No one can accuse the Trump administration of learning from its mistakes. On Oct. 12, 2018, The Washington Post reported that Trump was considering another family separation policy. When reporter Phil Rucker asked him about it, Trump said that he thinks the initial family separation policy deterred illegal border crossings, so Trump is “looking at everything.”

Everything, that is, except the facts surrounding human tragedies that his policies have already produced.

How Bad Can This Situation Get?

Pretty bad. For example:

— Trump’s government asked a five-year-old child to sign away her rights to a bond hearing that would have reviewed her custody situation.

— Trump’s government is sending children back to their home countries without alerting family members that they’re on the way. A four-year-old was left at a reunification center in Guatemala with no one to pick her up.

— Trump’s government is expanding detention camps for undocumented and unaccompanied migrant teenagers:

“The tent city that the federal government operates at the Tornillo border station about 35 miles southeast of El Paso on the Mexico border was built in June as a temporary home for a few hundred migrant children. Four months later, it has rapidly expanded and has nearly quadrupled in size,” according to The New York Times.

Because the shelter is on federal property, it is not licensed by Texas child welfare officials and does not have to adhere to the same regulations that other traditional migrant youth shelters must follow to maintain their state licensing.

Ripple Effects of a Vile Policy

“Most of the children at Tornillo are waiting for the results of FBI checks on their potential sponsors,” the Times reports “The children cannot be released to the sponsors until fingerprinting and criminal background checks are completed.”

“Indeed, such newly introduced requirements, like the need for sponsors to provide their fingerprints and those of other adults in their households, have delayed even the clearest sponsorship applications, like those brought by parents. Immigration enforcement authorities have also begun using the fingerprints to arrest applicants — most of whom are undocumented immigrants themselves — which has kept some potential sponsors from coming forward.”

Tax Dollars At Work

The Times continues, “Housing children in Tornillo costs about three times as much as placement in a traditional shelter, according to government figures. Mr. [Mark A.] Weber, [a spokesman for] Health and Human Services, could not provide a figure of the total cost to establish and run the tent city. But he said that standard shelter beds cost $250 per day, and temporary emergency shelter beds cost $775 a day.”

The Trump Party on Congress — formerly known as the GOP — remains complicit in what history will mark as one of the great tragedies in modern history. On November 6, the process of redeeming America’s soul must begin.