Immigrant Children

Yo Quiero

cjones08022018

What is obvious is that when the Trump administration started to rip families apart and throw babies in jail, that they never had a plan to reunite them.

The Trump administration missed one court-ordered deadline to reunite the families they’ve torn apart. After receiving an extension, they missed their second deadline.

Of course, the Trump administration doesn’t plan ahead for anything. After promising that Mexico would pay for his stupid, pointless, and racist border wall, Trump demanded American taxpayers to foot the bill. On Sunday, he threatened to shut down the government if Democrats, who are in the minority and don’t set the agenda, did not fund the wall.

By last Thursday, the Trump administration claimed it had met the deadline to reunite families despite there still be 711 children remaining in government custody. How can you meet a deadline when you don’t meet a deadline? Can I use that on my clients? Can I tell them not to believe what they see and hear?

The administration gave a list of 914 parents to the court it had determined were “either not eligible, or not yet known to be eligible, for reunification.” They said over 400 were not in the United States, with many having been deported.

They claimed 127 have waived reunification as if the parents brought their children to this country and now they don’t want them. Many of the parents weren’t aware of what they were signing, and some were even lied to by being told the document would reunite them with their children. Others felt coerced to sign. Many weren’t aware of what they were signing because of the language barrier, as not only do they not speak English, they don’t speak Spanish and come from areas in Central America where only indigenous languages are spoken.

The government claims 64 have a “prohibitive criminal record,” which is very murky. Many have only been accused and the government isn’t sharing the information with the press or the public. They also claim that 260 parents need “further evaluation” before being reunited, without explaining what needs to be reevaluated.

This policy isn’t designed just to discourage illegal immigration but also asylum requests. Why wouldn’t we want to bring in people escaping violence? Because, the Trump administration is racist.

One sign that a person is racist is when they target minorities in their criticism and need lies to justify their position. Guess who does that on a daily basis? I’ll give you one big fat orange hint.

He recently lied about who was going to pay for a border wall and the reasons (racists and murderers) why we need it.

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Trump Spelunking

cjones07132018

The world was uplifted by the news that all 12 of the Thai soccer players trapped for nearly three weeks inside a cave were finally rescued.

It was a challenging rescue for even the most experienced divers, as the tunnels leading the boys were narrow and flooded during Thailand’s rainy season. During the rescue, each boy was underwater for two to six hours. One Thai diver lost his life during the rescue. Australia sent a 20-strong rescue team. Help was also received from England, Denmark, China, and the U.S.

Congratulations were sent to the Wild Boar soccer players from around the world. America’s own wild bore also sent congratulations, through a tweet.

Yes, Donald Trump who has initiated a zero-tolerance policy for immigrant children and toddlers, who he has accused of being gang members, separated them from their parents, detained them in baby jails, used them for political leverage, and has missed a court deadline to reunite them with their parents, cares about the fate of children.

It is nice that there are at least some children Trump can express empathy for. And, with his tweet, he can benefit from Asian children other than the ones who make his ties.

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This Is MAGA

cjones06242018

A recent Quinnipiac Poll states 65% of American voters oppose the Trump policy of separating migrant children from their parents. The same study finds 55% of Republican voters are heartless, inhumane, unsympathetic, troglodyte, subhuman mongrels you don’t want to be stuck in an elevator with.

And there you have it. The majority of Trump supporters and MAGA heads love the idea of tearing brown families apart. It’s why Attorney General Jeff Sessions is giddy when explaining the hateful policy. It’s why Trump adviser and white supremacist advocate Stephen Miller is taking credit for the idea. It’s why Director of Homeland Security, whose first name is as traditional Native American as Sacagawea and Pocahontas, Kirstjen Nielson can claim she’s totally unaware of pictures, videos, and recordings of these children crying for their mothers. When I was a kid, Jaws scared the hell out of me but I couldn’t forget I saw it.

A racist base is why the President of the United States, who has married two immigrants, can shed all appearances of governing for all the people, and hold migrant children hostage until Congress gives him ten billion dollars to break his campaign promise of Mexico paying for it, and build a wall on the border with Mexico. Hillary was right. These people are deplorable, and they’re proud of it. Trump his holding the children hostage and blaming Democrats for making him do it.  This policy is so heartless and inhumane, that even Ted Cruz is against it and trying to stop it.

