Trump’s cruelty knows no bounds.
According to a new report from the Washington Post, Trump has made demented requests for additions to his border wall intended to physically injure any immigrants who attempt to scale it.
Trump requested additions to the physical wall that included matte black paint that would become so hot it burned immigrants’ hands, and pointed spokes at the top that would “inflict pain,” according to the Post‘s Josh Dawsey.
The changes Trump wanted would make the wall even more costly than it already is. As it stands, Trump is trying to steal money to build the wall from already appropriated funds, given that Congress refused to give him the money for the wall.
The fact that Trump is so involved in minute details of what the border wall looks like is bizarre in and of itself, given the countless other important tasks a president ostensibly has to do. But to be barking orders to make it so that the border wall causes bodily harm to immigrants is disturbing.
Of course, cruelty is a feature of Trump’s immigration policies.
He implemented a child separation policy that his administration was warned would traumatize children, all in an effort to deter vulnerable asylum seekers fleeing violence in their country from heading to the U.S. Many of the separated children remain separated from their parents, as the Trump administration so poorly tracked their whereabouts.
He’s housed other asylum seekers in cages that resemble dog kennels and even forced some children to sleep outside on rocks and dirt. Ultimately, four immigrant children, including toddlers, have died under his watch.
In the early days of his administration, Trump also implemented a racist Muslim ban that the Supreme Court bafflingly upheld, and tried to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program — a move that would allow the U.S. to deport people who were brought to the country as children under no fault of their own. The only reason DACA remains in place now is because federal courts ruled that Trump’s decision to end the program was arbitrary.
Trump’s immigration policies are simply beyond the pale.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
