aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 At the height of the family separation crisis, Trump adviser Stephen Miller was paying special attention to a key administration official critical of the policy. That official, Commander Jonathan White of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, was the federal health coordinating official overseeing the emergency response to reunite thousands of children taken from their parents at the border by the Trump administration. “This was the witness HHS sent to the hearing,” Miller wrote about White to then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, sharing a press clipping about White's testimony before Congress. Miller's email to Kelly was part of a raft of emails between Miller and the Department of Justice released recently in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News. What Commander White said directly contradicted the administration's claim that family separations were not harmful to children. Though, if it was up to the administration, he never would have said it. Days earlier, in a key meeting, White had been pressured by Trump administration officials to give a different version of his response, at a secret meeting to prepare for his testimony. Chip Somodevilla/Getty If the judicial branch of the federal government wasn’t keeping the Trump administration busy enough as it struggled to undo its family separation policy, the legislative branch had questions about the Trump-made disaster, too. On a summer Saturday, June 28, 2018, a select group of interagency officials gathered to prepare for a hearing called by the Republican-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee. The committee had called before it five administration officials: Matthew Albence, the executive associate director of enforcement and removal operations for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who had advocated for family separations since the earliest days of the administration; Commander White, who had done the exact opposite and was now in charge of reunification efforts; Carla Provost, the chief of the Border Patrol, whose agents carried out the separations; James McHenry, the director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, representing the Department of Justice, which initiated the zero tolerance policy; and Jennifer Higgins, the associate director of the Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency responsible for asylum claims. They were participating in a “murder board,” what they called a practice session in which they would be peppered with hypothetical questions they would hear from senators. The gathering went about as well as you could expect, given the tension among the officials. Part of the team questioning the soon-to-be witnesses were Katie Waldman, the Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, and her boss, Jonathan Hoffman, the assistant secretary for public affairs at DHS. Hoffman’s counterpart from HHS was also there, Judy Stecker, the assistant secretary for public affairs, as was Brian Stimson, the principal deputy general counsel for the department. The group walked through the lead-up, implementation, and aftermath of the policy. But one question in particular caused the room to explode: Was separation harmful to children? Commander White, who had long warned of the impacts of separation on children, as had the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others, made it clear he believed it was. If asked, he would stick to the scientific facts. Waldman suggested a line that was straight out of the Koch brothers’ climate denial playbook: “There’s no reason to think, or way to know, that separations were harmful to children.” White couldn’t believe it. “I cannot give that answer under oath because it would be perjury.” Stimson, the Health and Human Services lawyer, jumped in. Commander White, he told the DHS flacks, was his “star witness” in the Ms. L. case “and you’re pressuring him to give this answer under oath?” Waldman, Hoffman, Stimson, and Stecker started screaming at one another. After the blowup, Waldman approached Commander White and, as she had done to me on several occasions, used one of her favorite pejoratives. “I’m sure you’re a bleeding heart liberal.” That set Commander White off. “Ms. Waldman, you should save that attitude for journalists. You literally traumatized these kids. Why don’t you go peddle your story to people who don’t work in immigration.” Hoffman, looking out for his department and personal interests, interjected. “Where are your loyalties?” he asked White, using a line that could have come from President Trump. “I swore to protect the Constitution as a commissioned officer of the U.S. Public Health Service. Under oath I’ll answer truthfully,” he shot back. The following Tuesday, he did. At the hearing, ICE’s Matthew Albence described his agency’s family detention facilities as “more like a summer camp,” an absurd comparison by any stretch of the imagination. Senator Richard Blumenthal, the Democrat from Connecticut, asked the five assembled witnesses, sworn under oath, “Did any member of this panel say to anyone, ‘Maybe this isn’t such a good idea’?” The room sat in silence for four seconds, until Blumenthal looked at Commander White, asking him to speak. “During the deliberative process over the previous year, we raised a number of concerns in the ORR program about any policy which would result in family separation,” White admitted, “due to concerns we had about the best interest of the child as well as about whether that would be operationally supportable with the bed capacity we had.” White leaned back in his chair, his hands folded in his lap as Blumenthal responded slowly. “Now, I’m gonna translate that into what I would call layman’s language. You told the administration that kids would suffer as a result. That pain would be inflicted, correct?” As he promised Waldman and Hoffman at