The New York Times editorial board asks, “when did caging kids become the art of the deal?”

The thing is, Trump can stop this. He can stop it right now. He doesn’t need legislation to stop ripping families apart. George W. Bush and Barack Obama governed under the same law, and they didn’t go to town ripping families apart, stacking the kids in cages in abandoned box stores, and making plans to place them in tent prisons to share in the desert with Gila Monsters.

Jeff Sessions said it’s unfair to compare this situation to how Jews were treated in Nazi Germany, because “the Nazis were keeping the Jews from leaving the country.” Yes. The Nazis loved the Jews so much, they were begging them not to leave Germany. Please don’t go, Jews. No. That’s not right and someone buy the Attorney General a history book. The Nazis actually shipped them out of Germany in death trains. But he does have a point about the comparison. We’re not gassing these immigrants or tearing out their fillings to melt down and store the gold in Switzerland, so at least there’s that.

Last week, Trump endorsed South Carolina Congressman Mark Sanford’s opponent in the Republican primary because Sanford “wouldn’t help him MAGA,” make America great again. That wasn’t true. Sanford was MAGAing all over the place. Trump just didn’t like Sanford’s public opinion he should release his tax returns.

What is “MAGA?” MAGA is returning America to when white people had full control over government policy (which it never really lost). MAGA is making white people feel like someone is protecting them from being disenfranchised. MAGA is gaslighting and using the Joseph Goebbels method of propaganda. MAGA is emboldening white supremacists and Nazis to crawl out of the sewers where they’ve been hiding and bask in the sunlight. MAGA is being able to listen to children cry for their parents and not want to do anything to help them. MAGA is hearing those cries and continuing to use them as political leverage.

Trump ran a campaign on racism. He accused Mexico of sending their worst people to the U.S. and called them “rapists” and “murderers” minutes after riding slowly down the escalator to announce his candidacy. He said being of Mexican descent was why a judge was unfit to sit on one of his many lawsuits.

Trump said, “I hate the children are being taken away.” He could have stopped at, “I hate the children.”

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Thank you for your support. Reader contributions really do help and are appreciated in a time of dwindling revenue for political cartoonists. You will also be supporting free speech and the First Amendment, and independent journalism while those in power are doing all they can to suppress it. You can also support by purchasing a signed print for $40.00. Just look at the right of this page and click the PayPal button, or you can email and make other arrangements. Thank you!

Yappy Jesus

cjones06202018

Americans love to say America is the greatest country in the world. The new doctrine for our foreign policy is “We’re America, bitch.” But, I’m pretty sure the greatest country in the world wouldn’t separate children from their parents and imprison them in tents in the desert. Maybe there was some confusion, and they were supposed to be in tent prisons with dessert. Spelling is a challenge for this White House.

Obviously inspired by the recently pardoned Joe Arpaio (the racist law-breaking criminal sheriff in Arizona), the Trump administration is looking to place 1,000-5,000 immigrant children in tent cities in the desert. The number of migrant children the government has apprehended has increased by 20% since a “zero-tolerance” policy was initiated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen (who doesn’t know Norway is mostly white but knows a brown kid when she sees one). The new policy ordered the Border Patrol to refer anyone crossing the border illegally for criminal prosecution, no matter the situation. Some people being incarcerated haven’t crossed illegally, as they went to the Border Patrol and requested asylum, which we don’t grant anymore for people whose lives are threatened by gangs or spousal abuse.

The number of children currently held by the government is over 11,200 at some 100 facilities (with Trump murals and re-education classes) to hold them are around 95% full. One solution would be to stop separating children from their parents and throwing them all in jail, which sounds a little better than throwing toddlers to cacti and rattlesnakes. But, maybe the Trump murals will ward off the snakes and Gila Monsters.

Sessions justified this abuse of government policy by quoting the Bible. He cited Romans 13 when he said, “to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained the government for his purposes.” Funny thing. That’s the same verse used by Southerners to justify owning slaves in the 1800s. Scary thing: Sessions probably knows that.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders is a church goer as well. During a White House press briefing Thursday, Sanders was insulting members of the press (they really hate Jim Acosta) and using the Bible defense. She said, “I can say that it is very biblical to enforce the law. That is actually repeated a number of times throughout the Bible. It’s a moral policy to follow and enforce the law.”

