JD Vance, esteemed Senator from Ohio and highly likely running mate to Donald J. Trump, has always unyieldingly spoken in favor of strict immigration policies. In a recent appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press, he intentionally left some questions open-ended pertaining to the potential future of Trump’s comprehensive immigration plan. The host, Kristen Welker, queried Vance thrice about the possibility of family separations under this alleged plan. Yet, Vance, choosing not to forecast specifics prematurely, didn’t give a definitive response to any of her queries.
Instead, Senator Vance used the opportunity to bring to light the inadequacies of Vice President Kamala Harris in managing the country’s ongoing immigration crisis. He disputed the widely circulating notion that she has been appointed as the ‘border czar’, an assertion that largely continues to be endorsed uncritically in the mainstream media.
Senator Vance passionately highlighted that the issue currently plaguing American borders is due to Harris’s insufficient response as the person tasked to address ‘root causes’ of migration. Vance pointed out that despite her supposed role, there has been a massive increase in illegal immigrants since Harris assumed her position involved with immigration.
Kristen Welker promptly attempted to correct the Senator by asserting that Harris was put in charge of tackling the root drivers of migration, rather than the border crisis itself. Senator Vance, however, held his ground, reiterating that the root cause of migration today is Harris’s alleged reluctance to perform her duties adequately.
The Vice President had been specifically tasked with addressing the root causes of migration from Central America to the United States. The complexity of these drivers, ranging from geopolitical tensions to country-specific dynamics, has led to a disheartening surge in immigration. The current situation is a consequence of decades of complex politics and long-standing immigration issues.
However, some critics argue that Harris has been incorrectly labeled as the ‘border czar’. According to these critics, the responsibility for the border largely falls on the secretary of homeland security, not the Vice President. Also, the current head of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, has been unjustly accused by some factions of enabling ‘open borders’.
As the interview progressed, Welker pressed Vance on the speculation about family separations under a possible second Trump administration. In response, Vance cleverly shifted the focus towards the current Biden-Harris administration, suggesting that family separations were already taking place under their watch.
Although it hasn’t been clarified by representatives of Vice President Harris, it’s expected that these unfortunate separations occur because of parental criminal activities. These situations are decidedly not comparable to any ‘zero tolerance policy’ allegedly implemented by the Trump administration years ago.
The controversial decision to separate families under the Trump administration has been widely misinterpreted and is often ignored that the policy was terminated by an executive order a month after its implementation. The unfavorable evidence of the separation policy’s continuity is more a consequence of a bureaucratic quagmire and less of a deliberately inhuman approach.
Unexpected public outcry steered Trump to issue an executive order, planned to end the policy just a month after its inception. However, legal hurdles left many families in a state of uncertainty.
The controversial policy was fully rescinded later in December 2023 when a judge in San Diego approved a settlement. It is worth noting that family separations at migration sites were portrayed as ‘one of the most shameful chapters in American history’, a view certainly not held by all but quite vocal in some sections of the society.
In 2021, upon the establishment of a task force by the Biden administration, an estimation showed that about 3,924 children had been separated under the Trump administration. Federal officials reported that the average age of these children was nine years, with more than a quarter of them being under five. However, this statistic doesn’t necessarily indicate a systemic policy, rather it depicts a crisis situation in desperate need of resolution.
As of recently, around a thousand children reportedly still remain separated from their parents. Yet, contextual facts like these often tend to get overlooked amidst mainstream media’s Trump administration narratives.
During the same interview on Meet the Press, Senator Vance sought to clarify his recent comments made about ‘childless cat ladies’. He asserted that his comments were actually a criticism of government policies that, according to him, are increasingly against families.
Senator Vance lamented, ‘There has been a remarkable shift in our country towards being anti-family’. He passionately voiced his craving for a potential change in this narrative. Oddly, some critics are unable to differentiate between administrative attempts to curb illegal immigration, and being ‘anti-family’.
In sum, the arc of the conversation shifted from the potential of family separations under a hypothetical second Trump administration towards greater problems already persistent under the Biden-Harris administration. It seems these aspects of the conversation were determined by the skillful deflection of Senator Vance and his undeterred commitment to uphold his and Trump’s principled stance on immigration.