Trump Immigration Policy Now Targets Families of Servicemembers
Trump order drops protection for families of deployed military, by @nathanfletcher https://t.co/E6cAyunuDZ
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 25, 2017
So, yet more proof that Trump isn’t focusing on violent criminal offenders, but women/children to goose ICE enforcement stats. https://t.co/0Ap7BXV023
— lawhawk (@lawhawk) February 25, 2017
That’s right folks. The Trump Administration has decided to reverse another Obama era regulation. That’s not the surprising bit. That he’s going out of his way to target the families of those who are serving our nation is.
The Obama-era regulation meant to give our servicemembers who might have relatives who were in the country illegally some peace of mind that they would not be deported unless those persons had criminal records. This was a common sense approach to a difficult issue.
So, what does Trump, Bannon, and the rest of the GOP decide is in the nation’s best interest? Reverse this common sense policy and target these families for disruption and deportation.
Why would they do such a thing to the families of those serving our nation in our Armed Forces? Well, one reason is to goose ICE statistics. After all, it’s far easier to go after and deport women and children than it is to find criminals and run them through the criminal justice system so that they are incarcerated and then deported after their terms have run. It’s far cheaper too.
During the Obama Administration, the focus of US deportation efforts was one of targeting those who had criminal records. That was a sharp departure from the prior policy, which didn’t.
We should be going after those people who committed criminal acts, and that’s what the Obama era policy was. Now, Trump’s deciding that people who have integrated into American society, whose family members are serving in our military, should be deported.
This is a policy whose basis is entirely on inflicting pain and misery, and which is something that white supremacists and xenophobes are cheering. This is a policy that they stand behind, because they’re the ones who think that immigrants - legal or otherwise - aren’t real Americans and shouldn’t have their rights. More than that, these extremists want to rid the nation of people who don’t look like them (white).
Sadly, the White House is stocked with advisers who have the same kind of outlook, from Bannon to Miller to Trump. This is what Trump means when he says Make America Great Again. It’s all about pushing policies that empower whites and deprive everyone else of theirs.