefully the MS13 Slavers you guys cry for didn't already sell them off to other nations.

It's kind of telling that your response to thousands of children being exposed to slavery and rape due to government negligence over the past 10 years is to throw out some limp "oh, yeah, well you guys love MS-13!"

Not everything is a game of inane cable news political football.

The government screwed up because MS-13 was founded on Los Angeles! Didn't you know that PDF?

Wasn't that during Oboma's watch mainly?

Yes.

ICE activities under Obama were horrific.

And these guys want to hand health care over to the gov’t ... ...

Not possible.....Barry has said many many times there were no scandals associated with his tenure as lord and savior.

.

It's about time you recognize!

Yes, the policy of separating families to be deported started in 2008 and went on throughout the Obama administration without anybody really knowing about it. It wasn't until Jeff Sessions bragged about it in a speech that it became public knowledge. I'd love to give Sessions credit for trying to be transparent and let the public know what was going on but considering the audience he was speaking to and how he phrased it, I'm pretty sure he was just bragging and trying to sound like a bad-arse for using this program which was already in use....

Regardless of how you feel about immigrants, the policy is inhumane, now that we know more about it, it was inhumane under Obama and it's inhumane now and it should be stopped immediately.

'The worst thing I've seen in 25-plus years': Experts react to news that Trump administration lost 1,500 migrant children

15hrs ago
Ellen Cranley
Business Insider

http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-lost-migrant-children-2018-5


 
 
Reports the US Department of Health and Human Services cannot locate nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with American sponsors have resurged since a department official testified about the issue last month.
The story has caught fire amid discord within President Donald Trump's administration on the handling of illegal immigration after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a "zero-tolerance" policy last month.
The "lost" children were a major talking point over the weekend.

Reports that the US Department of Health and Human Services cannot locate nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with American sponsors have resurged this weekend amid increasing controversy stemming from the Trump administration's policies about separating migrant families.

The communication gap detailed in testimony by a Health and Human Services official last month came as Trump officials spoke out about stricter policies for families who illegally cross the border. Over the weekend, observers described the issue as a potentially decisive moment for Trump to form immigration laws.

The children who the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Health and Human Services department, reportedly cannot locate arrived at the southwestern US border alone, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

Trump administration officials have accused unaccompanied minors like these of contributing to increased crime in the US.

However, in many cases, the children being separated from their families are less than two years old, and at least one infant was just 53 weeks old, immigration law specialist Laura St. John described Sunday morning on MSNBC.

St. John, the law director at an Arizona-based immigration law nonprofit, called the administration's policy "unprecedented" in an interview with anchor Chris Hayes, and said that since January, she had seen over 200 cases of children being separated from their parents.

Under Trump directives, the children of families that are separated are placed under custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and then placed in government shelters.

The government lost track of 1,475 migrant children

 
  Steven Wagner, an acting assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, announced to legislators last month that the Office of Refugee Resettlement had lost track of 1,475 migrant children who had been placed with sponsors in the US.
The office, Wagner detailed in his testimony, had originally tried to reach a total of 7,635 children and their sponsors from October to December 2017. During that period, the refugee resettlement office confirmed 6,075 children were still with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had been removed from the country and 52 had relocated to live with someone other than the original sponsor.

Wagner pointed out in his testimony that the office is not legally responsible for children once they are placed with a sponsor, but the agency is "taking a fresh look" at legal and policy options to improve its role in ensuring a child's safe settlement with a sponsor.

Trump has tried shifting the blame to Democrats
The resurgence of the story of the department's loss of contact with the migrant children comes on the heels of several dismissive statements made by Trump administration officials.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions unveiled a "zero-tolerance" policy earlier this month that would separate children from families caught crossing the border illegally, saying, "if you don't like that, then don't smuggle children over our border."

In an NPR interview last month, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly dismissed potential concerns about children being separated from their parents upon reaching the border, saying they would be "put into foster care or whatever."

Meanwhile, Trump attempted to shift the blame to Democrats on Saturday, urging in a tweet for voters to put pressure on the minority party to end the policy.


Donald J. Trump

✔
@realDonaldTrump


Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.

9:59 AM - May 26, 2018

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However, the policy in question is not a law, and has only been adopted by members of Trump's own administration.

The story caught fire this weekend
The story caught fire this weekend as pundits and officials tried to clarify the significance and consequences of the administration's lack of contact with the children.

Former senator Rick Santorum said on a CNN "State of the Union" panel Sunday morning the term "lost" strictly suggests a lack of contact between the agency and the children's' American sponsors.

"They haven't had communication with these previously vetted sponsors," he said. "Does that mean they're lost? No, it means there's a process going on now to find out why these sponsors haven't checked back in to give us their location."

He said "inadequate government agencies" and other issues are more likely to blame.

"The idea they're 'lost' is hyperbole to try and create an issue," he said. "I don't think there is one other than the fact the bureaucracy, surprise, surprise, doesn't work so well."

Though Santorum said an agency could never expect a "100%" response rate, reports have pointed out a lack of contact with the children could mean they are left vulnerable to dangerous situations, such as human trafficking or forced labor.


Others on the panel challenged Santorum's assurance.

"This is the worst thing I've seen in 25-plus years of doing this civil rights work," Deputy Director for the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project Lee Gelernt said on MSNBC on Sunday. "These mothers are describing their kids screaming, 'Mommy, mommy, don't let them take me away.'"

"They're already traumatized from having to flee their countries and then they're taken away," Gelernt said. "The medical evidence is overwhelming we may be doing permanent trauma to these kids and yet the government is finding every way they can to try and justify it."

WHEW....its all Trumps fault man I bet that takes a load off the libs guilty minds.

Say what you will,,, But I have Medicare (I'm old enough) and I added a suppliement. My plans combined cost me $304.00 per month for me and the same for my wife.

And it's terrific and I've never had a doctor, clinic or hospital turn it down... NEVER.

So complain if you want, but I like my Government Healthcare program...

When you get to my age, if Ryan and his Cronies don't destroy it, you might like it also.

Riley...I'm sure most "Trump lovers" would rather have "everyone" follow blindly, believing all of Trumps "LIES".

I refuse to follow the lying pos...

It might help you and others (the blind followers) to fact check everything Trump says and writes before you start carrying Trumps water, repeating his lies, thinking he might be be telling the truth, this time.

Try factcheck.org...





Trump Blames Own Border Policy on Democrats
By D'Angelo Gore

Posted on May 22, 2018
link

President Donald Trump wrongly blamed Democrats for a Trump administration policy that will separate parents and their young children caught entering the U.S. illegally.
“We have to break up families,” Trump claimed, because of “bad laws that the Democrats gave us.” But there is no such law. Instead, it’s the administration’s decision to criminally prosecute all immigrants who cross the border illegally that will cause children to be separated from their parents.

In early May, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen directed her department to refer all unauthorized immigrants who cross the U.S. border to federal prosecutors. It’s in accordance with the Department of Justice’s new “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration at the Southwest border.

Parents would be sent to federal court under the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and then placed in a detention center, according to a DHS spokesperson. Their children, minors who cannot be housed in a detention center for adults, would be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services for placement in a juvenile facility or foster care if they have no other adult relative in the U.S. who can take them in.

“It is the government’s choice whether to criminally prosecute someone for illegal entry or reentry,” Theresa Cardinal Brown, director of immigration and cross-border policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington, D.C., told us.

Trump made his remarks at a White House meeting on so-called “sanctuary city” policies in California. He told Nielsen, who was in attendance, that Democrats were responsible for the “tough” situation involving immigrant families.

Trump, May 16: I know what you’re going through right now with families is very tough. But those are the bad laws that the Democrats gave us. We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law. It’s a horrible thing. We have to break up families.

The Democrats gave us that law and they don’t want to do anything about it. They’ll leave it like that because they don’t want to make any changes. And now you’re breaking up families because of the Democrats. It’s terrible.

Since at least the administration of George W. Bush, a Republican president, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has held many parents and children who crossed the border seeking asylum in family detention centers. Those families have been kept together until they go before an immigration judge or are formally removed from the U.S.

Prior to that, “family units were hardly ever detained, but rather processed and released with a notice to appear at immigration court, especially if they met the credible fear of persecution criteria for a claim to asylum,” according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank that promotes bipartisan policy solutions.

So, to what Democratic law is Trump referring?

A White House spokesman referred us to a DHS statement regarding a 1997 legal settlement and 2008 antitrafficking law affecting minors who are apprehended without a parent present:

Under the 1997 settlement, DHS could detain unaccompanied children captured at the border for only 20 days before releasing them to foster families, shelters or sponsors, pending resolution of their immigration cases. The settlement was later expanded through other court rulings to include both unaccompanied and accompanied children.
The William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 requires unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico and Canada to be placed in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, or relatives in the U.S., while they go through removal proceedings. The bipartisan bill was approved by unanimous consent and signed by Bush.
(We wrote about both when Trump also wrongly faulted Democrats for the so-called “catch and release” policy that allows some immigrants caught in the U.S. without proper documentation to be released back into the U.S. while they await an immigration court hearing. See “FactChecking Trump’s Immigration Tweets” for more details.)

