This, unfortunately, isn’t a Trump or Obama problem. It’s a cultural problem that encompasses both ICE and the ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement):
When the Evil Keebler Elf announced the new border separation policy, I was of the opinion that with Trump’s deregulation push, treatment of undocumented minors would worsen. We know now that it did:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/26/politics/hhs-lost-track-1500-immigrant-children/index.html
But that ACLU report on rampant abuse of kids in ICE custody? That took place under Obama’s watch.
Separating minors from their parents is appears to be a ratification of existing rules. The Trump administration has other, worse ideas in the queue, like stripping asylum status from undocumented minors who are released to the custody of close relatives:
Trump is an idiot, but there’s no shortage of people who want to be Goebbels to his Chauncey Gardener. It’s not an accident that those people are in power; abusers seek power because it allows them to abuse with impunity, and some of them have been abusing for longer than any of us would like. ICE, and maybe the ORR, need to be cleansed with fire if this is how they do their jobs.
