1. This is a thread about immigration and children and the policies the US now employs to separate mothers from their kids and put the children in "foster care or whatever" according to John Kelly. tucson.com/news/local/par…
2. What animates this policy, in the best light possible, is that the threat of separating families will deter migrants from risking the journey. I don't think we have seen any data to prove that. But even assuming true....
3. These migrants and moms have already made a calculation far scarier. They are willing to leave their homes and nations with young children, risk the physical threats and abuse, to find a safe haven for their kids.
4. I've often talked about power of parenthood in crisis. It's what animates people in harms way from Haiti to Boston marathon bombing. "Where are my kids." It's the universal force of disaster management. It proves we are all security moms or dads when it comes to our kids.
5. So the risks that a migrant takes that they might br separated from our children is surely not casual. It is weighed against the alternative.
6. As an administrative matter, it is far harder to separate families. The costs are greater, more birdensome. And we are not good at it as news reports show HHS "misplaced" 1500 unaccompanied minors (those who came here alone).
7. And as a moral matter, knowing what must be animating a migrant to bring their child across a border, it's important to remember they've already made the Sophie's choice. They've already risked their child's life.
8. And so as policy, the threat of separating parents and children is nothing more than cruelty without a purpose. I come from the homeland security world. I support strong immigration enforcement.
But cruelty is never a good strategy. Gratuitous cruelty is now US policy.
But cruelty is never a good strategy. Gratuitous cruelty is now US policy.