But neither the court settlement nor the 2008 law require the Trump administration to “break up families.”

They require the government to release children from custody after a certain period of detainment, said Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. But they don’t require that parents continue to be held in immigration detention.

“The government absolutely has the option to release the parents,” as well, Pierce said. That’s as long as they aren’t a flight or safety risk, she added.

Brown, of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said the Trump administration’s decision to bring criminal charges against the parents — rather than follow the civil removal process — will result in children being separated from their parents.

“It is the government’s choice whether to criminally prosecute someone for illegal entry or reentry,” Brown wrote in an email to FactCheck.org. “That is the quintessential definition of ‘prosecutorial discretion.'” 

“Historically, most immigrants were not prosecuted, even when the law allowed for it, they were simply removed in civil proceedings,” she said. “The significant uptick in criminal prosecution began under President George W. Bush, and continued through the early Obama administration.”

U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions outlined the new enforcement actions on May 7.

“If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple,” Sessions said. “If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law.”

Because minors cannot be kept in jails for adults, children would be separated from parents charged with committing a crime, Brown explained. Children would then be considered unaccompanied minors and turned over to the refugee resettlement office.

In fact, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, who was Homeland Security secretary before Nielsen, indicated in March 2017 that DHS was considering splitting up parents and children as a strategy to deter other families from illegally immigrating to the U.S.

Other administration officials — including Nielsen and ICE’s top official, Thomas Homan — have since denied that is the intent.

“I want to be clear. DHS does not have a blanket policy on separating families as a deterrent,” Homan, reportedly said at the press event with Sessions. “Every law enforcement agency in this country separates parents from children when they’re arrested for a crime. There is no new policy. This has always been the policy. Now, you will see more prosecutions because of the attorney general’s commitment to zero tolerance.”

Even so, the decision to prosecute all offenders is one that was made by the current administration. It is not a law that “Democrats gave us,” as Trump said.


Share The Facts

Donald Trump
President of the United States

“We have to break up families” entering the country illegally, because of “bad laws that the Democrats gave us.”
White House meeting – Wednesday, May 16, 2018
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So I'm a Trump lover cause I disagree with you, aways an insult from you tolerant libs cause my opinion differs from yours, pffft maybe you should look in YOUR beloved SANCTUARY cities you might find them and the liberal defended ms 13 gang members while your at it.

GO AWAY

...

And this is why i don’t read u ...

Its AWESOME its working for u and yours NOW ... i mean that ... that’s GREAT ...

Ryan and his CRONIES ON BOTH SIDES HAVE ALL READY DESTROYED IT ....

The fact u don’t know its all ready BROKEN just cause it works for u and the fact u blame it on one party is exactly why I DON’T READ 99% OF WHAT U POST AND REPLY TO EVEN LESS ...

Riley...some just don't give a damn that Trump is a serial liar are willing to lower themselves to Trumps lying piece of crap standard, if you can get away with it...

...those who repeat Trumps lies without even checking the facts are the "worst of the worst".

How any government can take children away from their parents or relatives at our border with no established method of returning those children to their birth parents or relates...I just can't imagine that any civilized society would carry out such a program.

Just when you thought a program that lost track of some 1,500 children who had been taken by the USA Gov, could not get any worse...it does.

Trump attempted to blame the Democrates for a policy his administration carried out on their own..taking children away at the southern border.


AP FACT CHECK: Trump and the Washington blame game

By CALVIN WOODWARD and ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press MAY 19, 2018 — 7:45AM
link

WASHINGTON — Deflect blame for the bad things. Take undue credit for the good things.

When President Donald Trump and his environmental chief sat down with different audiences this past week, the blame game was on display. So was some chest-thumping.

Trump tried to lay responsibility on Democrats for the separation of children from parents at the border, even though the policy comes from his own administration. He cited outdated numbers to boast about a decline in illegal border crossings.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt claimed credit for pollution cleanups done mostly by the Obama administration while flubbing facts about his 2017 condo deal and blaming underlings for his ethical woes.