the murder board, White didn’t mince words, and he told the truth. “Separation of children from their parents entails significant risk of harm to children.” “Well, it’s traumatic for any child separated from his or her parents,” Blumenthal said as White nodded. “Am I correct? I say that as a parent of four children.” “There’s no question. There’s no question that separation of children from parents entails significant potential for traumatic psychological injury to the child.” Days later, in the early morning hours of August 4, Stephen Miller responded to an email chain about DACA, emailing a Bloomberg article containing that key piece of White's testimony to Kelly, pointing out to the Chief of Staff what Commander White had said: Separately, this was the witness HHS sent to the hearing— "A Trump administration official said Tuesday he warned for months about the potential for harm to migrant children if they were separated from their parents before the administration launched its "zero tolerance" border policy earlier this year. "There is no question that separation of children from parents entails significant potential for traumatic psychological injury to the child," Commander Jonathan White, a Health and Human Services official who led the agency's family reunification efforts, told the Senate Judiciary Committee." Sent from my iPhone Earlier that month, federal Judge Dana Sabraw of United States District Court for the Southern District of California, who ordered the Trump administration to reunite separated families, had spoken glowingly of Commander White from the bench. “The observation I would make is that Commander White is exactly the person that is needed. And I’m very appreciative that you are here, the way you have explained this process. There is no question that you understand the context of this case, the undisputed facts that have led to this difficult situation,” the judge surmised. “The responsibility of the government and HHS to make it right through reunification, in a safe and efficient manner. I have every confidence you are the right person to do this. When I hear your testimony and I look at the plan, it provides a great deal of comfort.” After Miller's email to Kelly, White remained on the job, coordinating the federal response to reunite the thousands of children and parents taken from each other, a task that continues to this day. Katie Waldman, the DHS spokeswoman who pressured White in the murder board session, later left DHS to become the Communications Director for Vice President Mike Pence. She married Stephen Miller in February 2020. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,357 Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 "Katie Waldman, the DHS spokeswoman who pressured White in the murder board session, later left DHS to become the Communications Director for Vice President Mike Pence. She married Stephen Miller in February 2020." Gee what does that say about her? Makes me shudder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj3jordan 2,049 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Does somebody forget that family separation were Obama’s doing? Not Trump? Where were Homer and fitty back then when the cages were built? More hypocrisy. Please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 4, 2020 Author Share Posted August 4, 2020 8 hours ago, jj3jordan said: Does somebody forget that family separation were Obama’s doing? Not Trump? Where were Homer and fitty back then when the cages were built? More hypocrisy. Please. link to obama separating families? yes he started the cages. several on this very board said trump one upped obama. so lets see what ya got. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,357 Posted August 4, 2020 Share Posted August 4, 2020 Obama didn't separate families. The children in question were being trafficked by strangers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexava 6,973 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 9 hours ago, homersapien said: Obama didn't separate families. The children in question were being trafficked by strangers. If some families were separated under the Obama administration it wasn’t policy from him. Trump ((Sessions) actually boasted about the practice. As if they championed it. Then under heat ,started pointing the finger at the previous administration. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj3jordan 2,049 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Families were separated from their children during the Obama administration because it was the law. Families were separated from their children during the Trump administration because it was the law. What about this are you not getting? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 5, 2020 Author Share Posted August 5, 2020 6 hours ago, jj3jordan said: Families were separated from their children during the Obama administration because it was the law. Families were separated from their children during the Trump administration because it was the law. What about this are you not getting? i want a link which is my right on this board. you are no better than the rest of us. cough it up. that is part of the rules............ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdefromtx 3,159 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 3 hours ago, aubiefifty said: i want a link which is my right on this board. you are no better than the rest of us. cough it up. that is part of the rules............ https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=xha6mObG&id=45357DF4218D92237B15282E391CF27650857D4D&thid=OIP.xha6mObGeFbHzkq6Iu1ylgHaKJ&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.comicvine.com%2Fuploads%2Foriginal%2F11116%2F111165443%2F4131288-5091669030-Young.png&exph=3075&expw=2243&q=link&simid=607997464512168537&ck=96A770547BD3166A73EA91CABA3EE131&selectedindex=3&form=EX0023&adlt=demote&shtp=GetUrl&shid=30e9d04c-3046-441b-89c7-2d98a52766d6&shtk=QmF0bWFuIHZzIFlvdW5nIExpbmsgLSBCYXR0bGVzIC0gQ29taWMgVmluZQ%3D%3D&shdk=Rm91bmQgb24gQmluZyBmcm9tIGNvbWljdmluZS5nYW1lc3BvdC5jb20%3D&shhk=iFeb8hgjtP%2F2uGIRKdsclj%2FfrLYuFwBwtpd6aN9yOVs%3D&shth=OSH.sRhTwllHmfUDHrxqYvphZw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 5, 2020 Author Share Posted August 5, 2020 2 hours ago, wdefromtx said: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=xha6mObG&id=45357DF4218D92237B15282E391CF27650857D4D&thid=OIP.xha6mObGeFbHzkq6Iu1ylgHaKJ&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.comicvine.com%2Fuploads%2Foriginal%2F11116%2F111165443%2F4131288-5091669030-Young.png&exph=3075&expw=2243&q=link&simid=607997464512168537&ck=96A770547BD3166A73EA91CABA3EE131&selectedindex=3&form=EX0023&adlt=demote&shtp=GetUrl&shid=30e9d04c-3046-441b-89c7-2d98a52766d6&shtk=QmF0bWFuIHZzIFlvdW5nIExpbmsgLSBCYXR0bGVzIC0gQ29taWMgVmluZQ%3D%3D&shdk=Rm91bmQgb24gQmluZyBmcm9tIGNvbWljdmluZS5nYW1lc3BvdC5jb20%3D&shhk=iFeb8hgjtP%2F2uGIRKdsclj%2FfrLYuFwBwtpd6aN9yOVs%3D&shth=OSH.sRhTwllHmfUDHrxqYvphZw wde i appreciate your help but this was between me and jj as he always flies in and makes some statement without backing it up which is against the rules. he should have to do his own homework just like the rest of us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 5, 2020 Author Share Posted August 5, 2020 2 hours ago, wdefromtx said: https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=xha6mObG&id=45357DF4218D92237B15282E391CF27650857D4D&thid=OIP.xha6mObGeFbHzkq6Iu1ylgHaKJ&mediaurl=https%3A%2F%2Fstatic.comicvine.com%2Fuploads%2Foriginal%2F11116%2F111165443%2F4131288-5091669030-Young.png&exph=3075&expw=2243&q=link&simid=607997464512168537&ck=96A770547BD3166A73EA91CABA3EE131&selectedindex=3&form=EX0023&adlt=demote&shtp=GetUrl&shid=30e9d04c-3046-441b-89c7-2d98a52766d6&shtk=QmF0bWFuIHZzIFlvdW5nIExpbmsgLSBCYXR0bGVzIC0gQ29taWMgVmluZQ%3D%3D&shdk=Rm91bmQgb24gQmluZyBmcm9tIGNvbWljdmluZS5nYW1lc3BvdC5jb20%3D&shhk=iFeb8hgjtP%2F2uGIRKdsclj%2FfrLYuFwBwtpd6aN9yOVs%3D&shth=OSH.sRhTwllHmfUDHrxqYvphZw why are you posting gamer stuff? they separating kids in zelda and links world now? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,357 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 Falsehoods About Family Separations Linger Online By Angelo Fichera Posted on August 27, 2019 Quick Take A viral social media post falsely claims that former President Barack Obama “separated” many more children at the border than President Donald Trump. Full Story The Trump administration announced a new rule on Aug. 21 that would allow the U.S. government to detain immigrant families that illegally cross the border for longer periods of time than currently permitted. It’s the latest attempt by the administration to deter illegal immigration. That rule would keep families detained together, instead of being released pending a court date. And it avoids the issue of children being separated from their parents, which occurred in large numbers last year as a result a Trump administration policy that referred “100 percent of illegal Southwest Border crossings to the Department of Justice for prosecution.” Online, though, misinformation about such separations lingers: One deceptive social media post, shared more than 120,000 times on Facebook, erroneously claims that former President Barack Obama separated many more children than President Donald Trump did. “1900 children separated from parents at border,” the text reads next to a photo of Trump. “Result – Media Frenzy.” Next to a photo of Obama, it reads: “89,000 children separated from parents at border. Result – Silence.” As we’ve written before, there were some separations under the Obama administration, but no blanket policy to prosecute parents and, therefore, separate them from their children. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general released a report in January noting that, “historically” such family “separations were rare and occurred because of circumstances such as the parent’s medical emergency or a determination that the parent was a threat to the child’s safety.” But, the report notes, that changed as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy last spring. The Department of Homeland Security “separated large numbers of alien families, with adults being held in Federal detention while their children were transferred to the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),” according to the report. That report also said the department had “thus far identified 2,737 children in its care at that time who were separated from their parents. However, thousands of children may have been separated during an influx that began in 2017 … and HHS has faced challenges in identifying separated children.” The government is under a court order to identify other children who had been separated, but either way, we know the total far surpasses the 1,900 figure used in the meme. As for the number of children who were separated under Obama, there have been no official figures released — but, as we said, the HHS inspector general noted that such separations were rare. The “89,000” figure used in the meme is similar to previous claims that “90,000” children were separated under Obama — a number the Associated Press last year pointed out may have been incorrectly pulled from a 2016 Senate report. The report said that, since the beginning of fiscal year 2014, the Obama administration had placed “almost 90,000” unaccompanied children “with sponsors in the United States.” At the time, the U.S. was experiencing an influx of unaccompanied children arriving at the border from Central America. The “90,000” figure largely represented children who had arrived at the border without a parent or guardian (though, as we said earlier, there may have been limited cases in which children were separated for the child’s safety). That process for releasing unaccompanied children to sponsors continues. For reference, HHS