Sen. Steve Daines and Congressman Greg Gianforte are doing a fine job of trying to stay quiet and confuse their constituents when it comes to the issues of family separation and immigration.
Both men campaigned as Christian family men, yet they remain silent, even as faith leaders from every religion and denomination are speaking against Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ new family separation policy that creates every parent’s nightmare: their children being torn away from them by force. Physicians are speaking against it. Other Republicans are speaking against it.
Even former First Lady Laura Bush is speaking against family separation, but Sen. Daines’s and Rep. Gianforte’s response is, “We need to find out how to stop this.”
Stopping this manufactured crisis is simple. The U.S. government didn’t officially start separating immigrant families as punishment until April 2018. Republicans are in charge of the executive branch, Congress and the Supreme Court. Another memo from Attorney General Sessions or an executive order from President Trump could stop this today, this very hour. Instead, the Trump administration, with the silent assent of Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte, is hiring their crony contractors to set up tents and other structures to create internment camps for children.
This is unconscionable and unless Sen. Daines and Rep. Gianforte stand against family separation soon, they will be remembered as anti-family legislators who ignored their moral and spiritual compasses.
Cherilyn DeVries
Kalispell