President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday, June 20 titled “Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation.” The mandate prohibits illegal immigrants detained at the border from being separated from their children. Instead of celebrating this victory, the left has decided to use Trump’s executive order to promote their real agenda: open borders.
Over the past two weeks, many on both the left and the right have slammed Donald Trump for his zero-tolerance policy on individuals who attempt to enter the United States illegally. Those who crossed the border unlawfully were arrested and detained by immigration authorities and separated from their children as their cases were adjudicated.
Despite the fact that illegal immigrants were separated from their families under both the Bush and Obama administrations, the left has used Trump’s policy as a political tool to further their cause. Some have even – as Godwin’s law told us they would – compared the plight of illegal immigrants to that of Jews in Nazi Germany. It appears that people on the left have not yet realized that comparing Trump to Hitler is not a winning tactic.
Trump Signs Executive Order Restricting Separation
Before Trump signed the order, he was engaged in a heated battle with Democrats over the treatment of illegal immigrants and their families. The president and the GOP expressed a desire to find a solution that preserved the families of undocumented immigrants while ensuring the security of our borders. “We’re going to have strong, very strong borders, but we’re going to keep the families together,” Trump told reporters.
The executive order does not impact the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy that mandates that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests any individual attempting to enter the country illegally. However, the order allows these criminal aliens to be with their children while they stay in detention centers. The order states the intention of the Trump administration while criticizing Congress for failing to create appropriate legislation:
“It is also the policy of this Administration to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources. It is unfortunate that Congress’s failure to act and court orders have put the Administration in the position of separating alien families to effectively enforce the law.”
The Left’s Reaction
You might think the left would cheer Trump’s reversal. Most presidents don’t change their minds on issues such as these. However, the president has decided to modify his policy in a way that enables the United States to control immigration while creating more humane circumstances for the children of illegal aliens.
Unfortunately, the left’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. Instead of celebrating their victory, they have decided to take advantage of Trump’s change of heart. They are now protesting the fact that children will be living in detention centers with their parents – the very thing for which they previously fought. Karen Tumlin, the director of legal strategy for the National Immigration Law Center, told Time, “The President doesn’t get any brownie points for moving from a policy of locking up kids and families separately to locking them up together. Let’s be clear that Trump is making a crisis of his own creation worse.”
Tumlin went on to say that these children “need safety and environments where they can thrive and play and be safe. They don’t need jail.” Interesting. A similar point has already been made at Liberty Nation in response to the separation of parents from their children. We argued that if the left gets what they want, kids will be in prison-like conditions with their parents, which is arguably worse than spending time with a relative or foster family.
Frank Sharry, the executive director of America’s Voice, echoed Tumlin’s comments. “But we also don’t want families to be locked up in internment centers in America,” he said. “We also don’t want families who are fleeing for their lives to be sent back into the burning house that they’ve escaped from, and we also don’t want America to be a place where you can’t get a fair shot in a life-and-death decision.”
Last, but not least, Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told The New York Times that opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration policies could take legal action. “I don’t think anyone wants to see little children detained for long periods of time,” he said. “If they start detaining families and kids in tents or other places, I think you will see immediate lawsuits.”
The Left’s True Motives Are Revealed: Open Borders
It isn’t difficult to see what the left is doing here. They are using Trump’s zero-tolerance policy to push their open borders agenda. First, they lambasted the White House for daring to arrest those who attempt to enter the country illegally. They tried to deceive the American public by spreading pictures of Hispanic children in cages that were taken while President Obama was in office. Left-wing media outlets covered for the Obama administration’s sins and behaved as if Trump were enforcing a brand new law.
The leftist pundits and politicians never cared about families remaining together. They merely wanted to push for a lax immigration policy that makes it easier for people to subvert the nation’s laws. Now that President Trump has issued an order that ensures illegal immigrants will remain with their children, the left is going to use his concession to push for more allowances for illegals.
Now that the emotional fervor has subsided, the left will try to push their agenda while we are not looking. Conservatives must remain vigilant and make sure that open borders advocates are unable to achieve their ultimate objective. Now is not the time to be distracted – it’s what the left is counting on. They will soon make their move to pass legislation that promotes more illegal immigration. But it will only succeed if conservatives are not paying attention. Are we going to let that happen?
