TRUMP ADMINISTRATION - Reuniting Separated Families

aka 'Trump Anti-immigrant Racism'

"Why it was so difficult for HHS to reunite separated migrant families" PBS NewsHour 3/5/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A new watchdog report reveals troubling details about how the U.S. government handled the separation of migrant families as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.  The litany of failures includes communication breakdown, lack of planning and insufficient care.  Lisa Desjardins talks to Ann Maxwell, Assistant Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services.

ON THE BORDER - Asylum Seekers

Again, I do not dislike the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on principle.  I DO dislike how some Boarder Patrol Agents act, they have in effect become Trump's Storm Troopers treating all immigrants as criminals (5 year old children?!) just because they are seeking a better life in America.  Asylum is the law and Asylum seekers should NOT be treated as criminals.

"What’s happening to U.S. asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico" PBS NewsHour 2/14/2020

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A new report from Human Rights Watch finds that the Trump administration’s controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy forces asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border to wait in crowded, unsafe and unsanitary conditions.  Many said they lived in constant fear of violence, with some reporting that they had actually been attacked.  Amna Nawaz speaks with Human Rights Watch's Michael Garcia Bochenek.

IN MY HUMBLE OPINION - 'Migrant' vs 'Refugee'

In Trump's eyes there is no difference, they are all 'bad-actor' brown people.

"Is the distinction between migrant and refugee meaningful?" PBS NewsHour 11/18/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Under President Trump, American immigration policy has been in the spotlight.  While Trump may talk the most about stopping illegal entry into the U.S., he is also taking action to reduce the volume of legal migrants the country accepts as refugees.  But what makes one immigrant a refugee and another simply a migrant?  Writer Dina Nayeri offers her Humble Opinion questioning that distinction.

AMERICAN POLITICS - Fate of DACA

"After failed legislative attempts on DACA, fate of ‘Dreamers’ lies with Supreme Court" PBS NewsHour 11/11/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments that could decide the fate of some 700,000 “Dreamers,” members of a younger generation of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.  They are currently protected from deportation by an executive order that President Barack Obama put in place in 2012, but that President Donald Trump has sought to cancel.  Amna Nawaz reports.

"As Supreme Court takes up DACA, ‘Dreamers’ hope for another temporary reprieve" PBS NewsHour 11/12/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on President Trump’s move to end protections for migrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children.  The Obama-era program, known as DACA, currently blocks some 660,000 people from deportation.  National Law Journal’s Marcia Coyle and Bipartisan Policy Center’s Theresa Cardinal Brown join Amna Nawaz to discuss the legal considerations and potential fallout.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION - Acting Secretary of Homeland Security in El Salvador

"In El Salvador to discuss immigration, McAleenan emphasizes need for ‘well-managed’ border" PBS NewsHour 8/29/2019

But forget about really helping with the problems than cause South Americans to leave their countries and head for the United States.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan is currently on a three-day trip to Central America to discuss migration and border security with leaders in El Salvador.  Reporting from San Salvador, Amna Nawaz joins Judy Woodruff to talk about McAleenan's agenda, gang violence, and whether the Trump administration’s strategy to reduce Central American migration to the U.S. will succeed.

SEPARATED FAMILIES - Foster Home Oversight

Does anyone really think the Trump Administration cares about 'brown' immigrant children?  Of course he doesn't.

"How much oversight do foster homes for migrant children have?" PBS NewsHour 8/16/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A new investigation by the Associated Press and FRONTLINE finds allegations of physical and sexual abuse for some migrant children who are moved into government-funded foster care after they are separated from their families.  Jeffrey Brown talks to the AP’s Martha Mendoza about details of the allegations, who oversees the foster homes and why additional lawsuits may be forthcoming.

TRUMP ANTI-IMMIGRATION - Penalizing Legal Immigrants

So now not only is Trump going after people seeking to enter the United States, he's going after LEGAL immigrants.  So in Trump-World there is no benefit to doing things legally.