A look at Trump's statements at a forum with California officials on immigration and Pruitt's testimony to a Senate committee:
TRUMP to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday: "I know what you're going through right now with families is very tough but those are the bad laws that the Democrats gave us. We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law. It's a horrible thing where you have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law and they don't want to do anything about it. They'll leave it like that 'cause they don't want to make any changes. And now you're breaking up families because of the Democrats. It's terrible."


WASHINGTON — Deflect blame for the bad things. Take undue credit for the good things.

When President Donald Trump and his environmental chief sat down with different audiences this past week, the blame game was on display. So was some chest-thumping.

Trump tried to lay responsibility on Democrats for the separation of children from parents at the border, even though the policy comes from his own administration. He cited outdated numbers to boast about a decline in illegal border crossings.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt claimed credit for pollution cleanups done mostly by the Obama administration while flubbing facts about his 2017 condo deal and blaming underlings for his ethical woes.

A look at Trump's statements at a forum with California officials on immigration and Pruitt's testimony to a Senate committee:


___

TRUMP to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday: "I know what you're going through right now with families is very tough but those are the bad laws that the Democrats gave us. We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law. It's a horrible thing where you have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law and they don't want to do anything about it. They'll leave it like that 'cause they don't want to make any changes. And now you're breaking up families because of the Democrats. It's terrible."


THE FACTS: Not so. No law that "the Democrats gave us" mandates the separation of children from their parents at the border.

A 2008 law designed to combat child trafficking has been described by Trump and his administration as a principal reason for "catch-and-release" policies that he's trying to end at the border.

The law says children traveling alone from countries other than Mexico or Canada must be released in the "least restrictive setting" — often to family or a government-run shelter — while their cases slowly wind through immigration court. It was designed to accommodate an influx of children fleeing to the U.S. from Central America.

It had the support of Republicans and Democrats, passing the House and Senate unanimously. Republican George W. Bush signed it into law as one of his last acts as president.

The law says nothing about breaking up families. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced a "zero tolerance" policy for illegal entries, pledging to criminally prosecute people with few or no previous offenses. If parents are jailed, they are separated from children who joined them under protocols described in the 2008 law.


Administration officials have acknowledged that about 700 children have been separated from their parents since October. That figure is certain to increase once the zero-tolerance policy takes hold; nearly 50,000 Border Patrol arrests since October were of people who came as families. That's about 1 in 4 arrests by the agents.

___

TRUMP: "Our numbers are much better than in the past, but they're not nearly acceptable and not nearly as good as what we could have. We're down 40 percent from those other standards, so that's really good — meaning 40 percent crossings."

THE FACTS: That claim of a 40 percent drop in illegal crossings in a year is based on old statistics. Yes, Border Patrol arrests plummeted to the lowest level since 1971 during the last budget year. But they began a sharp and steady climb after Trump's first few months in office. One likely explanation is that people who initially took a wait-and-see attitude toward Trump are now taking their chances.

Overall border arrests in April — which add people who are stopped at land crossings and other official points of entry — topped 50,000 for a second straight month. That was more than triple the number from a year earlier, which was the lowest tally on record since the Homeland Security Department was created in 2003.


WASHINGTON — Deflect blame for the bad things. Take undue credit for the good things.

When President Donald Trump and his environmental chief sat down with different audiences this past week, the blame game was on display. So was some chest-thumping.

Trump tried to lay responsibility on Democrats for the separation of children from parents at the border, even though the policy comes from his own administration. He cited outdated numbers to boast about a decline in illegal border crossings.

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt claimed credit for pollution cleanups done mostly by the Obama administration while flubbing facts about his 2017 condo deal and blaming underlings for his ethical woes.

A look at Trump's statements at a forum with California officials on immigration and Pruitt's testimony to a Senate committee:


___

TRUMP to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Wednesday: "I know what you're going through right now with families is very tough but those are the bad laws that the Democrats gave us. We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law. It's a horrible thing where you have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law and they don't want to do anything about it. They'll leave it like that 'cause they don't want to make any changes. And now you're breaking up families because of the Democrats. It's terrible."


THE FACTS: Not so. No law that "the Democrats gave us" mandates the separation of children from their parents at the border.

A 2008 law designed to combat child trafficking has been described by Trump and his administration as a principal reason for "catch-and-release" policies that he's trying to end at the border.

The law says children traveling alone from countries other than Mexico or Canada must be released in the "least restrictive setting" — often to family or a government-run shelter — while their cases slowly wind through immigration court. It was designed to accommodate an influx of children fleeing to the U.S. from Central America.

