UPDATE: On the 15th I received a letter from Mike Kelly’s office in response to an email I sent asking the same questions as in this post. See the letter here.
……………..
Today, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders repeated Donald Trump’s false claim that there is a law that requires children be removed from their asylum seeking parents at the U.S. border. Watch:
Sarah Sanders: “It is very Biblical to enforce the law.”
Bible: “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.”
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) June 14, 2018
Because I couldn’t find a law nor has anyone supporting the policy cited a specific law, I called my representative Mike Kelly (R-PA). The fellow who answered the phone (I didn’t get his name) said he would help me find that law. As he searched for it, he engaged in a bit of discussion with me about people illegally crossing the border. However, my question was about those presenting for asylum with children together as a family.
After searching and talking for about 10 minutes, Rep. Kelly’s staffer concluded that there is no law requiring the separation of children from their parents. He indicated that the practice fell within the jurisdiction of the border agencies and immigration officials and ultimately the Trump administration.
Thus, according to the office of my Trump supporting Republican representative, President Trump and Sarah Huckabee Sanders are deceiving the American people by saying there is a law which they are simply enforcing.
How low can Sanders and company go? Today she invoked the Bible after Jeff Sessions also did to justify this awful policy. Watch the video above to the end.
In one way, I am glad that Kelly’s office acknowledged that there is no law requiring the Trump administration policy. However, on the other hand, it is discouraging to know that Rep. Kelly must silently know that the story being sold to the American people is false.
Stephen Colbert is the “comedian,” but here he exposes the Bible-based cruelty of the buffoons running this administration.
https://youtu.be/j4KaLkYxMZ8?t=53
O.T.
Hey Dr. T – I looked pretty much everywhere on here trying to find your email. Despite a fair amount of persistence, Patreon won’t let me sign up or log in and nothing else can follow until one of those things is accomplished. Can you help? (I tried their FAQs, but they won’t give the answers unless you sign up or log in…)
The email is warrenthrockmorton @ gmail. com – That is disappointing. Write and let me know the trouble you are having and I will see what I can do .
Romans 13 has been cited by everybody from slaveholders to Adolf Hitler to back up their vicious behavior toward people breaking even the most unjust of laws. Mr. Trump, Mrs. Sanders, may you go down in history being known by your lies, injustice, and the company you keep. America deserves better than this, and so do the people trying to come here for a better life.
Because they really aren’t looking at Romans 13; they only look at a couple of verses, ignoring the rest – especially the part about not harming your neighbor.
My post from this morning:
I have said in the past that for the first time in 35+ years of living in the US, I feel unwelcome as an immigrant due to the rhetoric and policies of the president.
Now, I no longer feel unwelcome; I am frightened.
When legal immigrants are being arrested by ICE for decades old misdemeanors; the DOJ is examining fingerprints of naturalized citizens so as to find those to strip of their citizenship; children are being separated from their parents at the border and locked in detention or given to strangers; the natural reaction is to see myself in these stories and feel afraid.
I am a white Northern European, with American children, I may be relatively safe. Imagine what it is like for the South American, Mexican, African immigrants you meet and interact with every day, hard-working, tax-paying residents of this country (and that describes most illegal immigrants too). They’re not former residents of “shithole countries”, not animals, but human beings wanting to live a better life.
This post is specifically directed at my church friends on FB, who have been universally silent about what is happening in our country. Some of you, I’ve stood beside at pro-life rallies, protesting for the unborn. Some I’ve prayed beside for victims of sex trafficking. Some of you I’ve supported on mission trips to those “shithole” countries.
All of you love God.
Please, please be silent no more. If the church, you and me, does not speak up for the stranger, the widow & orphan, the oppressed, if we do not stand with them, we are no better than pharisees and hypocrites and we have nothing to say to our culture.
This post is written with a broken heart. Your silence, my friends, is screaming at me.
Will you speak if ICE comes for me?
The problem here is you are talking about 2 different things. Sanders isn’t talking about asylum seekers. She is talking about those who cross the border illegally. The Admin policy is to now file criminal charges against them. Because they are arrested and locked up, any children they have with them are put into the foster care system. That is the law that Sanders is talking about.
It doesn’t appear that this reporter (nor any others from the clips I’ve seen) specifically asked about asylum seekers. While separating adult asylum seekers from their children is happening, that isn’t the issue Sanders is addressing (and I suspect deliberately avoiding).
AG Sessions changed what counts as a legitimate reason for seeking asylum. People now seeking asylum are being considered illegals and separated from their children. In any case, according to the WaPo, these are new policies which are not required by law https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-curb-illegal-border-crossings-trump-administration-weighs-new-measures-targeting-families/2017/12/21/19300dc2-e66c-11e7-9ec2-518810e7d44d_story.html?utm_term=.96e4a41ee80e
AG Sessions changed what counts as a legitimate reason for seeking asylum. People now seeking asylum are being considered illegals and separated from their children. In any case, according to the WaPo, these are new policies which are not required by law https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-curb-illegal-border-crossings-trump-administration-weighs-new-measures-targeting-families/2017/12/21/19300dc2-e66c-11e7-9ec2-518810e7d44d_story.html?utm_term=.96e4a41ee80e
AG Sessions changed what counts as a legitimate reason for seeking asylum. People now seeking asylum are being considered illegals and separated from their children. In any case, according to the WaPo, these are new policies which are not required by law https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/to-curb-illegal-border-crossings-trump-administration-weighs-new-measures-targeting-families/2017/12/21/19300dc2-e66c-11e7-9ec2-518810e7d44d_story.html?utm_term=.96e4a41ee80e
I don’t believe Sessions has the authority to say “what counts as a legitimate reason”, at best I would think he only has the authority to decide how hard he will fight in challenging asylum claims.