"Trump administration seeks to penalize immigrants for using public benefits" PBS NewsHour 8/12/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Recent immigration debates have focused on illegal entry into the U.S.  But the Trump administration is issuing new rules to limit legal immigration, by penalizing green card seekers who use, or might eventually use, public benefits.  Yamiche Alcindor talks to the Bipartisan Policy Center's Theresa Cardinal Brown about the public charge concept and who will feel the effects of the rule change.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 8/2/2019

"Shields and Brooks on Trump and race, Democrats’ 2020 values" PBS NewsHour 8/2/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s political news, including President Trump’s personal attacks on Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and other lawmakers of color, the significance of a wave of Republican congressional retirements and how the 2020 Democrats fared in the two-night debate in Detroit.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  That brings us to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Hello to both of you.

So let's pick up on Yamiche's reporting, David.

All this comes after President Trump has been going after Congressman Elijah Cummings, going after Baltimore, calling it rat-infested, this just a few days after he went after four congresswomen of color, the Squad.

Some people are saying the President's being racist.  He says, "I'm the least racist person in the world."

How do you see it, and what are the consequences?

David Brooks, New York Times:  I think I disagree with the President on that one.

You just look at who he's attacking.  It's one African-American or one person of a color after another.  It's not dog whistle anymore.  It's just straight-up human whistle.

And so it is just pulling at this racial thing over and over and over again.  And I don't know how it how much it affects people.  I really don't know.  I know people don't like political correctness.  And when he does that, I think people really get a charge out of that.

But going to clearly racist tropes goes well beyond it.  We're walking into Father Coughlin territory.  We're walking into George Wallace territory.  We're walking into very ugly territory.

And if this is what this election is going to become about, then it becomes, I would think, hard for people of conscience, whether they like Trump's economic policy or not, to wind up with him in however many months Election Day is.

Judy Woodruff:  Ugly territory, Mark?

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Ugly territory, Judy.

It reached the point where, when it was reported that Congressman Cummings' house had been broken into, the President tweeted, "Too Bad," Elijah Cummings, the crime in Baltimore.

This was too much for Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor, former U.N. ambassador, who said, this is — she took the President to task.

Judy Woodruff:  Republican.

Mark Shields:  Republican, as did Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

No, the President — you think of the founder of that great party, the Republican Party, words of Lincoln, with malice toward none, with charity for all, let's bind up the nation's wound, the task we're about.

This is just the opposite.  This is salting the wounds.  This is sowing division, and all for a very narrow political purpose.  I do think that it reaches a point of diminishing returns, because, at some point, you're just not proud to say you're for Donald Trump.

You can say, oh, he's my guy, or he fights my fights, or he's on my side, but Americans want their President to be a comforter in chief and a consoler in chief, as Ronald Reagan was at the Challenger crisis, or in tragedy, or Barack Obama was after the Charleston church shooting.

That's what a President — to unite, to comfort and to bring out — he's the only voice that can speak to us, all of us, and for all of us, and he obviously doesn't want to speak to all of us or for all of us.

Judy Woodruff:  But, David, you still have, as you heard in Yamiche's reporting from Ohio, people saying that they don't think it's racist, that they like the fact, as you suggested, that he speaks out.

David Brooks:  Yes, well, they do like that fact.

The one thing I have noticed — I was at two conservative conferences over the past month.  And they were pretty Trumpy, I guess.  And they were 95 and 99 and maybe 100 percent white.  And so, if you're conservative worlds, you're just not around minorities anymore.  You're not around people of color.

And then you say, well, shouldn't you get some people of color on stage just to hear viewpoints?  And they say, well, we don't want — like, I don't see color.

And if you're living in this country, with the culture of this country and the history of this country, you have got to see color.  And you have got to affirmatively try to get different people in the same room.  And it's just become a habit on the right to not care about that.

And this wasn't always the case.  And this is how Trump is influencing the party, and, frankly, how the party is influencing Trump.  In the world — in the age of the Bushes, in the age of Jack Kemp, there was really aggressive efforts to try to diversify the party, with some success.

