Donald Trump’s signature issue is immigration. He is, essentially, our Xenophobe-in-Chief.
His first Secretary of Homeland Security was Gen. John Kelly, who is now his Chief of Staff. His Chief of Staff at DHS was Kirstjen Nielsen, who succeeded him at DHS as Secretary.
Trump, who has no compassion at all when somebody working for him disappoints him, erupted in anger at Nielsen in May 2018, and he berated her publicly, and humiliated her, over illegal border crossings. She almost resigned then.
It was Nielsen, who has no children, who implemented the Trump/Sessions-inspired policy of separating children from their parents at our southern border if the parent is trying to cross illegally.
Nobody in Trump’s orbit has any compassion or even concern for migrants fleeing extreme poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatamala, El Salvador, or Mexico.
It’s very dangerous to walk alone across Mexico heading toward the United States, which is why migrants form caravans, for their own protection, and even then it can be dangerous.
There’s another caravan heading toward our southern border right now, and though Trump loves to yell that it’s being supported by Democrats, nothing could be further from the truth. And to shore up his base base, Trump plans to have Defense Secretary James Mattis send troops to the border to prevent migrants from coming in to the land of the free and the home of the brave.
In today’s CNN, Nielsen says that our military has no plans — yet— to shoot at people trying to come in here (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/25/nielsen-trump-white-house-migrant-caravan-941591).
But moments ago, Nielsen told associate solitary reporter Johanna Jones, “Johanna, I gotta keep my job, so I’m gonna tell Mattis to go ahead and shoot, even if his soldiers don’t want to.”
“That way, on November 6, all voters will forget about Trump’s trade war, his failed tax policiies, how he has taken away their medical care, and how he has not done anything to improve their lives.n They’ll just vote for him because they think his border politices are keeping them safe.”
“And he won’t fire me."