On the border, Trump has walled himself off from reality
SAN DIEGO -- Whenever the parties quibble over immigration, things get weird faster than you can say: "Que paso?"
This week, President Trump addressed the nation on border security after hedging on whether to force the issue and holding an off-the-record meeting with television anchors where he admitted, according to reports, that he didn't see the point of his own address.
In their response, Democrats -- who were in favor of border barriers before they were against them -- claimed to care about border security as much as the next party but then sidestepped border enforcement and emphasized what they really care about: ending the government shutdown.
You can't make this stuff up.
During his remarks, Trump called the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border a "humanitarian crisis, a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul."
That's a lot of emoting from someone who, before he ran for president, appeared to give little thought to Latinos, immigrants, or Mexico -- except for the time he told a Venezuelan beauty queen to lose weight. The closest Trump got to Latin America was digging into a taco bowl on Cinco de Mayo.
And now, it seems as if Latinos are all Trump thinks about. We live in his head without a visa. In fact, he wants to save our women and children from being trafficked. Make way for our savior, St. Donald.
If he wants to heal broken hearts and bruised souls, Trump can start by owning up to his inhumane policy of punishing migrants and refugees by kidnapping their children. South of the border, this is a familiar story. Kids are often snatched to encourage parents to pay debts or commit crimes. But, it turns out, the narcoshave nothing on the Trump cartel.
The president packed an hour's worth of fear into about 10 minutes of air time. Although, he didn't offer anything new.
He demanded that House Democrats give him what House GOP budget hawks refused to give him for two years: $5.7 billion to pay for new barriers along a portion of the border. He also wants additional funding for the latest technology, more Border Patrol agents, new immigration judges, and some humanitarian relief to refugees and migrants.
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