Former CIA Director Michael Hayden issued a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump‘s policy of separating migrant children from their families at the southern border on Saturday.
Hayden, a CNN contributor who served as CIA director under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, posted a photo of the infamous Auschwitz concentration camp on Twitter along with the caption, “Other governments have separated mothers and children.”
The Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant children from their families was first weighed when John Kelly served as the homeland security secretary in March 2017, and proposed the move in order to deter migrants from attempting to illegally cross the border.
The idea has been floated in previous administrations too, but according to the New York Times, “for George W. Bush and Barack Obama, the idea of crying children torn from their parents’ arms was simply too inhumane — and too politically perilous — to embrace as policy.”
Even Trump backed off of the policy after Kelly’s public comments on the idea faced a backlash.
That changed recently, per the
But advocates inside the administration, most prominently Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s senior policy adviser, never gave up on the idea. Last month, facing a sharp uptick in illegal border crossings, Mr. Trump ordered a new effort to criminally prosecute anyone who crossed the border unlawfully — with few exceptions for parents traveling with their minor children.And now Mr. Trump faces the consequences. With thousands of children detained in makeshift shelters, his spokesmen this past week had to deny accusations that the administration was acting like Nazis. Even evangelical supporters like Franklin Graham said its policy was “disgraceful.”
Hayden isn’t the first to publicly compare the policy to Nazi Germany. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough did so on Morning Joe Friday, and faced the wrath of the White House press team, which accused him of comparing U.S. law enforcement to Nazis.
[image via screengrab]
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