Tag Archives: at

Observations of an ex pat…Trumps immigration battle plan

Thank you Melania. Thank you Ivanka. Thank you also Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary for Homeland Security. Thank you for engineering a reversal of the inhumane policy that tore 2,842 children away from their immigrant parents.

No thanks for President Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly or shadowy prince of darkness Stephen Miller. They were responsible for the heartless decree that turned vulnerable children into pawns in the president’s immigration battle.

The separation decree was in the making for well over a year.  John Kelly first publicly proposed it in May 2017.  Stephen Miller took up the baton with a vengeance. He has taken over from Steve Bannon as the ultra-nationalist, alt-right, anti-immigrant chief White House strategist with the ear of the president.

Miller has been whispering away: Immigration, immigration, immigration. That is the key to victory in the mid-term elections.

For President Trump immigration means Congressional funding for his “big beautiful wall”, laws to allow the speedy deportation of illegal immigrants and sweeping changes to legal immigration.  He is increasingly frustrated that that Congress has refused to cave in to his demands, especially as illegal immigration figures are climbing after a drop in 2017

In May the president launched a vicious and lengthy tirade against Homeland Security Chief Ms Nielsen in front of the entire cabinet. She, he said, was to blame for the rising immigration figures. Ms Nielsen sat there and took it on the chin, but according to sources, was close to quitting on the spot. She is reported to hate her job.

The much-maligned Attorney General Sessions saw an opportunity to weasel his way back into the presidential good books. On May 7th he told wannabe immigrants: “If you cross the border unlawfully then we will prosecute you…. If you are smuggling a child you then that child may be separated from you as required by law.”

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 1 Comment
Advert

Recent Comments

  • PM
    @ Russell, So you are saying the Windrush and other Caribbean migrants, most migrants from counties like Nigeria, India etc have been a drain on the economy....
  • Denis Mollison
    I was at the announcement (in Wadebridge I think) of the result in April 1966 when John Pardoe won it back from the Conservatives! Good to see this repeated at ...
  • Mick Taylor
    The really shocking thing about the mid-term elections is that less than half of those able to vote did so. This whole blue tsunami happened on a turnout of jus...
  • David Evans
    So the leader who chose to cosy up to the Conservatives for five years even though the impact on our party was clear from 6 months in and things just kept on ge...
  • Tristan Ward
    @Jana That sounds very much like moving to the right" No: it is occupying space that is liberal and has always been liberal, but which has been partly occ...