And now that's not even tried.  And it's not only Trump.  It's up and down the whole apparatus.

Judy Woodruff:  And last night, Mark, as we have reported, Will Hurd, the only black Republican in the House of Representatives, announced he's not running again from Texas.

Mark Shields:  He did, Judy.

I think it's the seventh this week — sixth this week, ninth overall.

Judy Woodruff:  Total of nine, yes.

Mark Shields:  And I think there's a couple of factors at work.

I mean, what David mentions is one of them.  The Republicans are becoming increasingly a white party.  And Will Hurd, who is a former CIA professional and a high-qualified person, but prior to his retirement, or announce that he wasn't going to seek reelection; Susan Brooks of Indiana, who's been tasked for seeking women candidates for the Republican Party, and Martha Roby of Alabama announced their retirement.

And I think what's significant about it is this.  Ronald Reagan's last term, half the members of Congress who were women were Republicans, 12 out of 25.  Now there are 102 women in the House of Representatives; 89 of them are Democrats, 13 are Republicans.

Two of those 13 have just announced they're retiring.

Judy Woodruff:  Are not running.

Mark Shields:  I mean, so you see it's a white male party.  And that has — that's a finite demographic.

Judy Woodruff:  So, you're — I mean, you're both talking — what are the consequences of this, David?

David Brooks:  Of course, I think electoral ruin, though people have been saying that for a long time.

And there was a book called "The Emerging Democratic Majority" that was probably 15 to 20 years ago from John Judis and Ruy Teixeira, who took a look at the demographics that were Republican, and they were all fading.  And they predicted Democratic reign by now.  And that hasn't happened.

And that's because a lot of Latinos, as they assimilate, they become white.  And so — and so they are voting Republicans.  And whites have swung overwhelmingly to the Republican side.

It's a short-term boon, like the country is 76 percent white, but it's a long-term catastrophe.  And that's just talking politics.  It's a short-term moral catastrophe for the party.

Judy Woodruff:  But in the short run, Mark, this could be good politics for Donald Trump?

Mark Shields:  It's hard for me, Judy.  They're maximizing a minimum, I mean, is what they're doing.

There's not an inexpensive ceiling on the Trump coalition.  It means getting every possible Trump voter out.  There's no persuasion.  It's all an organization effort.  There's not — they're not reaching across the aisle and saying, we want to get you, come join us, we agree on 80 percent.

I mean, this is just mining down, is what it is.

NATURALIZED AMERICANS - Our New Citizens

"Newly naturalized Americans reflect on citizenship in a fraught political era" PBS NewsHour 8/1/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump’s language about immigration and lawmakers of color has sparked a national conversation about racism and xenophobia.  But every year, hundreds of thousands make their way to the U.S. and begin the rigorous process of becoming citizens.  We talk to newly minted Americans at a Virginia naturalization ceremony about what the milestone means during this politically charged time.

IMMIGRATION POLICY - Ongoing Family Separations at U.S. Concentration Camps

"How the Trump administration explains ongoing family separations at the border" PBS NewsHour 7/30/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The American Civil Liberties Union says the Trump administration has continued to separate migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, despite a federal judge’s 2018 ruling to stop the practice.  Amna Nawaz talks to the ACLU’s Lee Galernt about how many kids have been affected, why the numbers are rising and what the administration’s rationale is for the separations.

VENEZUELA - In Chaos

The real problems Trump needs to do something about to mitigate U.S. immigration.

"For Venezuelans fleeing chaos at home, Brazil offers temporary refuge — and uncertainty" PBS NewsHour 7/16/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Over the past five years, Venezuela’s combination of political instability, economic crisis and humanitarian disaster has driven record numbers of people out of the country to seek refuge elsewhere.  The exodus is reshaping the entire continent of South America in unexpected ways.  Amna Nawaz reports from the border between Venezuela and Brazil, where she met families making the desperate journey.

