Racist Policy

Send me your tired, your poor.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
-- Verse on the Statue of Liberty

   There is no other word for it. The policy of the Trump administration in breaking up families as they seek asylum on America's southern border is racist.
   Mothers are arrested  and deported, while their children -- including infants and toddlers -- are placed in government facilities. Moreover, no one knows how or if the children will be able to contact their parents. In fact, the senior federal official in charge of the operation doesn't even know where the children are. But reporters know, and cameras show it.
    Meanwhile, the Republican president insists that he is only following a law, and blames Democrats for having perpetrated said law. This is particularly odd, as experts point out that no such law exists that requires the breakup of families at border crossings. It is this administration's policy, and can be changed instantly by a telephone call from the president.
   And even if there were such a law, Republicans control both houses of Congress and could easily approve a change that the Republican president could quickly sign.
   But no. The administration continues to break up families under the guise of "protecting national security." From whom? Weeping children locked in cages after they are snatched from their mothers' arms?
   Oh, wait. They're not in "cages," goes the defense. They are in "fenced enclosures."
   Meanwhile, television news displays pictures of children weeping, separated from their mothers and locked in "fenced enclosures" as their mothers are sent to other states or deported.
   There is a law against illegal border crossings. But when women and children walk up to border facilities and ask for help in reaching safety, that is not illegal, nor is it a border crossing, nor are they threats to national security.
   To arrest the mothers and deport them while keeping the children is unconscionable, outrageous, unconstitutional, illegal, vicious and, yes, racist.
   Trump has slammed shut the Golden Door.