Tornado Alley (PROG)

[fuagf]

The most powerful moment of the Whitaker hearing had nothing to do with Mueller

"Whitaker to testify publicly Friday, Judiciary chairman says"

Rep. Pramila Jayapal grilled the acting attorney general about family separation — and he had no answers.

By Aaron Rupar@atrupar Feb 8, 2019, 5:45pm EST

[...]

But as Jayapal mentioned, last month Merkley released a leaked DHS and DOJ memo .. https://medium.com/@SenJeffMerkley/merkley-reveals-secret-trump-administration-plan-to-create-border-crisis-f72a7c3de2bd .. from December 2017 that indicates the department was explicitly considering separating families arriving at the border months before the zero-tolerance policy was implemented.

That memo lists “prosecution of family units” and “separate family units” as among the options the government could use to deter illegal immigration. Upon releasing the memo, Merkley sent a letter to the FBI asking the bureau to open a perjury investigation into Nielsen, who claimed during testimony to the House Judiciary Committee that “we’ve never had a policy of family separation.”

Whitaker’s testimony revealed the hollowness of Trump’s immigration fearmongering

When he wasn’t dodging questions about Mueller, Whitaker repeatedly struggled to justify President Donald Trump’s position that the lack of a border wall along the southern border is a major source of crime in the US.

Under questioning from Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX), Whitaker was unable to cite any data indicating that increased immigration results in increased crime — an assertion at odds with reality.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/8/18217472/matt-whitaker-pramila-jayapal-family-separation-policy