"How Colombia’s foreign minister sees chaos in Venezuela, fragile peace at home" PBS NewsHour 7/16/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  It's been three years since a groundbreaking peace deal between the Colombian government and FARC rebels.  The agreement opened the door for land reform, political participation for ex-rebels and a crackdown on drug trafficking.  But most of those problems remain, amid a political transition and influx of Venezuelan refugees.  Judy Woodruff talks to foreign minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo.

AMERICA'S CONCENTRATION CAMPS - Migrant Child Detention

"A firsthand report of ‘inhumane conditions’ at a migrant children’s detention facility" PBS NewsHour 6/21/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The Associated Press details grave conditions inside a Texas migrant detention facility where 250 infants, children and teenagers were being held without adequate food, water or sanitation during a recent visit.  Warren Binford, a law professor at Willamette University, joins William Brangham to share her firsthand account, what Border Patrol agents think and what's next for these children.

Editor's Note:  After our broadcast, CPB responded to our request for comment with the following statement:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) leverages our limited resources to provide the best care possible to those in our custody, especially children.  As DHS and CBP leadership have noted numerous times, our short-term holding facilities were not designed to hold vulnerable populations and we urgently need additional humanitarian funding to manage this crisis.  CBP works closely with our partners at the Department of Health and Human Services to transfer unaccompanied children to their custody as soon as placement is identified, and as quickly and expeditiously as possible to ensure proper care.

All allegations of civil rights abuses or mistreatment in CBP detention are taken seriously and investigated to the fullest extent possible.

IMMIGRATION - Statement From ICE

"ICE director on due process, rule of law and upcoming deportations" PBS NewsHour 6/18/2019

Another 'Acting' director that Trump uses to avoid facing Congressional oversight.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  On Twitter Monday night, President Trump announced plans for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to step up removal of undocumented immigrants from the U.S. next week.  How will these people be located and what happens to them next -- especially the families?  Amna Nawaz talks to ICE Acting Director Mark Morgan, who served as chief of U.S. Border Patrol during the Obama administration.

Doesn't this idiot realize that "work with ICE, and we will help remove you back to your country of origin" will send these people running.  THEY DO NOT WANT TO BE SENT BACK TO THEIR COUNTRY.  They escaped their country because they were NOT safe there!

BORDER BATTLE - U.S.-Mexico Deal vs Immigration

"Will U.S.-Mexico deal reduce immigration?  A report from 2 borders" PBS NewsHour 6/10/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump announced Friday that he had struck a deal with Mexico both to stem the flow of immigrants from Mexico into the U.S. and to avoid levying tariffs on Mexican imports.  Nick Schifrin talks to the NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz, reporting from El Paso, and James Frederick, a journalist based in Mexico City, about the details of the agreement and the outlook for meaningful change.

IMMIGRATION - Will 'Dreamers' Have no Home?

"Some ‘Dreamers’ face painful reality of no country to call home" PBS NewsHour 5/20/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The immigration policies of the Trump administration have dramatically changed life for young undocumented Mexicans who came to the U.S. as children.  Under DACA, which President Obama implemented in 2012, they were protected from deportation.  Now, many have been forced out of the U.S. or left out of fear of deportation, finding they belong in neither country.  NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro reports.

TRUMP ANTI-IMMIGRATION - 'Overhaul' of Immigration

"Trump to propose overhaul of U.S. immigration system" PBS NewsHour 5/15/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  President Trump is returning to a familiar issue: immigration.  On Thursday, Trump is expected to deliver a speech in which he proposes an overhaul of the U.S. immigration system, including the number of immigrants accepted, development of a wall between the U.S. and Mexico, and how visas are granted.  Yamiche Alcindor talks to Amna Nawaz about the plan’s details and its likely reception by Congress.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 4/12/2019

"Shields and Brooks on Trump’s sanctuary city idea, Democrats’ reparation views" PBS NewsHour 4/12/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks join Amna Nawaz to discuss the week in politics, including whether reparations can be a viable campaign issue, social media in politics, the President’s rhetoric on moving immigrants to sanctuary cities, a shakeup at the Department of Homeland Security and the congressional testimony of Attorney General William Barr.

