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 U.S. is working very closely with the Government of Thailand to help get all of the children out of the cave and to safety. Very brave and talented people!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2018
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.