Yesterday I wrote an article, Trump Caved , but I wrote it before all of the facts were out and I was evidently premature.  When will I learn that even when Trump is forced to do the right thing, his narcissistic nature won’t let him. Worse yet, his impulsiveness and his reluctance and/or inability to understand complicated issues caused him to seize on the first option which would ease the pressure without fully compromising his draconian goals.

When compelled by a nationwide outcry generated by the images and sounds of children who had been forcibly ripped away from their parents, Trump very reluctantly said that he would solve the problem.  However, he refused to retreat from his policy of charging undocumented immigrants with crimes when they crossed the border, opting instead to sign an executive order which effectively mandates that their children be incarcerated with them if practical.  He apparently never considered simply doing away with his “zero tolerance” policy, which would cost him only a phone call.

While marginally reducing the pressure on him to reunite the children with their parents, Trump obviously believes that this action serves him in two ways. It allows him to continued to look “strong” to his base of supporters while not fully negating his ability to use the children as bargaining chips in his efforts to get Congress to pass a bill that would greatly limit even legal immigration.

But like any hastily conceived, poorly thought out plan, Trump’s action will  cause as many problems as it solves. The image of children being held detention is not a good one for this country.  In addition, government officials are saying it may take a long as three months to reunite the children of the undocumented immigrants in custody with their parents.  That is unacceptable! Then there is the problem of trying to house children in facilities not built or staffed to accommodate children.  Think about the problems involved.

Then there is the existing law that states that children can only be held in detention for three weeks and then they must be released. This law has already made its way through court system and the presiding judge has made it clear in other instances that she is highly unlikely to grant the government any lea way.

Meanwhile the immigration court system is jammed with cases.  Simple cases where undocumented adults are charged with the misdemeanor crime of entering the country illegally take a couple of months to move through the system. When undocumented immigrants fleeing from violence plagued areas of South America file  seek asylum in this country. their cases take anywhere from a year to two years to resolve. In addition Trump has categorically refused to hire more immigration judges to lighten the case load.

So what is to be done with the children after they have been held for three weeks with their parents in adult detention centers? They will again be forcibly removed from the care of their parents?

In addition, I just saw and interview with a former ICE Director which confirmed my analysis above.  He said that we don’t have enough accommodations in our existing detention facilities to house all of undocumented adults which Trump and Jeff Sessions have ordered arrested, so they certainly can’t also accommodate children until new facilities are built.  He stated that those new facilities would cost $3 Billion dollars and there are no funds allocated for that purposes.

In addition many of existing group of children have been put foster care meaning state courts, not the federal courts have jurisdiction on whether they can be removed from that care.  Given all of these complications he believes that some the adults now being held in our detention facilities may never be reunited with their children.

So in the final analysis, Trump accomplished virtually little if anything with his executive order.  Instead of simply ordering the end of his zero tolerance policy, he has done nothing but put on a show while vastly complicating the job of our custom and immigration personnel. The sights and sounds of children separated from their parents will continue to dominate the airways.

Cajun     6/21/2018