Where does the WaPo article say there are new policies regarding asylum seekers?
I don’t know about the WaPo article, but I heard Sessions say it himself. There is a lot of coverage. Here is one: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/06/11/ag-sessions-unveils-strict-asylum-policy-limits-domestic-violence/691978002/
Actually I found the answer here . The initial decision is made by a Customs Agent (which does fall under Session’s purview), however that decision can be appealed through the courts.
Oh I’m sure it will be. I suspect Trump’s term will hold a record for lawsuits filed against government agencies. I wonder if he will brag about that one?
I sounds like they are messing with is what constitutes a “credible fear” to the Asylum Officer. Upon being denied by the AO, there is essentially one shot with an Immigration Judge. The other change would be in the decision to detain someone while their appeal is pending, and to separate families during that detention. Some of it may just be bluster for Sessions to use on camera to scare people away from seeking asylum, but some changes do appear to have been made.
https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/questions-answers-credible-fear-screening
Note, the “Credible fear” rule you cite applies to those you came into the US illegally and are undergoing removal/extradition procedures. I.e a “Defensive Asylum” process. Not an “Affirmative Asylum” process. Although, I suspect Session’s will try to mess with the rules as much as he can, again, it is all reviewable by the courts.
“Affirmative asylum applicants are rarely detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). You may live in the United States while your application is pending before USCIS. If you are found ineligible, you can remain in the United States while your application is pending with the Immigration Judge.”
I imagine this is also being affected.I don’t know what determines if they are or are not detained, but I’ll bet it is happening more now than before.
Probably, but being “detained” is not the same as being charged (arrested). If ICE is separating children from parents in affirmative asylum applications, they would be setting themselves up for a lawsuit. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, it probably has. However, if that were the new policy, then it would likely have serious consequences.
I sounds like they are messing with is what constitutes a “credible fear” to the Asylum Officer. Upon being denied by the AO, there is essentially one shot with an Immigration Judge. The other change would be in the decision to detain someone while their appeal is pending, and to separate families during that detention. Some of it may just be bluster for Sessions to use on camera to scare people away from seeking asylum, but some changes do appear to have been made.
https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/questions-answers-credible-fear-screening
Trump & Sessions now include asylum seekers as illegal entrants to the country. You have to dig when they are talking to get to the truth. They changed the policy a couple of months ago. Not only that, but green card holders who have misdemeanors, even I’d they are decades old, are being arrested and put in detention.
“Trump & Sessions now include asylum seekers as illegal entrants to the country.”
Trump may think that because he is an idiot. Sessions is not. If immigrants present themselves at a legal point of entry to the US to apply for asylum, then they have not illegally entered the country. Now this is not to say that they cannot held at a “relocation center” pending review of their application rather than simply be allowed into the US (which is the policy change you are probably referring to) until the hearing.
Who will dare tell Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her white evangelical supporters about Jesus? Will they dare listen?
Who will dare tell Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her white evangelical supporters about Jesus? Will they dare listen?
You can’t tell Sanders (and her ilk) about Jesus, because she already knows about Jesus and that he is on HER side.
Yes, I’m sure she and her followers tell themselves that Jesus supports their opposition to Jesus’ own teachings.
I think you’ll find there is no room for the Beatitudes in Sanders’ understanding of Jesus. The usual explanation/excuse for the right-wing muscular Christianity types is that Jesus is teaching about personal moral behavior, not government policy, which is more an Old Testament thing.
When was the last time they wanted to erect a monument with the Sermon on the Mount engraved on it, not the Ten Commandments?
Yes exactly. It’s the U.S. White Evangelical strategy for denying Jesus: “We organize ourselves into groups called ‘government’ and now what Jesus taught no longer applies. Oh, but Romans 13 and mandatory public displays of 10 Commandments are self-servingly convenient, so we’ll keep those.”
Reminds me of something I read in the Bible:
“And [Jesus] continued, ‘You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, “Honor your father and mother,” and, “Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.” But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)—then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.'” – Mark 7:9-13
I’m thinking not of responsibilities to parents, but the Biblical principles about care for strangers and foreigners.
Yes exactly. It’s the U.S. White Evangelical strategy for denying Jesus: “We organize ourselves into groups called ‘government’ and now what Jesus taught no longer applies. Oh, but Romans 13 and mandatory public displays of 10 Commandments are self-servingly convenient, so we’ll keep those.”
Yes exactly. It’s the U.S. White Evangelical strategy for denying Jesus: “We organize ourselves into groups called ‘government’ and now what Jesus taught no longer applies. Oh, but Romans 13 and mandatory public displays of 10 Commandments are self-servingly convenient, so we’ll keep those.”
“…because [he/] she already knows about Jesus and that he is on HER side.” said every Christian before some heinous, sociopathic crime.
Even worse, Mike Pence just flat out lied to those attending the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, claiming that the Democrats are responsible for abandoning DACA and are the ones obstructing a solution to the problem.
Even worse, Mike Pence just flat out lied to those attending the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast, claiming that the Democrats are responsible for abandoning DACA and are the ones obstructing a solution to the problem.
To Trump one more lie that his supporters will never fact check.To paraphrase and old saying “Trump said it,I believe it end of discussion”.
Bravo!