A federal judge has approved a settlement to a lawsuit originating in the Trump era that bans for ten years a policy of separating migrant children from their families, like the Trump administration did at an extensive rate under an infamous, quickly abandoned approach. Actually reuniting these family groups has reportedly proven challenging.
“Under the settlement, a policy similar to the one the Trump administration implemented will be banned until December 2031,” Axios reported. That’s after Trump would be back out of office even if he wins in the election next year. The publication notes that the judge’s decision could impact a future Trump administration, though it’s unclear the former president, who’s running again, has explicitly stated he intends to pursue the policy anew if he actually regains the White House late next year. Trump has expressed ambitions of restarting Muslim-targeting travel bans from his earlier time in office, though, potentially indicating his mindset in these areas to an extent sufficient for serious concern.
While out of office, Trump, working in tandem with Republicans — with extensive support for Trump within the latter group, has complained extensively about immigration. Republicans have obsessively characterized the southern border as “open” under the Biden administration, which remains a simply false accusation under any reasonable understanding of the word “open.”
Republicans have also, though, often used rhetoric alleging an “invasion” to describe what’s transpiring at the border — rhetoric that has been connected to mass violence like the El Paso mass shooting in 2019 at a local Wal-Mart. But Republicans have nonetheless kept it up. Proposed articles of impeachment targeting the president and originating with Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) ludicrously alleged that the southern border had fallen under the control of foreign criminal organizations! And some on the Right have called for U.S. military action that would presumably involve targeting of Mexican territory.
