Donald Trump has had some really bad weeks, but this one takes the blue ribbon.  What a disaster.  We have thousands of families torn apart with no apparent plan for reunification and now Trump has thrown his beloved GOP under the bus by saying immigration reform is dead this year.  The House was considering two bills with uncertain fates.

As the Washington Post points out, “the House rejected a hard-line measure, 231 to 193, that would have significantly limited legal immigration and given dreamers only an uncertain reprieve.” The vote on another bill was delayed. That one “would provide $25 billion for Trump’s long-sought border wall.”

Trump is again blaming the Democrats, but in reality 41 Republicans voted against the measure that was proposed yesterday.

These bills aside, there is still a need for immediate action. Remember the kids?  Much of the damage is done. Waiting until November simply isn’t an option for the innocent children caught in the middle of all this. There is some progress, but not much. NBC reports:

“About 500 migrant children of the 2,300 who were separated from their parents at the U.S. border with Mexico have been reunited since May, officials with Department of Homeland Security told NBC News and the Associated Press on Friday.

It was unclear how many of the roughly 500 children were still being detained with their families. Federal agencies were working to set up a centralized reunification process for the remaining separated children and their families at the Port Isabel Detention Center just north of border in Texas, a DHS official told the AP.”

Note: Many skeptics are highly suspicious of this number, especially since the head of Homeland Security has had a bad week with the truth.  Even if  500 have been reunited, what about the other 1700 kids still separated from their parents. There is apparently little to no paperwork on some of the children, no contact information for their parents, no emergency contacts, no way to track them. In some cases, children have been taken thousands of miles away as well. CNN reports:

“The process of reuniting parents and children is so chaotic, even immigrant rights organizations and lawyers are frantically working through a maze of unknowns.

When children are separated at the border, they are designated as “unaccompanied alien children” and sent to facilities in states such as Michigan, New York and South Carolina. In the past, more than 100 shelters in 17 states have housed unaccompanied children.
In some cases, federal officials secretly send the children to city facilities without notifying the local government, as was the case in New York City, making finding them even more complicated.”

There are some stories like this one popping up, but these are few and far between.

And if Trump was hoping immigration would be the issue that keeps a GOP majority in Congress, maybe he should look at the latest polling. From the Daily 202 and The Washington Post.

  • A Gallup poll published Thursday shows that a record-high 75 percent of Americans, including majorities across all party groups, think immigration is a good thing for the U.S., up from 71 percent last year. Just 19 percent of the public considers immigration a bad thing. When asked more specifically about “legal” immigration, 84 percent said it’s a good thing.
  • Perhaps more significantly, Gallup found a record-low number of Americans – only 29 percent – think immigration into the U.S. should be decreased, which has been one of Trump’s core demands to congressional negotiators. A 39 percent plurality think immigration should be kept at its present level, while 28 percent say it should be increased.

Some reporters and lawmakers are finally being allowed to facilities where children are being held.