Jared Kushner: Trump protects kids by saying it's dangerous to cross the border

Despite glaring evidence to the contrary, Jared Kushner thinks Trump’s cruel border policies actually keep children safer.

On Wednesday, Kushner went on CNN to defend his father-in-law’s racist immigration policy. It’s a policy that recently resulted in the drowning death of an El Salvadoran man, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, and his nearly 2-year-old daughter Valeria, who were killed trying to cross the Rio Grande in order to seek asylum in the United States.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Kushner about his work on immigration. Immigration is just one of the absurdly large number of issues Kushner has theoretically been tasked with, such as fixing the opioid crisis and brokering peace in the Middle East, but hasn’t really accomplished anything on.

Unsurprisingly, Kushner’s answer was not just unsatisfactory — it was downright inhumane.

BLITZER: I’m sure you’ve seen the horrific photo of the father and daughter who drowned crossing the Rio Grande. And you’ve heard about the deplorable conditions for migrant children, that kids don’t have toothpaste, soap, toddlers don’t have diapers. You’re a father, a man of faith. Why isn’t the trump administration doing more to protect the lives of kids?

 

KUSHNER: I don’t think that’s a fair question, Wolf. The president has been very clear about the fact that it’s a very dangerous journey to cross the border. He is trying to get people to cross legally and come into this country in a legal way.

It’s only in the chaotic, terrible world of the Trump administration that a senior adviser could look at a picture of a drowned father and his toddler and declare that Trump is doing the right thing and protecting children.

Kushner also willfully ignores the fact that Ramirez and his daughter drowned crossing the river to seek asylum, not to enter the country illegally.

Before trying to cross the river out of desperation, the family had been waiting in a migrant camp in Mexico for two months trying and failing to get an appointment to make their asylum case to a Trump administration official. The major reason they couldn’t get an appointment is that Trump has severely limited the number of asylum-seekers who can cross ports of entry to make their case.

Trump has repeatedly refused to honor the long-recognized international right of people to seek asylum. In March, more than two dozen parents crossed the border claiming asylum. They were separated from their children and thrown in jail. Attorney General William Barr recently implemented a policy that allows asylum seekers to be detained without bail indefinitely.

Those are the actions Kushner is defending. Those are the actions that Kushner doesn’t think he should even be asked about. He might behave more politely, but underneath it all, he’s just like Trump.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.