| CHILDREN MUST NOT BE ELECTION CASUALTIES
The newly elected 47th president laid his cards on the table this campaign season, plainly telling voters what he wants to do once in office. What he plans to do is dreadful.
Let’s start with the stated Trump objective of mounting the largest expulsion of immigrants ever in American history. We watched the dry run of this policy in the first Trump term where children were separated from their parents and locked in cages. Thousands of them remain orphans to this day.
Trump’s Director of ICE, Tom Holman, who executed the horrors of child separation and is chomping at the bit to get back and run the biggest deportation force “this country has ever seen,” didn’t mince his words. “They ain’t seen shit yet. Wait until 2025.“
Another Trump devotee eager to return is Gene Hamiliton, a counselor to Jeff Sessions who crafted the legal justification for the immoral family separation. Hamilton also authored the chapter in Project 2025 that overtly calls for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice to go after colleges if they are meeting the needs of students of color.
Universal free lunch, which literally fuels children to grow and learn, is on the Project 2025 chopping block. Will a Trump Administration, hostile to federal stands and funding, put that responsibility on the back of local districts where the districts that need food assistance the most have the fewest funds to deliver it?
Candidate Trump championed with gusto his plans to gut public education. He and his inner circle are convinced they have the public on their side, quoting questionable polls saying that nearly half of Americans support eliminating the U.S. Department of Education. Our perspective is the exact opposite. Americans rely on a high-level, dedicated department to maintain the vital services our public schools provide.
Contenders to head the department they plan to shut down include former U.S. Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos, who said she’s only willing to come back if they will let her shut down the department and privatize schools, or Tiffany Justice, one of the co-founders of Moms for Liberty who actively peddles the myth that schools are grooming children to become transgender.
Another likely Cabinet-level pick for the next administration is anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy, Jr., founder of one of the country’s most prominent anti-vaccine groups. Kennedy has long criticized the CDC’s recommended list of childhood immunizations, promoting debunked claims about vaccines’ link to autism. Children who for decades has been protected from horrific communicable illnesses could be forced to suffer at the hands of pseudo-scientists who believe vaccines are the enemy, rather than the diseases they forestall.
Of course, we don’t live in a dictatorship. Congress can thwart the President’s plans and good Republicans and Democrats should join forces to that. State governments also have the power to enact bipartisan policies to minimize damage done in our nation’s capital. We are determined to work across the aisle in D.C. and in Harrisburg to protect children from the barrage of harm planned for them.
It’s up to us to show these lawmakers that, while PA voters cast their ballot for Donald Trump, they are not necessarily in lockstep all of his positions. Rhetoric gets applause on the campaign trail, but people want results. November 5th didn’t magically erase Pennsylvanians’ support of child care, a strong public education, paid family leave, and keeping kids safe and healthy. Our job – together – is to relentlessly remind lawmakers of that or they’ll face the consequences on the next Election Day. |
