Donald Trump has capriciously cut benefits to refugee children under the care of the American government. This is the kind of thing Trump is used to doing in order to make it less appealing to seek refugee status in the United States. However, no matter what Trump and his sycophantic clique of enablers believe (Steven Miller), such activities are not only reprehensible, they are also illegal.
While the United States has not ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the US is signatory to the agreement. Among the enumeration of rights given to children, regardless of nationality, race or creed, is the right, under Article 9, for children not to be indiscriminately separated from their parents. The benefits, including leisure activities that were cut by Trump, are protected under article 31 of the convention, which states that children have a right to engage in age-appropriate leisure activities. This isn’t just a suggestion, it is the opinion of child advocates who rightly say that children need to participate in leisure activities for their normal development.
Trump is further traumatizing children who might find solace in any of the activities that help them forget that they have been separated from their families. It is cruel and unusual punishment to treat children this way. It is time to pepper the Christian fundamentalists with the question of what Jesus (a child refugee in Egypt) would do.
Impeachment as a solution
Trump believes himself to be above the law. He is helped by the fact that most people back down from the confrontations he creates in order to get what he wants. Or at least create the impression that he is the master negotiator. Nancy Pelosi is wrong in waiting to pursue articles of impeachment against Trump. Even if she admits that she wants to see Trump behind bars. An excellent case can be made that Trump will only be stopped through impeachment and that anything short of that will ensure his re-election. Even without the results of the Mueller report, Trump has broken US law, as in the case of his treatment of refugees.
The time for impeachment is now. It does not matter that Mitch McConnell owns the Senate. He and his satraps will have to answer in the next election cycle about their coddling of a lawless President. Impeachment will set the stage and the tone of the campaign. Impeachment will weaken Trump even if he is not convicted in the Senate.
Voters should be presented with the choice of continuing the lawlessness perpetrated by Trump, or return the United States to the rule of law. Even if there is no popular support for impeachment, it is the role of the House of Representatives to bring articles of impeachment when a President has so clearly violated not just basic human norms, but the rule of law. The American public is smart enough to know not to vote for Trump after the impeachment process shows him to have committed high crimes and misdemeanors.