Me, Or Your Lyin' Eyes Edition, Part II: The Senator from Maine

Wow. This is the private letter @SenatorCollins is sending to her constituents rationalizing Trump's policy of separating children from their families. #mepolitics pic.twitter.com/WmY5ZQYxUQ

— Topher Spiro (@TopherSpiro) June 16, 2018

Collins' argument is that:  a)  Jeff Sessions DID announce a "zero-tolerance" policy in May, but all that announcement meant was that children "could be separated from their children in some cases."  Sessions made no such distinction.  His statement was that those parents were "smuggling" children into the country, and would not be allowed to do that; hence, the policy of separation.

"Smuggling," by the way, means bringing an 8 month old baby with you on a dangerous journey across at least one country (Mexico) and probably at least one other.

She then tries to muddy this issue with the Obama-era issue of children crowding the border, fleeing violence in El Salvador and elsewhere in Central America.  That it is not this situation.   ICE and the Border Patrol are taking children from their parents, using that act to claim the children are "unaccompanied minors" under the law, and dumping them in detention centers like the tent city in Tornillo, Texas.  Detention centers are not placement with "relatives or adult sponsors in the U.S."

Yes, "Our nation's immigration laws must be applied in a manner that is humane, fiscally responsible, and consistent with our American values."  But that isn't happening, hence the controversy about detentions and tent cities.

Even Anthony Scaramucci gets that:

Former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci has become the latest Trump ally to urge the president to bring an end to the policy of separating families at the Mexican border. “[Trump] has to step in there and has to end this thing because I think it is an atrocious policy. It’s inhumane, it’s offensive to the average American. When you think about American values, it does not represent American values.”