Amna Nawaz (NewsHour):  And now to the analysis of Shields and Brooks.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields, and New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Happy Friday.  Good to see you guys.

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Thank you.

David Brooks, New York Times:  And to you.

Amna Nawaz:  I want to pick up where Yamiche's report left off and get your take on it, because, David, you have written about this.  You have had your own evolution when it comes to your views on reparations.

How should people today look at some of comments made by people like Mr. Biden all those years ago?

David Brooks:  Well, first, on the Biden thing, I think it's ridiculous to judge somebody by a statement made in 1975.  I was in junior high school then.  People evolve and people change their minds.  And we should allow people to change their minds.

On reparations, I support them, but not for the reasons Joe Biden says.  It's not an act of guilt.  It's not an act of, we did something wrong.  It's a show of respect.  It's a show of respect for the injustices that minorities, members of the African-American community have suffered in our society for hundreds of years, not just slavery, but red-lining and all the way up to the President.

So we show respect, and we do it as an act of regard and as an act of resetting.  And I have just come to the conclusion.  I changed my mind about it, because the practicalities of doing it are really hard.  But I changed my mind about it because it just feels like we're in a make-or-break moment on race.

The election of Trump, the atmosphere this has created has created a movement where aggressive gestures have to be taken to show that we're all part of the same country.

Amna Nawaz:  Mark, what about you?  Do you think the candidates should have a stance on this, a ready answer if they're asked?

Mark Shields:  They can have a stance if they want it.  I think it's a nonstarter as an issue in 2020, Amna.

I think David makes a legitimate point, a moral point and an ethical point.  I think, politically, you have a choice, especially beginning with Joe Biden.  You either have converts or you have heretics in politics.  You either say, that person was wrong, and therefore they're doomed to perdition and keep them away from me, or converts, those who come and join our side and are welcome and sit in the front row.

And Joe Biden's record on civil rights, I think, speaks a lot louder than the one quote from 43 years ago.

And you have a choice in politics.  You can look forward or you can look backward.  And I think, in 2020, this is not an issue that comes up voluntarily on the part of voters.  I think David raises the question.  It is next to impossible to do it.

I mean, the African-American girl who graduated from Sidwell whose father is a dentist and whose mother's a lawyer is not in the same position as somebody who is a direct lineal descendant at discrimination and servitude.

It is — what works in this country is when we include everybody in a program.  And there's no question that African-Americans have suffered economically, socially and politically.  But it ought to be a policy that's directed to lifting up all those who lag behind, who have been, through no fault of their own, left behind and hurt.

And I think that, in spending more money, it means an investment in city schools.  There's no reason, as John McCain said, that a bad congressman should earn more than a good schoolteacher.  And I think that's a good place to start.

Amna Nawaz:  Well, we have seen it coming up now on the campaign trail.

I want to ask you about some of the people who are going to be making the decision about who makes their way further down that campaign trail.  Those are the Democratic voters.

There is a fascinating analysis I think you both have seen as well in The New York Times by Nate Cohn and Kevin Quealy looking at who those Democratic voters really are.  And I think some people might be surprised about what was in there.

It said some of the loudest voices on social media, the very progressive voices, are not necessarily representative of the whole.

Mark Shields:  Yay!

(LAUGHTER)

Amna Nawaz:  One number that stood out to me, among Democrats who self-identify as moderate or conservative, 29 percent of those Democrats are on social media; 53 percent of other Democrats identify that way.

Did that surprise you?

Mark Shields:  No, it really doesn't.

I thought it was a great piece.  And good for The Times for putting that on the front page, forcing people who read The Times, including myself, to address this, this reality, I mean, that the loudest voices are not necessarily representative, and, in many cases, as we — those who read Twitter know there's no satisfying them.

