{"id":607469,"date":"2018-07-26T11:13:23","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T17:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=607469"},"modified":"2018-07-26T11:13:23","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T17:13:23","slug":"the-unfolding-story-of-the-newest-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/07\/the-unfolding-story-of-the-newest-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"The unfolding story of the newest Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_593761\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-593761\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Undocumented immigrant children\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/CBP_McAllen_3.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Undocumented immigrant children at a U.S. Border Patrol processing center in McAllen, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>COMMENTARY:<\/strong> Public policy is judged by how it works, not by how it was intended.<\/p>\n<p>As a deadline nears for reuniting immigrant families riven at the U.S.-Mexico border, even the stoutest defenders of tough U.S. immigration policy have to be smacking their foreheads at the outcomes of this fiasco.<\/p>\n<p>Back in April, the Trump administration, in the person of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, announced a tough crackdown on immigration, a \u201czero tolerance\u201d policy at the country\u2019s southern border intended to grind illegal immigration to a stop.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/25\/analysis-newest-americans-immigration-separation-texas\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cThe situation at our Southwest Border is unacceptable,\u201d he said. \u201cCongress has failed to pass effective legislation that serves the national interest \u2014 that closes dangerous loopholes and fully funds a wall along our southern border. As a result, a crisis has erupted at our Southwest Border that necessitates an escalated effort to prosecute those who choose to illegally cross our border.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo those who wish to challenge the Trump Administration\u2019s commitment to public safety, national security, and the rule of law,\u201d he continued, \u201cI warn you: illegally entering this country will not be rewarded, but will instead be met with the full prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice. To the Department\u2019s prosecutors, I urge you: promoting and enforcing the rule of law is vital to protecting a nation, its borders, and its citizens. You play a critical part in fulfilling these goals, and I thank you for your continued efforts in seeing to it that our laws \u2014 and as a result, our nation \u2014 are respected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He did make himself perfectly clear, didn\u2019t he?<\/p>\n<p>And you see how it worked out. Thursday is a court-ordered deadline (bet you a dollar the government doesn\u2019t finish in time) for reuniting the families that were split as a result of Sessions\u2019 policy.<\/p>\n<p>Strict enforcement of immigration law was the intention. Busted families and kids in jail was the result. As it turns out, that result was legally unacceptable to the courts and politically unacceptable to President Donald Trump, who reversed the &#8220;zero tolerance&#8221; policy with an executive order.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_140206\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-140206\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-336x338.jpg\" alt=\"Ross Ramsey\" width=\"336\" height=\"338\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-336x338.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-140x140.jpg 140w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-60x60.jpg 60w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-32x32.jpg 32w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-64x64.jpg 64w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross-128x128.jpg 128w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Ramsey-Ross.jpg 665w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Ross Ramsey<\/p><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/series\/separated-immigrant-families-zero-tolerance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Unwinding this mess<\/a> is slow, painful and would have been unnecessary if the feds had thought things through. If you prosecute immigrants under criminal law, you\u2019re obliged to take away and to protect the children who are with them, just as you would in the arrest of a drunk driver. You\u2019d have to have a system in place that kept track of which kids came in with which adults. You\u2019d want to quickly vet the adults to flag those that maybe shouldn\u2019t be reunited with those children.<\/p>\n<p>But in most cases, you wouldn\u2019t want to deport someone before making sure they had their kids back. The planning should also include places for everyone to be fed, sheltered and clothed. Health and education services might be needed.<\/p>\n<p>A million things.<\/p>\n<p>And the feds obviously didn\u2019t do the prep work before throwing this zero-tolerance machinery into gear.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you approve or disapprove of how things turned out, this is what we\u2019re doing. Whether it was the intention or not, it\u2019s how the policy actually works. It\u2019s the result of our actions, and it doesn\u2019t much matter what our intention was.<\/p>\n<p>That approve\/disapprove part now becomes important: If the policy produces the desired result, you leave it alone. If it produces an undesirable result, you admit the mistake and fix it.<\/p>\n<p>Even many Republican base voters \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/06\/21\/uttt-poll-most-texas-voters-oppose-family-separation-border-greater-su\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">women, to be specific<\/a>\u2014 thought the separations went too far. That made a political reversal necessary. And the courts ordered the families reunited, the process now underway, when the policy was challenged on legal grounds.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The numbers aren\u2019t great, but the fix is underway. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/23\/deadline-thursday-july-26-family-reunifications\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">As of Monday evening<\/a>, 879 of the remaining separated families had been reunited. Another 538 parents had been cleared \u2014 a step toward that many more reunions. But 217 adults were in the \u201cmaybe\u201d category, and 917 had been declared \u201cineligible\u201d for reunion or likely to be so. Half the adults in that last group are no longer in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>But the kids are. Think about that. This round began with 2,551 kids still unattached to the adults who were with them when they got to the United States. Let\u2019s say for the purpose of discussion that 1,000 of these minors will remain in the United States when all is said and done. We\u2019re obligated to take care of them, educate them, feed them, all of that. They\u2019re the newest kind of &#8220;Dreamers&#8221; \u2014 kids brought to America by immigrants who entered the country illegally, allowed to chase the American dream in the only country they really know or, in the case of older kids, the only country where they\u2019ve still got adult guardians.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how the policy so carefully laid out by the attorney general actually worked, whatever the administration\u2019s intentions: a politically forceful presentation, an ill-considered policy, a disastrous legal and political fiasco, and about 1,000 new Americans, making their way in the land of the free and the home of the brave.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/about\/staff\/ross-ramsey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ross Ramsey<\/a>\u00a0is executive editor and co-founder of The Texas Tribune.\u00a0Agree with his opinion? Disagree? NMPolitics.net welcomes your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/commentary-submissions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><script src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/25\/analysis-newest-americans-immigration-separation-texas\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s a big difference between what policy is supposed to do and what it actually does. The family separation fiasco on the U.S.-Mexico border is a perfect example.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":593761,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-607469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}