It had the support of Republicans and Democrats, passing the House and Senate unanimously. Republican George W. Bush signed it into law as one of his last acts as president.

The law says nothing about breaking up families. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced a "zero tolerance" policy for illegal entries, pledging to criminally prosecute people with few or no previous offenses. If parents are jailed, they are separated from children who joined them under protocols described in the 2008 law.


Administration officials have acknowledged that about 700 children have been separated from their parents since October. That figure is certain to increase once the zero-tolerance policy takes hold; nearly 50,000 Border Patrol arrests since October were of people who came as families. That's about 1 in 4 arrests by the agents.

___

When repubs believed Trumps lie, that it was the Obama administration that lost track of these 1500 children, they were all over this thread...now that Trump has been outed for low life slim he is, his water carriers are silent.

...WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT YOU REPUBS, THE TRUMP WATER CARRIERS?



Trump whips up immigration storm over children
Stephen Collinson Profile

Analysis by Stephen Collinson, CNN

Updated 1:29 AM ET, Tue May 29, 2018
link

(CNN)For President Donald Trump, every crisis in America's immigration system is an opportunity.

As controversy grows over his administration's treatment of children separated from undocumented immigrant parents Trump is seeking a political opening to damage his opponents and solidify his own support.
It's a classic strategy that he has deployed in toxic immigration wars before: Tout his toughness and dedication to law and order while blaming Democrats for not fixing the system's problems.
It's a play that is likely to win approval from GOP base voters who saw in Trump a truth teller on immigration whose tough policies and promise to build a wall could lacerate what they saw as liberal political correctness over the issue. Trump opponents see his policies as appeasing a hard-line stream of nationalist thought on the far right that is dedicated to stopping both illegal and legal immigration.
The President repeatedly pleads with his supporters to show up at the polls in November to fend off enthusiastic Democratic voters, knowing his political future in Washington depends on the GOP clinging onto the House and Senate.


GOP leaders are already worried the ongoing effort by moderates to force a House vote on the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, a program Trump moved to end last year but has been kept alive by the uncourts, will depress base turnout.
Trump chose to wage his latest political battle over his administration's policy of separating children from parents caught crossing the border illegally and liable for criminal prosecution. The controversy over the policy coincides with separate revelations that his administration lost track of nearly 1,500 children taken from parents awaiting adjudication of immigration cases and placed in foster homes or with sponsors.
The government's apparent disinclination or inability to find those children is an ill omen for thousands more who could be funneled to a similar fate under the Trump administration's enforcement drive.
The President poured oil on the fire on Saturday.
"Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there (sic) parents once they cross the Border into the US," Trump tweeted.

Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.

9:59 AM - May 26, 2018
86.9K
83.8K people are talking about this
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The President said earlier this month that: "we have to break up families ...the Democrats gave us that law. It's a horrible thing, we have to break up families."
But there is no law requiring the government to separate kids of undocumented migrants or asylum seekers from their parents -- least of all one passed by Democrats.
It is the Trump administration's own policy to refer every person caught crossing the border illegally for federal prosecution, with the result that children are separated from their parents because they cannot legally follow them into the federal prison system.
The law on that issue was a bipartisan initiative, approved by unanimous consent and signed by Republican President George W. Bush, as CNN's Jake Tapper and FactCheck.org have reported. It does not require parents and children to be separated at the border.
The law requires unaccompanied minors from nations other than Mexico or Canada to be sent to the care of the Office for Refugee Settlement or relatives in the US while removal proceedings take place.
Tough deterrent
The administration has made no secret of the fact that it hopes the likelihood that families will be broken up will deter undocumented migration.
On May 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions made the current administration's policy explicit, in an apparent attempt to deter border crossings.
"If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law," Sessions said.
In an interview with NPR in May, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly described family separation as a "tough deterrent."
"The children will be taken care of -- put into foster care or whatever. But the big point is they elected to come illegally into the United States and this is a technique that no one hopes will be used extensively or for very long," Kelly said.
Critics of Trump's policies say the President is willfully confusing the issue and exploiting the welfare of children as it drives home its zero tolerance immigration policy.
"You have a purposeful abuse of children for political gain," said David Leopold, the former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
"(Trump) throws out a lie -- it is an intentional lie, to get the media and commentators focused on something that isn't true and his base believes it," Leopold said.
The plight of unaccompanied children who cross the border is the latest immigration storm whipped up by the Trump White House, and includes travel restrictions on people from some Muslim nations and the uncertainty facing of DACA recipients -- undocumented migrants brought to the US as kids.
The issue again raises the question of whether Trump's determination to stiffen immigration laws conflicts with the nation's fundamental values -- and a wider humanitarian duty to protect children.
In the same Saturday tweet, Trump also escalated his rhetoric on immigration in a way that is likely to further inflame the political atmosphere that will make any resolution of the issue even more elusive.
"Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS," Trump tweeted, highlighting the most divisive aspects on a debate that has been rocking US politics for more than a decade.
Monday afternoon, he continued in another tweet: "Remember, the Nancy Pelosi Dems are also weak on Crime, the Border and want to be gentle and kind to MS-13 gang members...not good!"

