The Child Gulag Archipelago

The Trump administration is variously trying to disclaim its policy of separating immigrant children, blame the policy it says it doesn’t have on Congress, and tell you how awesome and necessary the policy it says it doesn’t have is. The facts show that separating kids is not some accidental byproduct of the law but the intended goal of a conscious choice made by senior administration officials and telegraphed to enforcement personnel from the very beginning.

Separation was always the goal:  NBC News reported on Tuesday that the Department of Homeland Security was telling asylum officers as early as February 2, 2017—not even a month after Trump took office—that it was considering separating immigrant children from their parents in order to deter asylum applications. A month later, then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, when asked if he planned to separate immigrant children from their parents, told Wolf Blitzer “Yes, I am considering in order to deter more movement along this terribly dangerous network, I am considering exactly that.”

Screwing your allies 101: But not everyone is able to be as candid. Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen, in a rage-filled, accusatory performance at the White House podium, blamed the Trump administration’s poisonously unpopular policy on Republicans in Congress. Congressional Republicans, unwilling to take the fall for a policy they didn’t implement, have repaid the favor by denouncing it and pinning the blame right back on Trump. Here’s a roundup of the Republican senators who have come out swinging:

• John McCain (R-AZ): “an affront to the decency of the American people, and contrary to principles and values upon which our nation was founded.”
• Lisa Murkowski (R-AK): “cruel” and “tragic”
• Lamar Alexander (R-TN): “The White House could change it in 5 minutes and they should. It’s a mistake. It's a change in policy by this administration.”
• Susan Collins (R-ME): “it is inconsistent with our American values to separate these children from their parents unless there is evidence of abuse or another very good reason”
• Bob Corker (R-TN): "What we’re doing right now is not appropriate."
• Roy Blunt (R-MO): “does not meet the standard of who we are as a country.”
• Ben Sasse (R-NE): “family separation is wicked & needs to be stopped”
• Rob Portman (R-OH): “I oppose the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents. This is counter to our values.”
• Lindsey Graham (R-SC): "President Trump could stop this policy with a phone call."
• Orrin Hatch (R-UT): I think [Trump’s] wrong in this particular area today.

Quotes are not votes: Despite the rhetorical flourish, so far no Republicans have managed to tack the word “aye” onto a bill put forward by Democrats—the Keep Families Together Act—which would mandate a clean ban on child separation, except if there was reason to suspect abuse, neglect or fraudulent claims of custody. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced his own bill, the Protect Kids and Parents Act, which would also end separation but include extra resources and authorities to rush through asylum claims—something Democrats might not be willing to sign onto.

Given the pressure mounting against immigrant child separation from within the Republican party, it’s starting to look not so much a question of when the policy will crumble but on what terms. The Trump administration has spent the past week eating a non-stop buffet of crap from Republicans, Democrats, and the public over this and may be looking for something to walk away with in order to salve the loss. Trump still hasn’t gotten the wall he campaigned on or the funding to make it happen. Look for hints from the White House that they’d be willing to do a deal that addresses “root causes.”

The most powerful legislative voice to weigh so far may not be in the mood for a grand bargain. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters on Tuesday that “you can’t fix all of the problems” and that a legislative solution “would need to be a narrow fix." It’s not hard to see McConnell’s thinking on this. Congress has been uniquely incapable of passing broader immigration bills like a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The Majority Leader doesn’t want to sit through weeks of bruising coverage for a deal that may not even happen. He wants it off his plate, the sooner the better.

Backsies. Guard deployments to the border have usually been more about presidential signaling than actual policy accomplishments. Both Presidents George W Bush and Barack Obama deployed the Guard to the border during their tenure and both did it in large part to shore up their border enforcement credentials as they aimed for comprehensive immigration reform. Troops sent to the border under Bush, Obama and now Trump haven’t actually done apprehensions of immigrants. Instead, they do support work to free up Border Patrol agents to do apprehensions.

The public revulsion at immigrant child separation has prompted governors from eight states—Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New York, Rhode Island, and Virginia—to say they’re either pulling the deployment of Guard troops already at the border or stopping planned deployments from going through.

Meaningless as it may be, Trump has already relished the opportunity to publicly feud with reticent governors. When the policy was first he announced in April, he aimed his angry Twitter thumbs at Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA), who refused to send California troops to the border. Governors backing out of deployments may enrage Trump once again but there’s not much more he can do than issue angry tweets. The president has the authority to federalize the Guard, but those federalized troops could not be legally used for border enforcement activities. In the meantime, governors are able to call the shots.