Trump’s ‘beautiful wall’ is a vanity project and nothing more. Democrats should treat it as such
Once again Congress and the president are flirting with a government shutdown, with funding set to run out for about half of the federal bureaucracy a mere four days before Christmas.
This time the hang-up is President Donald Trump’s demand for billions of dollars for the bigger, longer wall that he promised to build along the nation’s southern border.
Democrats are resisting the demand, and rightly so. As important as border security is, Trump’s proposed “beautiful” wall wouldn’t meaningfully hinder illegal immigration, drug smuggling or any other problem the president cited as a rationale. Illegal border crossings have shrunk during the past two decades, and drugs are smuggled primarily through tunnels or legal entry points.
But this debate isn’t, and never has been, about the best way to secure the border. It’s about the symbolism of the wall.
To Trump, it’s the embodiment of his Fortress America approach to the rest of the world; to the more rational among us, it’s a terrible signal that the world’s greatest superpower has a bunker mentality.
Although compromise is vital to a functional democracy, lawmakers should continue to resist throwing $5 billion worth of tax dollars at what amounts to a vanity project for Trump. What both sides should be focused on is a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. immigration law that addresses the full panoply of issues associated with decades of failed policy.
That’s a huge lift, and Congress simply doesn’t have enough time left in the current session to get there. The president needs to recognize that and stop holding the basic functions of government hostage to his wall ambitions.
— Los Angeles Times
Find out how child was ripped from woman’s arms
A bystander’s cellphone captured the grueling scene that played out Friday: 23-year-old Jazmine Headley lying on the floor, desperately trying to hold onto her 1-year-old baby boy, shouting “They’re hurting my son!”
Police tugged at the child as they arrested Headley and ultimately removed her from a Brooklyn food stamp office.
After waiting nearly two hours for a child care voucher, Headley ignored Human Resources Administration staff requests and sat on the floor. They called in the cavalry. Why?
What could conceivably warrant cops engaging in a tug-of-war with an infant? Not the mere fact that Headley sat where she sat. Not her second supposed offense, arguing with a security guard.
Still, no one should leap to definitive conclusions without knowing exactly what came before the agonizing moments caught on that one camera.
Some of that was recorded on devices that all responding offers were wearing. Their bodycam footage would show us what requests, if any, the officers made and how Headley responded. Whether anyone attempted to de-escalate the situation, and how that went.
Alas, a police union lawsuit claims the release of such video is forbidden under the same state civil rights statute that blocks the public from seeing NYPD disciplinary reports. Outrageous.
Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill, proclaiming the bystander video “very disturbing” promises a full review.
Make it quick, commissioner.
— New York Daily News
