Now This News has a new mega-viral video up to attempt to hammer the Trump administration over news stories that children are representing themselves in immigration court (which we’ve already told you happened during the Obama years, too). But Now This takes the FAKE NEWS to a new low and pawns off this reenactment of a court proceeding as real. They do say they people are just actors at the very end in tiny letter, but how many people get all the way through? And how many people just shared it after reading the headline?
Anyway, have a watch:
The Trump administration is forcing children as young as toddlers to represent themselves in immigration courts pic.twitter.com/JTtEAooyQI
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) July 3, 2018
As for the message, yes, children are representing themselves, at times in immigration court proceedings. But this happened during the Obama years and the ACLU even sued to have it stopped.
From the Washington Post in 2016 (who was president again?):
A senior Justice Department official is arguing that 3- and 4-year-olds can learn immigration law well enough to represent themselves in court, staking out an unconventional position in a growing debate over whether immigrant children facing deportation are entitled to taxpayer-funded attorneys.
Jack H. Weil, a longtime immigration judge who is responsible for training other judges, made the assertion in sworn testimony in a deposition in federal court in Seattle. His comments highlighted the plight of thousands of juveniles who are forced to defend themselves each year in immigration court amid a surge of children from Central America who cross the southwestern U.S. border.
“I’ve taught immigration law literally to 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds,” Weil said. “It takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of patience. They get it. It’s not the most efficient, but it can be done.”
Judge Weil, as we told you, was appointed by Obama in 2009.
So, we have a practice that has continued under Trump that Trump is, of course, getting 100% of the blame for. Again.
But does Now This even care? Probably not. They got the blue-check mob up in arms over it:
Thank God this could never happen in the United States Of America. https://t.co/Q5KZrPDkid
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) July 4, 2018
Only a “monster” … Like Barack Obama?
Only a monster would encourage, support, or execute this policy. If no one in the administration can come up with a better f*cking idea than this, the entire government is intellectually and morally bankrupt—from top to bottom—and should be fired immediately for gross negligence. https://t.co/uH75rmoD1l
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 3, 2018
And go to Canada they said!
https://twitter.com/waltshaub/status/1014280985016455168
More blue-check outrage at something Obama did:
But who will think of poor @AlanDersh?
Forcibly separated from his Martha's Vineyard social circle, caged up in his beach home and without basic access to his lawyer friends' cocktail hours. https://t.co/E6277QlzUW
— Zac Petkanas (@Zac_Petkanas) July 3, 2018
If this doesn’t make you ashamed of our joke president and his administration of bully thugs then I don’t know what will. https://t.co/ZP8oB2aBHP
— Meaghan Oppenheimer (@MoppyOpps) July 3, 2018
https://twitter.com/tristanwalker/status/1014204503367639040
This is utterly absurd. https://t.co/5S0NnafcCn
— Soledad O'Brien (@soledadobrien) July 3, 2018
And this, friends, is why our side doesn’t trust the news.
***
Related:
IT HAPPENED AGAIN: Alyssa Milano and Stormy Daniels forgot to check the date (whoops) before commenting on Obama-era immigration outrage https://t.co/vtcIqqfyDI
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 25, 2018
Join the conversation as a VIP Member