From Dreamers, to targeting families who have been in America for decades, to family separation, to family incarceration, Trump’s immigration has had a common thread of ruthlessly going after families.
Last night, Rachel Maddow choked up while reporting on the detainment of babies and toddlers in Texas shelters. Reports describe rooms of “crying preschool-age children in crisis.”
These children didn’t have to be separated from their parents. With one declaration or stroke of a pen, Trump could have simply reversed his own barbaric policy.
Instead, even as his allies in Congress have gone into political panic and forced him to sign another EO, he is continuing his punitive war on immigrant families through family incarceration.
“We’ve got to be keeping families together,” Trump said earlier today, before he signed an executive order that will call for families to be kept in indefinite incarceration.
Locking up entire families is not a solution. Keeping children in cages—even with their parents—is not a solution.
COSTS OF CORRUPTION: HEALTH CARE EDITION
You may think you already know the costs of the corrupt tax bill passed by Trump’s allies in Congress. $1.9 trillion in debt, which they are already trying to pay for with Medicare cuts. Almost 8 million middle class families seeing tax hikes this year, and tens of millions more later on.
But a new CAP Action analysis illustrates the real consequences of the tax scam, which was paid for in part by sabotaging the Affordable Care Act and causing higher premiums:
- The national average tax cut for middle- and working-class families is $680.
- The national average health care premium increase for a family of four will rise by $1990 in 2019 alone, thanks to the tax bill’s repeal of the individual mandate.
Trump is sacrificing American health care to line the pockets of the 1%, including many of the very members of Congress who voted for the tax bill in the first place—and, of course, the President himself.
BIG PROGRESSIVE IDEA: BEYOND TUITION
Progressive candidates around the country understand that affordable and accessible higher education is key. The Center for American Progress has some ideas on how to achieve that goal.
Beyond Tuition is a sweeping progressive vision for affordable, high-quality postsecondary education for all and reducing the burden of student debt. This initiative is a commitment to making a quality college education affordable for everyone by making it free for low-income students and ensuring middle class students leave college debt free.
Equity is imperative. Beyond Tuition emphasizes the need to overcome widespread inequity in opportunity and outcomes for students of color, those from low-income backgrounds, and other marginalized identities.
- 60% of students are forced to borrow to pay for college. For African American students, that number is nearly 80%.
- Around one-fifth of the U.S. population owes a collective $1.5 trillion in federal education debt.
- Less than half of adults aged 25 to 34 have at least an associate’s degree. Only 35% of black and 28% of Latino Americans have an associate’s degree.
With Betsy DeVos at the helm of the Department of Education and Trump’s #CultureOfCorruption running rampant through Washington, it’s vital to hold institutions accountable. Beyond Tuition has ideas for that, too.
To learn more, you can check out the report here.