Trump Says the US Is Trying to Reunite Kids With Their Families

Sorry, not those kids.

Yin Bogu/Xinhua via ZUMA

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This morning, President Donald Trump tweeted that the United States is helping with efforts to reunite families whose children have been separated from them due to heart-wrenching circumstances beyond their control: 

The president, of course, was referring to the all-out effort to rescue a boys’ soccer team that has been stranded inside a flooded cave in Thailand for two weeks. So far, at least four boys have come out of the cave alive. The ambitious rescue is being led by the Thai government. According to CNN, American military personnel are providing support and advice, but are not expected to do rescue dives. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of children who were separated from their families as part of Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy have not been reunited with their families despite a federal court order. And the government has been denying bond to some immigrant parents, prolonging the separation,  “completely disobeying the judge’s order—intentionally,” in the words of one immigration attorney.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

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Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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