data show that 133,502 unaccompanied children were released to sponsors during the 36 months between October 2013 and September 2016. The figure for the 33 months from October 2016 to June 2019 (the most recent data available) was 132,340. Amid backlash, Trump ended the widespread practice of family separations through an executive order in June 2018. Court filings show that some separations have continued to occur. The administration’s new rule to detain families until their cases are complete would replace the 1997 Flores settlement agreement, which has limited the circumstances and duration for which children can be detained to about 20 days. The government would be able to use certain Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, which are not licensed by the states, to house families together. Attorneys in the Flores case have already signaled they will challenge the rule; a federal judge in California is expected to determine whether it lives up to the settlement agreement. Editor’s note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to debunk misinformation shared on social media. Our previous stories can be found here. Sources “Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin K. McAleenan on the DHS-HHS Federal Rule on Flores Agreement.” U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 21 Aug 2019. “Attorney General Announces Zero-Tolerance Policy for Criminal Illegal Entry.” Press release, U.S. Department of Justice. 6 Apr 2018. “Attorney General Sessions Delivers Remarks Discussing the Immigration Enforcement Actions of the Trump Administration.” U.S. Department of Justice. 7 May 2018 Gore, D’Angelo. “Trump Blames Own Border Policy on Democrats.” FactCheck.org. 22 May 2018. Herman Peck, Sarah, and Ben Harrington. “The ‘Flores Settlement’ and Alien Families Apprehended at the U.S. Border: Frequently Asked Questions.” Congressional Research Service. 17 Sep 2018. “Remarks by President Trump Before Marine One Departure.” White House. 21 Aug 2019. Robertson, Lori. “Did the Obama Administration Separate Families?” FactCheck.org. 20 Jun 2018. Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Separated Children Placed in Office of Refugee Resettlement Care | OEI-BL-18-00511.” January 2019. Office of Refugee Resettlement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Unaccompanied Alien Children Released to Sponsors By State.” 26 Jul 2019. U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. “Apprehension, Processing, Care, and Custody of Alien Minors and Unaccompanied Alien Children.” Federal Register. 23 Aug 2019. https://www.factcheck.org/2019/08/falsehoods-about-family-separations-linger-online/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wdefromtx 3,159 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 1 hour ago, aubiefifty said: why are you posting gamer stuff? they separating kids in zelda and links world now? That’s Link from Zelda.... You said you wanted a link, you didn’t specify!! 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 5, 2020 Author Share Posted August 5, 2020 6 minutes ago, wdefromtx said: That’s Link from Zelda.... You said you wanted a link, you didn’t specify!! 😉 hey man i was not getting on you at all. i apologize if it sounded like it. and i missed the joke and normally i catch that. thinking outloud here that was pretty epic. i have a friend that just died. chuck knighten of anniston and he was one hell of a singer so i have been distracted. but covid did not get him some blood disease did. and no family was allowed to see him because the hospital was locked down from covid. anyway that was a great joke and i should have known it. i am all about the jokes on here to lighten things up on here sometimes................ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 5, 2020 Author Share Posted August 5, 2020 by the way i have been playing elder scrolls online and it is hard for an old geezer. i am going to play some more in just a few minutes. if you have a safe addy and collect auburn stuff i will send you a tucker frederickson bottle cap from the sixties. just private message me. no pickle pics please.......lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj3jordan 2,049 Posted August 5, 2020 Share Posted August 5, 2020 7 hours ago, aubiefifty said: i want a link which is my right on this board. you are no better than the rest of us. cough it up. that is part of the rules............ Sorry. I won't link an article which is common knowledge for anyone on this board as active as you are. If you dispute my statements above concerning family separations and the law then no amount of linking to any source with satisfy you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,739 Posted August 6, 2020 Author Share Posted August 6, 2020 16 hours ago, jj3jordan said: Sorry. I won't link an article which is common knowledge for anyone on this board as active as you are. If you dispute my statements above concerning family separations and the law then no amount of linking to any source with satisfy you. you never quote anything i have seen. you come in and basically call people liars and then pop out. but the best i can remember you are ok with it but if you refuse to engage within the rules go bug someone else. you are no more privileged than anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jj3jordan 2,049 Posted August 6, 2020 Share Posted August 6, 2020 12 hours ago, aubiefifty said: you never quote anything i have seen. you come in and basically call people liars and then pop out. but the best i can remember you are ok with it but if you refuse to engage within the rules go bug someone else. you are no more privileged than anyone else. Stating that families were separated by both administrations is somehow calling you a liar? I don't see it that way but if you must complain, have at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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