July 8, 2018

Trump Says the US Is Trying to Reunite Kids With Their Families

Sorry, not those kids.

Yin Bogu/Xinhua via ZUMA

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This morning, President Donald Trump tweeted that the United States is helping with efforts to reunite families whose children have been separated from them due to heart-wrenching circumstances beyond their control: 

The president, of course, was referring to the all-out effort to rescue a boys’ soccer team that has been stranded inside a flooded cave in Thailand for two weeks. So far, at least four boys have come out of the cave alive. The ambitious rescue is being led by the Thai government. According to CNN, American military personnel are providing support and advice, but are not expected to do rescue dives. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of children who were separated from their families as part of Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy have not been reunited with their families despite a federal court order. And the government has been denying bond to some immigrant parents, prolonging the separation,  “completely disobeying the judge’s order—intentionally,” in the words of one immigration attorney.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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