Thread by @H_Lev

I spent months digging into the backstory of Scott Lloyd, the Trump appointee in charge of reunifying migrant kids. Lloyd has been under review by his agency for bungling reunifications; today he was reassigned to a cush new gig. My profile & some thoughts bit.ly/2Q3lP3V

Lloyd, you might remember, first gained attention a year ago, when the ACLU sued him over a policy he created requiring all abortion requests from migrant girls to get his approval. He denied all of them, including at least one from a rape victim.
bit.ly/2BhkwWG

In August, I wrote about a law school essay that Lloyd wrote about his own experience with abortion and how it shaped his ardent opposition to abortion in all instances, including cases of rape, incest, or when the woman's life is at risk. bit.ly/2MGkcat

Now in his new job as a senior adviser at the Center for Faith and Opportunity Initiatives at HHS, Lloyd will be working on religious outreach along with the office's director Shannon Royce, a fellow longtime advocate against abortion access. bit.ly/2BhALTR

But backing up for a second. Lloyd had virtually no experience working with refugees when he started at ORR. He was offered the job of deputy director, but asked to be director instead, and got the job.

Once in the job at ORR, Lloyd moved speedily to restrict abortion access for teens in his office's custody:

But when it came to the crucial work of reunifying kids with parents, Lloyd seemed to falter, as he and the office he controlled made one move after another exacerbating the crisis.

In looking at all of this, it's helpful to understand the deeply devout and traditional enclave that Lloyd resides in, in Front Royal, Virginia. There is one Catholic church, and many congregants there have ties to the numerous conservative and pro-life advocacy groups in town.

One of those groups is Human Life International, which calls itself the world's largest international pro-life advocacy group. In 2010, Scott Lloyd and his law partner opened a prolife law firm inside HLI's complex at 4 Family Life Lane. Here's the aerial view of that address: