In signing an executive order on Wednesday that he said would end the indefinite separation and detention of undocumented migrant families, President Donald Trump claimed the United States would have "strong borders, but we are going to keep families together."
Thus did the president reverse himself twice during the signing ceremony.
Michael LoftinFor weeks his attorney general and secretary of homeland security had echoed Trump's false claim that it was up to Congress to end the division of families.
And why? Because "you can't do it through an executive order." That was mere days before signing an order he claimed would do just that.
The signing ceremony was of course political theater because it diverted attention away from two looming obstacles to the White House's "solution."
As The New York Times reported Thursday, "ending the practice of separating families still faces legal and practical obstacles."
The administration will have to persuade a federal judge to approve its authority to hold families in custody for more than 20 days, the current limit.
Worse, Trump's signature "does nothing to address the plight of more than 2,400 children already separated from their parents under the president's 'zero tolerance' policy."
Some parents have already been deported without their children, according to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Try to think about the parents' mental state as they are traveling back to wherever - without their children and witgh no idea where they may be. There could hardly be a more malevolent weapon deployed against people, many of whom are seeking asylum from gang violence.
Hundreds of children separated from their parents are said to be warehoused in detention centers in Texas but also in other states, including New York and Washington. That is part of the administration's program of, well, call it what it is: child abuse. Taking toddlers and infants into custody at ages when they are still "bonding" with their parents is indescribably cruel. Child psychologists would likely argue it exposes the children to trauma with potentially years of side-effects.
Could it get worse? Sure. Huffington Post reported Thursday that the government "has admitted it has no concrete strategy to ensure that mothers and fathers can find their kids."
Immigration lawyers can help but their effectiveness is obviously limited by the administration's decision to put into effect such an obscenely flawed plan.
Reuniting parents with their children should be possible after the former's court hearings. By then, however, according to immigration lawyer Jodi Goodwin, the children have been transferred to longer-term facilities and are in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement - an Orwellian title if ever there was one.
Given the criticism of the "zero tolerance" program by several evangelical organizations, biblical quotations about the program were probably inevitable. Attorney General Jeff Sessions - the loyal nail to President Trump's hammer - cited the Romans 13:1 advice to obey "governing authorities." It is reasonable to assume that hardly any of the parents, and certainly none of the children, are familiar with that passage.
But then there is Matthew 19:14 where Jesus gently reprimanded disciples who'd rebuked parents for bringing their children to him for prayer, telling them, "Suffer [the] little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me ." (King James Version).
But add a comma to part of that verse and you get a damning indictment of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" program: "Suffer, little children."
Michael Loftin is a former opinion page editor of The Chattanooga Times.