Quote Originally Posted by verminaard View Post
Of everyone that is so outraged, does it bother you at all that you have no fucking clue what is going on at the border and you are just being manipulated by a very cold, calculating media into having the exact emotional outrage they want you to have for their own political ends?

I would actually like to know what is going on wrt family separation and how this is different than what was going on before (which ostensibly the media had no problem with), or what is going on anywhere else. But the media isn't very interested in actually telling us what is going on, they just want to get everyone emotionally riled up for their ends.

i believe what's happening is trump decided to treat any family crossing the border as criminals (thus putting them in the criminal justice system) as opposed to what had been done previously, where most people were temporarily held together as families and either deported or released with a court date to determine if they should be deported ("catch and release"). obama generally only arrested those with criminal records or who had already been busted for illegally crossing.

the reason why treating them as criminals (like trump is doing) is meaningful is that it's illegal to house children with their parents in jail while they're waiting for a court date. thus, if you're going to arrest the people crossing over, you have to separate them from their family.

trump would tell you that the laws require him to arrest anyone crossing over the border, and that he doesn't have the discretion to treat them in any other fashion. most people will say that's bullshit as there's always leeway given to the law enforcement in who they choose to prosecute or what areas they prioritize. trump would also say that "catch and release" doesn't work as the person(s) released won't show up for their court date once released. no idea what the stats are on that, but trump tweets against this a lot.

trump is obv doing this to maximize pressure on democrats to come up with a comprehensive immigration policy, which includes wall funding. politically, i don't think this is going to work as it's even starting to generate backlash from conservatives like ted cruz among others