The biggest story of the weekend appears to be the Trump Administration’s move to separate immigrant children from their families, holding them on military bases.
This particular story comes after a recent admission from the Department of Health and Human Services, that the U.S. has lost track of roughly 1,500 immigrant children who entered the country without an accompanying adult. The two stories, together, weave a narrative that the Trump Administration, and therefore Donald Trump himself, does not care about these children.
To this point, a number of journalists and liberal activists seized on a story about children being detained, only to delete their outraged tweets when it was pointed out to them that the story was from 2014 – right in the middle of Barack Obama’s presidency. Streiff covered that story here.
The debate over immigration policy will continue to rage back and forth as each side has their talking points. One side will claim that Trump doesn’t care about these kids and breaking up families, while the other side will snicker and just say “Obama did it first!!!” However, we must take into account the victims of this practice: The children.
It is absolutely, morally wrong to do this. It is unconscionable that we would break up families. An administration that calls itself conservative, and is supported by conservatives, should be appalled by the practice.
One of the tenets of conservatism is the belief that the family is the most important social unit in society. It is so important that conservatism fights the evils of abortion because even the unborn have a right to live and be raised by people that love them. There is a focus on the family when it comes to tax policy, health care, and other key issues.
This focus is absolutely paramount to modern society, as a strong family unit provides the best moral guidance for our children.
So, given that, it is unbelievable that we would support an act that would take children away from their families simply because they traveled here illegally.
We should be better than this, not just as conservatives, but as a country. This is not a new policy by any means – the 2014 story proves that even a Democratic administration is guilty of this sin – but it is a policy we should be ashamed of.
It is my hope that the Trump Administration realizes this and changes course, though frankly I won’t hold my breath. I get the feeling that Trump’s team still has people who feel beholden to the most xenophobic wing of the Republican Party, and there is little chance they’ll read this and be moved.
However, we should be outraged here. We should demand more. We should not be separating children from their parents. The policy should end, and it should end immediately.
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