A federal judge ordered former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to testify in a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrant families who were separated after crossing the southern border under the Trump administration.
The move marks the first instance of officials from the previous administration having to testify in one of several lawsuits filed claiming emotional distress and seeking monetary compensation for prior policies meant to keep people from illegally entering the country.
To be clear, this is the equivalent of robbing a bank with your child at your side and then claiming emotional trauma because your child was taken away for its own protection.
Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore, according to a Washington Post report, has ordered the deposition to be scheduled immediately.
https://twitter.com/mariasacchetti/status/1706762122359894107?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Biden’s Border Crisis Rages, But It’s Trump Officials Who Must Testify
Granted the timing of the ruling to force Trump-era officials to testify about family separations is coincidental, but the news offers quite the contrast against President Joe Biden’s current border crisis, which has consistently broken records and grown exponentially worse with each passing year.
The current fiscal year has seen over 2.3 million illegal immigrant encounters, already surpassing last year’s total. In all, there have been over 7.5 million illegal border crossings and over 1.5 million “gotaways” that escaped into the country since Biden took office.
Political Insider readers have seen several shocking videos in recent days showing illegal immigrants crossing into the United States by the thousands.
https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1706513745126830158?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Perhaps the most amazing dichotomy here is this, however – The Washington Post report states:
The Trump administration separated more than 3,000 children from their parents along the Mexican border in May and June 2018, the official period of the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. More than 5,500 children were separated from theirparents during Donald Trump’s term as president.
Terrible, right? But wait a minute.
Reports from earlier this year indicated that thousands of illegal immigrant children were being forced into illegal labor conditions in part due to the administration insisting they be discharged from shelters and out of federal custody as quickly as possible.
New York Times investigative reporter Hannah Dreier posted on X that the Health and Human Services (HHS) lost contact with over 85,000 “migrant” children between 2021 and March of 2023.
https://twitter.com/hannahdreier/status/1641113390218092545?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“The number of kids the government has been unable to reach since 2021 is knowable,” she wrote. “That number is more than 85,000. And the share of kids who get immediately lost is growing.”
Will Biden officials have to testify about those family separations?
https://twitter.com/RyanGirdusky/status/1706766533756645574?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
HHS whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas testified that the United States government was serving as a “middleman” in an illegal immigrant child trafficking operation.
https://twitter.com/ChuckCallesto/status/1651341125574090757?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Biden: Illegal Immigrants Separated At The Border ‘Deserve’ Payment
President Biden would likely be nodding his head in approval over the lawsuit filed on behalf of illegal immigrants who were the “victims” of family separations.
Biden was asked about compensation for families separated at the border at a press conference in 2021 and angrily insisted that they “deserve” payment for their troubles.
“Now here’s the thing. If in fact because of the outrageous behavior of the last administration, you came across the border, whether it was legal or illegal, and you lost your child,” Biden said.
He then switched to a hostile tone.
“You lost your child. It’s gone,” the President shouted. “You deserve some kind of compensation, no matter what the circumstance.”
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1457338476924391430?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Wall Street Journal at the time had reported that the Biden administration was considering potential $450,000 payments to each illegal immigrant affected by family separations during the Trump administration, claiming the government subjected them to “lasting psychological trauma.”
Negotiations for those settlement payments broke down.
Spokeswoman Dena Iverson said the Justice Department remains “committed to achieving a just resolution for the victims of this abhorrent policy.”
Perhaps they should consider focusing on the current abhorrent policies that are creating a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, both for the illegals invading the border, and the Americans and legal immigrants who are supposed to come first.