An online backlash greeted Ivanka Trump on Sunday, after US President Donald Trump’s daughter tweeted a picture of herself cuddling her two-year-old son at the same time that widespread news reports detailed children being taken from their mothers by US border agents.
The comedian Patton Oswalt was one of thousands to draw a connection between the tweet and the separation of families at the border under policies pursued by the Trump administration.
“Isn’t it the just the best to snuggle your little one — knowing exactly where they are, safe in your arms?” Oswalt wrote. “It’s the best. The BEST. Right, Ivanka? Right?”
Outraged reaction to Ivanka Trump’s tweet included responses by many mothers who asked the first daughter to contemplate being forcibly separated from her child.
“You’re a mother of 3,” wrote a user with the Twitter handle @litbrit. “So am I. Imagine someone in an ICE uniform takes away your precious baby, and you never get to see him or her ever again.”
“This is what’s going on, thanks to your Dad’s policy. DO SOMETHING,” the user added.
Brian Klaas, a fellow at the London School of Economics and former Democratic strategist, wrote: “This is so unbelievably tone deaf, given that public outrage is growing over young kids being forcibly ripped from the arms of their parents at the border — a barbaric policy that Ivanka Trump is complicit in supporting.”
Previously, families suspected of crossing the border illegally were allowed to stay together until their cases were resolved. In early May, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration.
A US Department of Homeland Security official told reporters that “those apprehended will be sent directly to federal court under the custody of the US Marshals Service, and their children will be transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.”
Laura St John of the Florence Project — an Arizona nonprofit that provides legal services to migrant families — on Friday told Chris Hayes of MSNBC that the policy had been in effect for months, directing border agents to separate children as young as one year old from their parents.
In April, a New York Times report concluded that “more than 700 children have been taken from adults claiming to be their parents since October, including more than 100 children under the age of four.”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia