Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump unveiled his immigration policy platform over the weekend and it's just as unmoored from humanity as you might expect.
Perhaps most significantly, Trump has joined the last of Republican candidates calling for amending the Constitution to end birthright citizenship under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Trump described his expanded vision of how to secure American borders during a wide-ranging interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," saying that he would push to end the constitutionally protected citizenship rights of children of any family living illegally inside the U.S.
"They have to go," Trump said, adding: "What they're doing, they're having a baby. And then all of a sudden, nobody knows...the baby's here." [...]
"They're illegal," Trump said about families that might face deportation. "You either have a country or not."
You can view Trump's greatest hits here, including the giant wall he will order Mexico to pay for. Somehow.
Trump has mentioned most of the policies listed on his official platform while behind a podium, but one policy listed near the bottom caught my eye.
Refugee program for American children. Increase standards for the admission of refugees and asylum-seekers to crack down on abuses. Use the monies saved on expensive refugee programs to help place American children without parents in safer homes and communities, and to improve community safety in high crime neighborhoods in the United States.
Trump's policy platform demonstrates that his xenophobia does not stop at our southern border. The refugee program he wants to defund provides safe haven for real refugees who've been forced from their homes by war and political violence and, in some cases, those who were forced from their home by conflicts that America caused or participated in.
There are millions of refugees whose unfortunate position could be traced to the same Iraq war many Republican candidates want to relitigate and refight; a war which Jeb Bush recently described as a "pretty good deal."
To some extent, it's arguably our fault and we only provide refuge and asylum to a limited number of people. That limited numbered, however, is too many for Donald Trump and the GOP.
Republicans refusing to accept responsibility for the messes they create is nothing new I suppose.