WHERE ARE THE KIDS? 

Here’s the latest report on what Trump and the complicit GOP mean when they say, “Make America Great Again”:

— Total number of children that the government separated from their families at the border: 2,654

— Children no longer in government custody because they were reunited with parents: 1,616

How about the remaining 1,038?

— Discharged “under other appropriate circumstances” (including kids who helped the government’s statistical count by turning 18 and dropping out of the reunification program): 473

— Still in government custody: 565

Of the 565:

— “Adult presently outside the US” (i.e., US government deported them without their kids): 366

— “Parent indicated a desire against reunification” (includes a “significant number of parents the outside US”): 154

In that final group — “parent indicated a desire against reunification” — the government attempts to bury a multitude of sins. According to the ACLU, the distribution of paperwork to migrant parents in a “coercive and misleading manner” created a chaotic reunification process. In some cases, parents who could not speak or understand English signed documents thinking they were facilitating reunification when, in fact, they were waiving those rights.

And those in the penultimate group — 366 kids with parents “presently outside the US” — are a problem the country, too. According to a recent ACLU filing, some of those parents were misled or coerced into waiving their international human rights to seek asylum in return for assurances that reunification would proceed more quickly. The government then deported them without their kids

The enduring stain remains: The United States of America captured families at the border, took the kids, and deported the parents. We’re 104 days into that hostage crisis.

World history has few parallels to such action by a supposedly civilized nation. They’re not pretty.