The Democrats' proposed Keep Families Together Act reminds us of their ubiquitous use of the term "health care" when they mean abortion.
Why do they do it?
Because "families," in this case, refers to illegal immigrants. The bill would prohibit any immigration enforcement of any adult crossing the Southern border with a child.
Democrats originally introduced the bill last summer in response to President Trump's insistence on immigration enforcement, which was legally separating families who had come across the border illegally. Photos and video of children separated from their parents then were used by Democrats and their national media partners to make viewers forget the illegal aspect of the situation and focus on the issue of families who were separated.
Now, they hope to use the bill in negotiations with the president on any proposal about money for a wall, barrier or funding that might strengthen border enforcement. That's assuming they're willing to negotiate in the first place.
Which brings us to the second place, where Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has said he has no interest in a legislative immigration fix and only wants Trump to bear the burden for any policy change.
So the Keep Families Together Act could be a non-starter, one eliminated by the party that offered it. Currently it is an amendment attached to the Democrats' proposal for funding of the Department of Homeland Security, one of the fiscal 2019 bills involved in the recent partial government shutdown.
But don't imagine for a moment Democrats aren't interested in the legislation or something just like it.
After all, their budget funding proposal - aside from no wall money - provides $847 million less than the president requested for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, $10 million less than the president requested for Border Patrol programs, and much less bed space for adults and migrant children. The bill actually phases the bed space out at the end of 2019.
The bed space won't be needed, Democrats figure, because of the aforementioned "Families" Act, an amendment first introduced by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, and supported by every Senate Democrat.
The idea, of course, is that detained families won't be kept at the border but will be released into the U.S. to await the adults' trial over their illegal entry (and Feinstein's amendment essentially would prevent any arrest within 100 miles of the border). The problem is many of the families - varying from 24 percent to 43 percent in fiscal years 2012 to 2016, according to the U.S. Justice Department - never return for their court proceedings.
None of that worries Democrats because they are delighted for the illegal immigrant families to disappear into the interior of the U.S. Those families, in turn, become population boosters for the creation of more Democratic congressional seats, Democratic ballot harvesters (illegal immigrants who find indifferent legal voters, who allow them to fill out and turn in their election ballots - a phenomenon in California), and social service magnets.
But even worse, according to critics, the Keep Families Together Act encourages trafficking children. Since no illegal immigrant parent has to prove a child belongs to him or her and since "family" border crossings essentially would be catch and release, human traffickers and child kidnapping cartels would have free reign.
We can't imagine that Democrats don't grasp the potential horror that might be perpetrated if such a bill were to become law, but we must recall that the party's entire strategy at the Southern border is based on encouraging people to break the law.
On the other hand, many Americans may have seen this coming. A party (and its president) that would intentionally lie about a government health care plan, unfreeze more than $50 billion to give to a terrorist country in a one-sided nuclear deal and practically endorse infanticide might be willing to do just about anything.
It's why an Electoral College majority of people voted for Trump for president - warts and all - in 2016. Since then the Democratic Party, instead of tacking to the political center (which is actually right of center), has moved well left. When "health care" means abortion and "families" means illegal immigrants, one can guess the party's sadly getting closer to attempting to fool all of the people all of the time.