From the beginning of the Trump presidency, Democrats and liberals in news media have had a surfeit of rhetorical and stylistic targets to attack in the White House. But until this month, they have struggled mightily to find anything substantive or policy-related that could really damage President Trump politically.
But now they may have finally found their weapon of choice.
Trump’s zero tolerance policy at the border appears to fulfill his promise to enforce immigration law and end the controversial practice of “catch-and-release.” But in certain specific cases where parents and children cross the border illegally together, strict enforcement requires a lengthy separation of families in cases where an asylum claim is filed by a family after it has been caught illegally sneaking in.
This issue could be avoided if claimants presented themselves at legal border crossings, and the fact that they don’t points to the fact that most of them are economic migrants rather than genuine refugees. Either way, immigrants cannot be counted on to follow the law.
This precise sequence of events plays out in more cases than you might think, such that 1,995 children were separated from their parents between April 19 and May 31.
According to opinion polls, the public really hates the new enforcement policy that is splitting families. It isn’t only die-hard anti-Trumpers who object. Majorities of all demographic groups except self-identified Republicans oppose it, and people don’t accept the justifications offered by the administration.
President Trump tacitly admitted that he understands this when he tried to shift responsibility to Congress to fix it. Republicans in Congress have tacitly admitted it by setting out to draft a number of bills that would change the policy.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has drafted a bill that Trump should support. It would require that families be kept together once apprehended, “absent aggravated criminal conduct or threat of harm to the children.”
It’s easy enough to change the policy. The tricky part is to come up with a way of doing so that doesn’t sacrifice enforcement of immigration law. Cruz’s bill seems to strike the right balance.
It would double the number of immigration judges to 750 to accelerate processing of asylum claims to 14 days or fewer. This minimizes time spent in detention. To prevent even brief family separations, the bill also authorizes ICE to use shelters where intact families can be accommodated together.
Trump’s initial response to this bill has not been good. He reportedly said that “ultimately, we have to have a real border, not judges.” But, given the massive backlog of immigration cases, more judges will be needed anyway. And as anyone may claim asylum at any legal point of entry along the border, the new judges, whom Trump would appoint, will be as important as ever if Trump does get his “real border.”
A real problem seems to be that Trump wants to use the separating of families to get further policy concessions from Democrats. This might have seemed politically shrewd, but it appears to be backfiring. And anyway, it is morally dubious. It is also a big miscalculation because it overestimates the sincerity of Democrats’ concern for those who are being detained. Democrats, especially their leaders, will gladly call Trump’s bluff and perpetuate the unpopular policy and its associated suffering, and use them for political purposes, to raise money and stoke public outrage in the run-up to the midterm congressional elections. They and former President Barack Obama did this again and again in the run up to the 2010, 2012, and 2014 elections.
Cruz’s proposal makes sense. It ends needless, inhumane, and politically damaging separation of families without catering to extremists who believe it is racist for the public to demand an orderly, rules-based migration system.
We argued strongly against the use of family separation as a deterrent to illegal family border crossings. But deterrents and incentives do matter, and it is legitimate for the government to employ them. The certainty of quick deportation is a much better deterrent to those migrants who are endangering children by hauling them across the southern desert. The certainty of a rapid adjudication of asylum claims will also encourage meritorious ones while discouraging spurious ones that are made simply in order to delay deportation.
Trump understands that his policy is causing the separation of families, and he has solutions ready at hand. It’s up to him to take the lifeline Cruz is offering, because if he doesn’t, he may face the first true voter rebellion of his presidency.