Donald J. Trump
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@realDonaldTrump
A Democratic lawmaker just introduced a bill to Repeal the GOP Tax Cuts (no chance). This is too good to be true for Republicans...Remember, the Nancy Pelosi Dems are also weak on Crime, the Border and want to be gentle and kind to MS-13 gang members...not good!

5:22 PM - May 28, 2018
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Base pleasing play
Trump, of course, is not the only political figure who believes he can steer the immigration debate to his own advantage: for years Democrats have appealed to Hispanic voters -- a core part of their own base -- and promised sweeping and comprehensive reform.
Texas Democratic congressman Joaquin Castro is organizing a #WhereAreTheChildren rally in San Antonio on Thursday that is likely to be only one of many Democratic efforts to appeal to their own base following Trump's assault.
"When I think about the 1500 lost children and those who are systematically separated from their mothers at the border, I come back to the same thought: If we can't stop this in America we won't stop it anywhere," Castro tweeted on Sunday.

Joaquin Castro
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@JoaquinCastrotx
When I think about the 1500 lost children and those who are systematically separated from their mothers at the border, I come back to the same thought: If we can’t stop this in America we won’t stop it anywhere. #WhereAreTheChildren

11:10 AM - May 27, 2018
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But no modern President has so consciously sought to peel open divides on immigration -- one of the most fundamental political issues across the Western world -- to the same extent as Trump has done.
In recent years, every effort to reshape America's immigration system dating back to the second term of the Bush administration has foundered on the vicious political divides opened up every time a key aspect of the debate flares up.
The controversy over family separation could also complicate attempts by some moderate Republicans to protect themselves from the fallout of Trump's tough rhetoric.
The rebellious lawmakers are attempting to force a vote against the House GOP leadership's wishes on a set of immigration bills.
The group is getting close to the 218 signatures it needs to automatically trigger a vote --- after winning the support of almost all Democrats.
House Republican leadership has been working with other lawmakers to try to force a vote on issues from border funding to citizenship in a way that could head off the revolt. But Trump's latest decision to fan the flames could throw all those careful calculations and sensitive efforts into the political trash can.

Almost as if on cue ...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/05/...-backfires.html

Seems over the weekend a tweet went out of a pic of two really young illegals in a cage laying on the floor ... the outrage was understandable ... it even came from ... here from the article ...

........ Trump opponents who shared the photo included activists, journalists and former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau, who said: “This is happening right now, and the only debate that matters is how we force our government to get these kids back to their families as fast as humanly possible.” ....................................

Problem is the pic was from 2014 ...

Even u guys can do that math ....

Trump is a jackass for not putting a stop to this but the SELECTIVE OUTRAGE is beyond sickening and just drives home the point of how the press hates trump and just how bad your TDS is ...

This a LOSE LOSE LOSE SITUATION ... and human beings are being hurt and all U LEFTIES and the PRESS wants to do is blame it on and crap on Mr. President for it ..

to all involved since the start of this ...

You see it all the time in politics sadly, this time it's the left that is being extremely disingenuous over this immigration thing with children.

As soon as it came out every left leaning person I know was blasting it out on social media.. "Look what Trump is doing" "Look what Sessions is doing" "Treating these children like common criminals or worse yet, livestock"..

Then it was pointed out that this was an Obama era policy and Obama era photos and videos..

They promptly did a 180 and changed their narrative to "It doesn't matter when it happened, it's horrible and has to stop"..

It sure as hell mattered when they were certain they had another gotcha for Trump... It mattered when they were ready to pin an evil name and face to this atrocity.. when it turns out it was Obama's face that should be pinned to it, suddenly it's a very general "Oh this is awful and has to stop"...