“Where are the kids?”

The federal court’s June 26 ruling was blunt: “The facts set forth before the court portray reactive governance — responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the government’s own making.”

A week later, the US Department of Health and Human Services upped its estimate: the number of children separated from their parents went from 2,300 to “under 3,000” — “about 100” are under the age of five. FIVE.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar (JD, Yale ’91) offered this tone-deaf insight on the family separations: “It’s important to remember that information from children can at times be unreliable.”

He could have added that it’s especially difficult when they’re too young to speak — much less know their parents’ full names — and were separated from their families by an incompetent government that didn’t have readily available the information required to reunite them.

Azar: It’s Not Trump’s Fault — or His

Alex Azar is yet another Trump enabler with a law degree. The cycle is always the same: Refuse to admit that Trump is to blame for anything; lie as necessary to deflect responsibility from the Trump administration to someone or something else.

“Any confusion is due to a broken immigration system and court orders,” Azar told reporters on July 5. “It’s not here.”

The exit of Scott Pruitt (JD, Univ. of Tulsa, ’93) proves that, in the long run, it’s a losing strategy. Eventually, the truth come out, the enablers’ reputations lie in tatters, and the harsh judgment of history awaits.

The Clock Ticks

For Azar, that judgment is imminent. On Thursday, July 5 — the same day he said that the government would meet court deadlines (July 10 for kids under five; July 26 for all other minors) and the reunification “mission would be accomplished” — the Trump administration asked the court for an extension of those deadlines. At a July 6 hearing, more ugly facts emerged about the kids under five:

— 83 children have been mapped with 86 parents; 16 kids have not been mapped with parents. Why not?

— Of the 86 parents, 46 are in ICE custody; 19 have been deported without their kids. How and why?

— Of the 86 parents, another 19 were released from ICE custody. How and why?

— Two of the 86 parents “have been determined to have a criminal history that would make them unfit or a danger, criminal convictions related to child cruelty and kidnapping or rape.” Says who?

How many reunifications have occurred? No one is saying, but if the number was significant, Azar and Trump would be touting it. Bigly.

For too many children, America’s Independence Day 2018 will forever have a special personal meaning: involuntary separation from their parents at the hands of the US government. Some of those kids and their parents will never see each other again. While contemplating the nation’s devolution under Trump and his enablers, let that one sink in.

An Unfortunate List

Meanwhile, add Alex Azar (JD, Yale, ’91)to the growing list of Trump enablers with a law degree.  Here are some of the others:

Jared Kushner (JD/MBA, NYU, ’07)

Mike Pence (JD, Indiana – Robert McKinney School of Law, ’86)

Jeff Sessions (JD, Alabama, ’73)

Don McGahn III (JD, Widener, ’94)

Kellyanne Conway (JD, George Washington, ’92)

Jay Sekulow (JD, Mercer, ’80)

Rudy Giuliani (JD, NYU, ’68)

Emmet Flood (JD, Yale, ’91)

Paul Manafort (JD, Georgetown, ’74)

Reince Priebus (JD, Miami, ’98)

Scott Pruitt (JD, Tulsa, ’93)

Sen. Mitch McConnell (JD, Kentucky, ’67)

Rep.Trey Gowdy (JD, South Carolina, ’89)

Rep. Jim Jordan (JD, Capital, ’01)

…And every other Republican member of Congress who graduated from law school and defers to Trump.

Upon admission to the bar, all lawyers swear an oath to defend the Constitution, uphold the rule of law, and encourage public confidence in the integrity of the legal system. Through acts of omission and commission, Trump’s cadre of enablers with JD’s are helping him undermine these fundamental principles that truly make America great.

Someday, America will be great again.