|
|
Kirstjen Nielsen on Immigration |
After Trump came into office, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the program had been created "without proper authority" and only after Congress had rejected proposed legislation. The following day, DHS announced DACA would be phased out, pointing out that it had "legal and constitutional defects."
Months later, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issued a new memo laying out more policy-based justifications for winding down the program. She said, for example, that the program increased the risk of undermining public confidence in the rule of law.
Federal courts said the administration had acted arbitrarily when phasing out the program. The courts pointed to the administration's thin justification--reasoning Roberts and the Supreme Court eventually agreed with.
"This department will no longer stand by and watch you attack law enforcement for enforcing the laws passed by Congress," Nielsen said. "We will not apologize for the job we do, or the job law enforcement does, or the job the American people expect us to do."
Releasing parents who bring children across the border would be tantamount to giving them "a get out of jail free card," Nielsen said.
The Huffington Post contrasted Nielsen's comments with the fact that "last week, DHS announced that nearly 2,000 kids had been separated from their parents during a six-week period ending last month. Many of those children are being held in juvenile detention centers."
How can both of these statements be true? Simple: the press is ignoring the MEANING of Nielsen's tweet.
Nielsen says that families who present themselves for asylum at LEGAL border crossing will not be separated. She intends to confuse voters between THAT non-separation policy with the OTHER policy for separating families who cross the border illegally.