You give them nine, and, well, wait a minute, what about nine more?  And so, no, I think it's — the problem for the Democrats is — Charlie Cook put it very well, the analyst.  He said 45 percent of the people are against Donald Trump, 35 percent are for him.  There's 20 percent who are out there.

If you win 10 percent of them, you have won an enormous landslide.  You get 55 percent of the vote.  But those people are not on Twitter, that 20 percent.  And they're not into the exotic, erotic issues that sort of excite so many of these activist Democrats.

Amna Nawaz:  David, you looked at the numbers.  What did you — what did you make of them?  What is your take?

David Brooks:  Yes.

Well, it's, of course, true.  Like, Twitter is not reality.

Amna Nawaz:  Right.

David Brooks:  We pray that to be the case.

Mark Shields:  Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

David Brooks:  But I guess I would say two things.

The people who are on Twitter and those hard-core people, they want a culture war.  A lot of Democrats want a lot of economic changes, a lot of policy changes.  But a lot of Twitterites, they want a culture war.

So, for example, a story that was big in the conservative world, but didn't really make it out this week was Chick-fil-A getting disinvited from some airports because the owner of Chick-fil-A gave money to the Salvation Army, which is deemed conservative — or progressively incorrect, because it's a religious organization.

And so that that's what drives conservatives up a wall, the idea that they can't practice their faith.  And most Democrats don't really care about that kind of issue.

The one thing, final thing I would say is that just because the social media people are a minority doesn't mean they can't drive the train.  A passionate minority often drives the train.  And if the candidates are afraid of angering the passionate minority, and they feel they have to toe certain lines, or else they just get a hailstorm of abuse, then the passionate minority drives the train.

Amna Nawaz:  Speaking of social media, the President was back on Twitter talking about an issue that's key to his heart, key to his campaign moving forward for 2020 as well.  Of course, that's immigration.

I want to show you the tweet from this morning.  He was talking about a proposal to bus detained migrants into sanctuary cities.  He said:  "We are, indeed, as reported, giving strong considerations to placing illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities.  Only" — he said that would be as political retribution for people who have opposed his policies.

But this was — David, this was a proposal that the White House had said they'd floated, they considered, and then they rejected it.  The President is still talking about it.  What do you make of that?

David Brooks:  Well, he's confused with the reality that you can do a Twitter prank and own libs and forget the fact there are real human beings at stake here.

Mark Shields:  Mm-hmm.

David Brooks:  And so, like, he's just insulting and further insulting a group he's insulted pretty much consecutively for three or four years.

We have got chaos on the border, and we could in — place a system in place so we actually have the border under control.  We could expand the detention centers.  We could send more judges down to take care of the backlog.  We could give counselors to the people, so they know how to manipulate the system — or they don't have to just work the system.

We could do a lot of things to make the situation on the border functioning.  And that's what a normal President would be focused on.  That's what a governor would be doing.  That's what a mayor is doing.

Instead of doing actual policy, he's just doing — he's treating it all as a Twitter game to make his base feel good about themselves.

Amna Nawaz:  Well,we know one of the reasons it was pushed back upon was because it is illegal.  And when the President was down on the border with his new DHS acting head, Kevin McAleenan, last week, there's now new reporting out today that he was pushing him to perhaps act illegally.

Allegedly, he asked Kevin McAleenan to close the border earlier than expected and also said that he would pardon him if he were to act illegally and prevent migrants from entering.  Those are all reports that came out late this afternoon.

Just weigh in on this, Mark, for me.  What do you make of all these reports and the allegations being made here?

Mark Shields:  Well, from all we know about Kevin McAleenan, he's talking to the wrong guy, is Donald Trump, when he makes that sort of a proposition or sort of an offer.  He's a law-abiding law person.

As far as President Trump is concerned, I mean, David's right, in the sense that the Presidency and the White House is, above all else, a place of preeminently moral leadership.  And there has been none.  David has pointed out that the Democrats have an obligation, which they do, to help formulate new policy on immigration.

