America is a monster right now. It's cruel and stubborn, guided by drunk-guy-at-the-end-of-the-bar thinking.
We've watched these past few months as the stories of children ripped from their parents at the border _ some the children of asylum seekers, some the children of people who entered the country illegally _ have grown in number, from a trickle to a downpour.
We've read about children lost in the system. Babies taken from their mothers' arms. Toddlers asked questions in court they couldn't possibly understand.
And this week, President Donald Trump made clear, in no uncertain terms, how little he cares about this humanitarian crisis he created, and how intentional these slapdash acts of cruelty were.
Asked if he has a solution for reuniting the roughly 3,000 children who were separated from their parents, Trump said: "Well, I have a solution: Tell people not to come to our country illegally. That's the solution. Don't come to our country illegally. Come like other people do. Come legally."
Asked if he was endorsing the punishment of children, Trump said:
"I'm saying this: We have laws. We have borders. Don't come to our country illegally. It's not a good thing."
He's not wrong about laws, of course. The issue of securing America's borders is important, and nobody _ despite dishonest claims by the president and others in a permanent Fox News stupor _ is advocating for open borders.
But to ignore the fact that children are being psychologically tortured because our government willfully took them from their parents as a means of illegal immigration deterrence _ that's several steps beyond heartless.
If America is, as Trump assumes, great again, then why can't we find a better and more humane way to handle this situation? Why does it have to be conducted in a manner that suggests either a complete lack of planning or a willful desire to inflict maximum hurt?
Children have endured monthslong separation from their parents. Some parents have been deported, their child left behind in detention facilities here, and it remains unclear what, if anything, the government plans to do to reunite them, despite a federal judge's ruling that they must be reunited.
Pregnant women have been mistreated, children have been corralled in windowless buildings.
And our president's response is, effectively, "Well, they shouldn't have come here in the first place."
That's garbage. That's the rambling, know-nothing response you expect from your ignorant, trashy cousin, not from the president of the United States.
America _ the once-and-hopefully-future beacon of hope to the world _ is responsible for these separations and for the fallout, much of which shocks anyone who believes children, regardless of where they come from, should never be mistreated.
But America is a monster right now. And that, based on the president's comments, is exactly what Trump wants this country to be.
