Me Or Your Lyin' Eyes Edition

 I've taken to putting photos from my camera on my "home screen" on my camera.  If I could, I'd do that with this picture on this blog.  Because this is what we're down to:

We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.

— Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) June 17, 2018

So this doesn't exist:

And this photo of a Border Patrol processing center for children provided by the U.S. Border Patrol isn't what you think it is:

And the 2000 children already separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border?  Well, those parents wanted their children to be taken from them?  Besides, as the President said:

“They look so innocent. They’re not innocent.”

And of course, there's just the record:

On May 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a speech that "If you're smuggling a child, then we're going to prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you, probably, as required by law. If you don't want your child separated, then don't bring them across the border illegally. It's not our fault that somebody does that."

Sessions announced the policy in Scottsdale, Ariz. 

John Kelly backed that up:

Are you in favor of this new move announced by the attorney general early this week that if you cross the border illegally even if you're a mother with your children [we're going] to arrest you? We're going to prosecute you, we're going to send your kids to a juvenile shelter?

The name of the game to a large degree. Let me step back and tell you that the vast majority of the people that move illegally into United States are not bad people. They're not criminals. They're not MS-13. Some of them are not. But they're also not people that would easily assimilate into the United States into our modern society. They're overwhelmingly rural people in the countries they come from – fourth, fifth, sixth grade educations are kind of the norm. They don't speak English, obviously that's a big thing. They don't speak English. They don't integrate well, they don't have skills. They're not bad people. They're coming here for a reason. And I sympathize with the reason. But the laws are the laws. But a big name of the game is deterrence.

Because there's nothing better than using government power to punish adults by using their children as pawns, amirite?  Besides:  "They look so innocent.  They're not innocent."

Oh, and this interview never happened:

"The law says if you cross between the ports of entry you are entering without inspection and that is a crime," [DHS Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen said. "First time is misdemeanor."

"After that it's a felony," she added, "and then it goes on from there. So that hasn't changed; that's the underlying law. Our policy has not changed and that is if you break the law we will refer you for prosecution."

Nielsen clarified that the policy is targeting families who try to illegally cross away from a port of entry. Families who present themselves at a ports of entry can ask for asylum. They will get a "credible fear" interview, and they will not be prosecuted, she said.

They know we can hear them, right?

6 weeks later this is not a "policy" because, well, the shit has hit the fan.  As NPR reported this morning,   even Laura Bush:

I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.

 and Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Franklin Graham (as well as, though NPR didn't note it, the SBC).  And because Trump can never be responsible for anything he does:

Why don’t the Democrats give us the votes to fix the world’s worst immigration laws? Where is the outcry for the killings and crime being caused by gangs and thugs, including MS-13, coming into our country illegally?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2018

Look at that kid in the picture!  She's not innocent!  She's probably coming here to join MS-13!