But I would just point out that twice in the last 10 years, we passed in the Senate overwhelmingly comprehensive immigration reform.  We passed it with 80 percent of the votes being for Democrats.  And of the 14 Republicans who dared to vote for it in the Senate, John McCain's gone, Jeff Flake is gone, Dean Heller's gone, Lee Ayotte is gone.

You go right through the list.  Bob Corker is gone.  They haven't been replaced by pro-consensus, pro-compromise immigration supporters.  So I raise that, that the Democrats do have a responsibility.  But, I mean, when you don't even get a vote in the Republican House under George W. Bush, who pushed for it, to his credit, and for Barack Obama, who pushed for it — and it got through the Senate in both cases — we have got a problem in this country.

And it's a moral problem.  It's a political problem as well.  And I don't think we should hide from that.

Amna Nawaz:  When you look at what's happened at DHS — and, of course, immigration is not the only thing they do.  It is a big part of what they do, though.

You take a look at the shakeup that happened just this week, I think it's easy to forget.  These things happen so quickly.  This was just this week.  On Sunday, the homeland security secretary was out, on Monday, the U.S. Secret Service director, Tuesday, the acting deputy secretary of homeland security, on Wednesday, the ICE acting director.

What is — what does this shakeup mean?

David Brooks:  Well, it means that the President adopted a policy on immigrants, and especially from Central America, that was based on cruelty and based on the idea of deterrence.  If we're cruel enough, it will deter them from coming.

And that has turned out not to be the case.  Now we have got 700,000 or 800,000 people coming, seeking asylum.  And so they were trying to solve for the wrong problem.  And so the idea of deterrents failed, and so the situation turns out to be worse.

And so the President first blames the people in the agency for not carrying out his cruelty, and then he blames them for the situation being worse.  And so it's a situation where you had a lot of people who just, like, some of them cooperated with a cruel policy.  Some of them didn't want to.

But, at the end of the day, they couldn't take it.  And, at the end of the day, he [Trump] was sick of them.  And so you have a failed policy, which is being blamed on the enactors, basically.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION - The Boot of a Dictator

Trump again proves he is a dictator-want-to-be and will not accept that the Constitution, Congress, or the courts can limit him.  Trump does not believe in the rule of law.

He wants a 'Pennywise' in charge of Homeland Security.

"Why Trump decided Nielsen wasn’t tough enough on immigration" PBS NewsHour 4/8/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  On Sunday, President Trump announced the resignation of Homeland Security Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen, who reportedly was forced to step down amid Trump’s growing frustration with the growing number of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.  Amna Nawaz reports and joins Judy Woodruff with Yamiche Alcindor to discuss why Nielsen fell out of favor with Trump and what the shakeup means for immigration policy.

TRUMP POLICY - Anti-Immigration Effects

"Why Trump wants to cut aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras" PBS NewsHour 4/1/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen recently declared a "compact” with El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, aiming to reduce their migration to the U.S.  But since then, the Trump administration said it will cut aid to those countries, including to programs that seek to address the violence and poverty making their residents desperate to flee.  John Yang talks to Nick Schifrin for more.

"Honduran migrants deported from the U.S. often face a grim fate" PBS NewsHour 4/1/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The deadly stranglehold of gang violence in Honduras drives tens of thousands of desperate residents to flee north to request asylum in the U.S.  But few receive it, often due to a lack of documentation of the persecution they faced at home.  Special correspondent Marcia Biggs reports from San Pedro Sula with harrowing stories of the fates of migrants who made it to the U.S., only to be deported.

ON THE BORDER - Complete Political Failure

"Why current U.S. immigration challenge reflects ‘complete political failure’" PBS NewsHour 3/28/2019

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Federal immigration officials in El Paso say they're overwhelmed by a massive influx of families seeking asylum.  U.S. Customs and Border Protection has responded to the surge by moving personnel in from other areas, but that could exacerbate the problem by further slowing processing of asylum requests.  Amna Nawaz reports and talks to Bob Moore of Texas Monthly about the ‘completely new’ situation.