Obama Separated Families and Detained Kids, Media Said Nothing

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What are you called when you’re condemned for doing what others have long done? Right now, you may be called “President Donald Trump.”

In a cynical attempt to find a winning midterm issue, the Democrats and their public-relations team (a.k.a., the U.S. media) have pilloried President Trump for “separating families” and detaining minors in “camps.” But the reality is that the policies in question have been in place for a few administrations, with presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama also “separating families” and placing children in the same types of detention facilities. This should surprise no one, as that is what U.S. law — duly enacted by Congress — dictates must happen.

As the Daily Caller reported Tuesday:

Current U.S. law dictates that criminal prosecution of adults will result in the separation of family units if they illegally cross together.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement’s public numbers … show that nearly 200,000 children were referred by the DHS between fiscal year 2012 to fiscal year 2016 [Obama’s second term in office]. These children either were separated by their families or they were unaccompanied minors.

… The data bolsters a claim made by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen … that both the Obama and Bush administrations separated families at the border.

The Trump administration has defended the policy, noting that the only other option they have is to schedule an immigration court date and release the entire family unit into the interior. The practice, known as “catch and release,” has resulted in the release of nearly 500,000 illegal immigrants from Central America into the U.S. interior. U.S. authorities do not actively track illegals once they have been released. [By the way, Mexico doesn’t allow such insanity within its borders.]

Obviously, a sane nation detains lawbreakers, and detainment requires detention facilities. And, of course, Obama used essentially the same type of facilities Trump is using. As the Caller reported in a subsequent Tuesday piece:

Current U.S. immigration laws, when enforced, have the consequence of temporarily separating adults who arrive with children into separate detention facilities in order to prosecute the adults.

Personal accounts from immigration lawyers tell a tale of Obama being equally concerned about unaccompanied minors traveling to the border and wanting to create a deterrent.

Photos of border detention facilities from the Obama-era, taken during 2014, look nearly identical to the ones taken during the Trump era.

(Note: the operative phrases above are “U.S. immigration laws, when enforced” and “catch and release.” The Left wants no enforcement, so as to flood our nation with as many future potential Democrat voters as possible. “Compassion” has nothing to do with their agitation.)

The Caller provides numerous such photos, some of which, presented out of context, would make for great propaganda material. In fact, they already have. The image shown above, of two female migrants sleeping in a “cage” (a holding cell, actually), was shared by numerous liberals who apparently believed it was Trump’s handiwork.

But in a true egg-on-face moment, it turned out to be from the Obama era (2014).

Likewise, the photo here, of a crying toddler in a cage, was also said by liberals (including illegal alien Jose Antonio Vargas) to reflect Trump’s purported heartlessness (video below). The truth?

It was staged, part of an anti-Trump protest.

In reality, the longer-term child detention centers are actually a bit like boarding schools. As I wrote Wednesday, “Even left-wing CNN reported last week, after touring such a facility, that the kids were enjoying recreation such as watching soccer on TV and engaging in tai chi, pool, and foosball, and that their rooms were ‘antiseptically clean’ (a quality not common in their native countries).”

As for illegal minors, 10,000 of the 12,000 in custody were sent across the border unattended in order to game our system, as the law states that such youths cannot be deported if they come from non-contiguous countries.

Note that human traffickers can also be involved, and this brings us to Obama’s shame. In 2014, his officials actually handed multiple migrant children over to a trafficking ring that would later use them as forced labor. Could you imagine the reaction if the Trump administration had done this?

What the latter is doing, however, is finding a solution to such problems. It was reported Wednesday that Attorney General Jeff Sessions is considering using DNA tests to confirm parentage of migrant children, so as to avoid a repeat of the Obama administration’s tragic mistake.

More good news is a new poll showing that most Americans blame not President Trump, but the parents of the separated children, for the latter’s plight. And well they should. As Family Research Council president Tony Perkins put it, “The reality is if American parents put their kids through what these immigrant parents have done to their kids — they would be charged with child abuse.”

But child abuse takes many forms, and sometimes it also happens to be abuse of our sovereignty, cultural integrity, and of national political discourse. A good example is how the migrant children have been used as props by the immigrationist Left, with the photoshopped Time cover showing Present Trump face-to-face with a crying migrant toddler being Exhibit A. Not only did it turn out that the wee girl was not separated from her parents (video below), but what is the relevance? Little kids cry — a lot. A three-year-old cries when he loses his lollipop, has a toy taken by another child, or is told “no” when he wants to hear “yes.” A tot’s tears are as meaningful as a runner’s sweat.