Trump’s showdown with liberal democracy continues. Trump received pushback from his separate-families-at-the-border policy, intended to punish and deter asylum seekers. He came up with something worse: Hostage Taking.
Thus under the new policy, the government is kidnapping the children & holding them as hostages until the parents agree to leave the country, offering parents a cruel choice: Separate from their kids, or return with their children to danger.
This policy is a violation of international treaties, international criminal law, and United States law. It is also, as @KamalaHarrissaid, unconscionable.
[To continue reading, view here as a Twitter thread]
8 USC 1203(a), hostage taking, is detaining or threatening to detain a person to compel a third person (or government organization) to do or not do a thing as a condition for release. It carries up to a life sentence. https://twitter.com/Delavegalaw/status/1011408577091817472 …h/t@Delavegalaw