I haven’t seen a government use religion to justify policy this much since the Taliban.

There are probably a lot of quotes from the Bible that can be used to defend this administration.

There’s, “Thou shall not grab strange vaginas, unless thou is famous.”

And then there’s, “Thou shall not boast about grabbing strange vaginas to a reality TV host on a bus unless it’s just locker room talk.”

Plus, “Do not shag a porn star unless she’s willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement.”

I think this one was added yesterday: “Thou shall not salute a North Korean General unless his large hat is really spiffy.”

I’m gonna let you in on a secret. I made those up. But, here’s one that’s genuine: From Deuteronomy 10:18-19, “God loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”

But, maybe I’m doing it wrong, and we’re only supposed to quote Old Testament God and not Hippy God.

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Thank you for your support. Reader contributions really do help and are appreciated in a time of dwindling revenue for political cartoonists. You will also be supporting free speech and the First Amendment, and independent journalism while those in power are doing all they can to suppress it. You can also support by purchasing a signed print for $40.00. Just look at the right of this page and click the PayPal button, or you can email and make other arrangements. Thank you!

Got Compassion

cjones06022018

The United States government has been separating immigrant children from their parents in Trump’s New World Order of Chaos and Uncaring. Just in case that’s not heartless enough, they’ve also lost track of nearly 1,500 children who crossed the border alone (that is, unaccompanied by adults).

Christian conservatives are outraged. They’re demanding answers, justice, compassion, and they’re about to storm the White House and Congress until this situation is explained and rectified.

Nah, just kidding. We’re talking about actual children here and not 1,500 fetuses.

The Department of Health and Human Services place unaccompanied minors with sponsors and from there; they throw their arms in the air and say, “not our problem anymore.”

From The Washington Post, “From October to December 2017, HHS called 7,635 children the agency had placed with sponsors, and found 6,075 of the children were still living with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else. The rest was missing.” HHS argues that they’re not their responsibility after being placed with sponsors.”

It’s not just about legal responsibility, but humanity and compassion. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio pointed out those federal officials handed eight children over to human traffickers who put them to work on an egg farm in Ohio. If immigrant children could actually lay eggs, there’d probably be a lot more handed over for trafficking.

Earlier in the month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the Justice Department will begin prosecuting everyone who crosses the southern border illegally, even if they’re seeking asylum. So, if you’re entering the United States illegally, take my advice and do it on an airplane and do it while being white. Most people who enter this nation illegally don’t enter through our border with Mexico. Most enter legally, through the air, and overstay their visas.

Other facts: Only about three percent of immigrants here illegally have been convicted of felonies or serious misdemeanors. Most have been here over a decade. More than 30% own homes. They don’t collect welfare. They pay taxes. The majority of people here who have overstayed their visas are from Canada.

This brings us to the stupid, racist border wall Trump has proposed. He is blaming Democrats for the missing children. He claims he’s for a pathway to citizenship for children who were brought here illegally, but only if he gets his wall. But, the wall won’t stop airplanes. The wall won’t stop someone from overstaying their visa. The wall won’t stop ladders. The wall is a racist prop.

Trump’s daughter and adviser (which is a ridiculous sentence I have to write), Ivanka, posted a pic on social media snuggling her son. Awwww. Critics quickly criticized her attempt at posing as the perfect family while there are children being ripped apart from their parents. But, in Ivanka’s defense, she’s rich and white. Plus, if it makes you feel better, in her pursuit of children issues, she was just awarded several new trademarks in China where little tiny fingers will now be making her designer handbags. I knew you’d feel better.

The new normal is being heartless, uncompassionate, uncaring, and just not giving a rat’s ass unless it’s you or one of your rich cohorts. And if you’re a middle-class or poor white person who is really enjoying the treatment of people with a darker skin tone than yours, don’t celebrate too much. Because Trump doesn’t really care about you either.

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Thank you for your support. Reader contributions, small and large, really do help and are appreciated in a time of dwindling revenue for political cartoonists. You will also be supporting free speech and the First Amendment, and independent journalism while those in power are doing all they can to suppress it. You can also support by purchasing a signed print for $40.00. Just look at the right of this page and click the PayPal button, or you can email and make other arrangements. Thank you!