SECONDNEXUS
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George's Reads
Former President Donald Trump campaigned on an insidious immigration platform, painting undocumented immigrants as rapists and terrorists, vowing to build a giant wall at the southern border of the United States—or even a moat filled with alligators.
After his inauguration, many of these brutal promises came to fruition.
Trump instructed his Justice Department to charge all border crossings as criminal offenses, rather than civil ones. This resulted in the even greater overcrowding of unsanitary border facilities, while forcing families into separation.
With the full support of the Republican party, Trump fought to block undocumented immigrants from receiving healthcare and from being counted on the United States Census.
All told, Trump and the GOP fought to treat immigrants as the "animals" Trump said they were, dehumanizing them at every chance.
And in a Monday tweet, Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn seemed to confirm that this was the objective all along.
President Biden has instead emphasized the humane treatment of immigrants, regardless of their legal status.@nytimes https://t.co/5IuyZTXm6x— Senator John Cornyn (@Senator John Cornyn) 1616409671.0
Republicans have scrambled to decry Trump's successor, President Joe Biden, after he reversed a number of Trump-era immigration policies that Republicans say led to a surge of border crossings.
Cornyn was contrasting Biden's immigration stances to those of former Democratic Presidents like Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
People were confused and disturbed that Cornyn appeared to criticize the "humane treatment" of immigrants.
Here is a GOP Senator admitting that he thinks we shouldn’t treat children seeking asylum humanely. Trump complete… https://t.co/jUSZU6nm5o— Julián Castro (@Julián Castro) 1616423874.0
Imagine thinking it’s a bad thing to want to treat all humans humanely... https://t.co/m1ZsllMF2b— Zerlina Maxwell (@Zerlina Maxwell) 1616427729.0
Sitting US Senator says America shouldn't be expected to treat human beings--even terrified children--humanely. https://t.co/Y3in479cCN— Richard Hine (@Richard Hine) 1616429535.0
Yes as international law and the U.S. law requires. In fact, “humane treatment” is the floor of what is required. https://t.co/CwTDFuj64F— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sherrilyn Ifill) 1616422887.0
Republicans oppose "humane treatment." That's a moral crisis for America. https://t.co/USoExa4GBt— Lawrence O'Donnell (@Lawrence O'Donnell) 1616423085.0
Immigrants are people. Therefore, they are human and deserve humane treatment. Shame on you if you think differen… https://t.co/RXEykZED0o— Elisa Cardnell (@Elisa Cardnell) 1616435373.0
Many thought the tweet revealed a lot about Cornyn.
reveals so much about this guy https://t.co/W5f7jXFllj— darth™ (@darth™) 1616421040.0
John was accidentally honest here. The Trump admin had a policy of torturing children as a deterrent to potential i… https://t.co/HKbECkSXks— Josh Marshall (@Josh Marshall) 1616420940.0
Cornyn’s tweet below illustrates how the Trump years moved the Overton Window of the debate far from where we were… https://t.co/BLU8H14jd7— Sam Stein (@Sam Stein) 1616421311.0
Cornyn continues to claim the Biden administration is "incentivizing" illegal border crossings.