Remember the children

Donald Trump’s defects of character have already filled several books. As we catalog 99 reasons why he must be denied a second term, his policy failures loom every bit as large, because they have left many human lives in wreckage.

Today, we turn to the border policy that forced the separation of families, leaving Americans to reckon with the disgusting reality that their government was caging children.

In the spring of 2017, breaking from Obama administration policy, Trump & Co. began a trial at the El Paso crossing: All undocumented adults seeking entry, even those with children, would be detained. By the fall, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a still harsher scheme whereby thousands of children, some as young as 5, were systematically separated from parents and older family members.

Horrors commenced.

Even after courts forced Trump to stand down, so half-hearted and disorganized were the administration’s reunification efforts, as of October of the following year, hundreds of minors had yet to be put back with their mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers.

Of course, Trump has consistently tried to evade responsibility for his own administration’s actions. But it came to light this week that Trump aide Stephen Miller forced Cabinet officials to vote on the policy. “If we don’t enforce this, it is the end of our country as we know it,” Miller told the officials.

Trump took children from their parents to excite his anti-immigrant base. Do not forget.