|
|
Editor's note
|
Many public figures are speaking out against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy that is leading to family separations and child detentions. House Republicans are scrambling to amend proposed immigration bills to include measures to end the practice. After all, Trump has said, only Congress can fix it. However, UC Davis legal scholar Kevin Johnson writes this simply is not the case. In fact, “President Trump has many other policy options available to him that he can implement without any Congressional
action.”
The grim logic of the Trump administration’s family separation policy is that parents will stop migrating to the U.S. if they know their children will be taken away. But women don’t pack their bags, grab their kids, abandon their homes and cross Mexico by foot on a whim. Many Central American refugees are fleeing conflict, extreme violence or targeted persecution. Now these forced migrants have even fewer ways to keep their families safe.
A couple of weeks ago, Bill Clinton released his suspense novel, “The President is Missing,” co-written with James Patterson. It was swiftly panned. As Iowa State historian Stacy A. Cordery notes, Clinton, with his foray into fiction writing, is no different from most ex-presidents. They can’t seem to resist the spotlight – even if, as John Quincy Adams once said, “There is nothing more pathetic in life than a former president.”
|
Danielle Douez
Associate Editor, Politics + Society
|
|
|
Top stories
|
Children at an immigrant family separation protest in Phoenix.
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Kevin Johnson, University of California, Davis
Who's in charge of deciding how immigrants coming over the US-Mexico border are treated? Both Congress and the executive branch have power, a legal scholar explains.
|
The United Nations has called a new Trump administration policy of separating migrant families and detaining children ‘abuse.’
Reuters/Patrick Fallon
Catesby Holmes, The Conversation
Trump hopes migrants won't come if they know their children will be taken away. That grim logic ignores the inescapable dangers that drive thousands of Central Americans to flee their homes each year.
|
Former President Bill Clinton promotes ‘The President is Missing,’ the new novel he wrote with James Patterson, in New York.
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews
Stacy A. Cordery, Iowa State University
What happens to motivated, determined and egotistical men when they are forced to abandon the White House? As John Quincy Adams once said, 'There is nothing more pathetic in life than a former president.'
|
Science + Technology
|
-
Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, Indiana University; Filippo Menczer, Indiana University
Information on social media can be misleading because of biases in three places – the brain, society and algorithms. Scholars are developing ways to identify and display the effects of these biases.
-
Madeline Harms, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Childhood adversity is linked to social and mental health problems later in life. New research suggests brains that aren't as good at recognizing rewards and responding to change may be to blame.
|
|
|
|
|
Trending on site
|
-
Melinda Laituri, Colorado State University
Geospatial data offers a powerful new way to see the world. But these high-tech images can be misleading or incomplete.
-
Jennifer MacCormack, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
Missing a meal can certainly push you toward a bad mood. But new research identifies in what kind of situations hunger is most likely to tip toward hanger.
-
Peter Rutland, Wesleyan University
The Russian leader seems to understand the ability of sport to foment feelings of national pride and enhance his popularity at home.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|