memeorandum: The Government Has No Plan for Reuniting the Immigrant Families It Is Tearing Apart (Jonathan Blitzer/New Yorker)

2:15 PM ET, June 18, 2018

Top Items:

Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart’ — Laura Bush is a former first lady of the United States. — On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents.

Jonathan Blitzer / New Yorker:

The Government Has No Plan for Reuniting the Immigrant Families It Is Tearing Apart — A few days ago, Emily Kephart, a program coördinator at an immigrant-rights group called Kids in Need of Defense, set out to try to find a six-year-old Guatemalan girl who had been separated from her father …

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:
Trump and the Baby Snatchers

Discussion: Mother Jones, AOL, Outside the Beltway, Boing Boing, The Daily Beast, HuffPost and Econlib

Nick Cumming-Bruce / New York Times:
U.N. Rights Chief Tells U.S. to Stop Taking Migrant Children From Parents

Discussion: The Hill, RedState, Shareblue Media, The Daily Caller, IJR, The Week, Raw Story, Talking Points Memo, Washington Press, Axios, Balloon Juice, twitchy.com and Politico

Amanda McGowan / wgbh.org:
Baker Cancels National Guard Deployment To Border, Citing ‘Inhumane’ Treatment Of Children And Families

Discussion: Breitbart and The Atlantic

Senator Ben Sasse:

Many Nebraskans this weekend asked me about the kids at the border. Here's a short version of what I told them. This is a bit over-simplified, but these are broad brushstrokes of how I understand the situation at present: — 1) Family separation is wicked.

Discussion: RedState, CNBC, AOL, Breitbart, KTLA, The Right Scoop, The Week, New York Magazine, twitchy.com and Balloon Juice

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:
Poll: Republicans Approve of Trump's Family Separation Policy

Nick Visser / HuffPost:
DHS Secretary Claims There's No Family Separation Policy, ‘Period’

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, IJR, Boston Magazine, The Week and MSNBC

James Hohmann / Washington Post:
The Daily 202: Trump team cannot get its story straight on separating migrant families

Discussion: New York Magazine, ABC News and USA Today

Robert Barnes / Washington Post:

Supreme Court sidesteps decision on partisan gerrymandering in rulings on Wisconsin, Maryland cases — The Supreme Court on Monday sidestepped a decision on when partisan gerrymandering goes too far, ruling against the challengers of a Republican-drawn map in Wisconsin and a Democratic redistricting in Maryland.

Discussion: ABC News, The Week and Political Wire

Richard L. Hasen / Slate:

Justice Kennedy Still Won't Rule on Gerrymandering — Justice Hamlet lives. — For years, those who'd like the Supreme Court to rein in partisan gerrymanders have been teeing up cases with various theories to try to get Justice Anthony Kennedy, the swing Justice, to agree that sometimes …

David Siders / Politico:

Shell-shocked Democrats regroup in Wisconsin — Donald Trump's stunning 2016 victory in the state sparked an urgent recovery mission. — OSHKOSH, Wis. — Donald Trump's romp through white, working class America in 2016 was nowhere more traumatic for Democrats than in Wisconsin …

Discussion: ABC News, The Daily Beast and One America News Network

Wall Street Journal:
Supreme Court Sidesteps Major Legal Issues in Gerrymandering Cases

Discussion: Mother Jones

CNN:
Supreme Court sidesteps partisan gerrymandering cases, let maps stand for now

Discussion: Outside the Beltway

New York Times:

Trump Repeats Assertion That Democrats Are to Blame for Separating Children at Border — WASHINGTON — President Trump remained resistant on Monday in the face of growing public outcry over his administration's policy of separating children from their parents at the border …

Discussion: Vox, Talking Points Memo, AOL, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit and Mashable

Nick Miroff / Washington Post:

Facing outcry over family separations, DHS chief says, ‘We will not apologize’ — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pushed back Monday at the growing condemnation of her agency's practice of separating migrant families at the border, telling a gathering of law enforcement officers, “We will not apologize for the job we do.”

Discussion: The Guardian, Roll Call, AOL and El Paso Times

Marc Fortier / NBC10 Boston:

Gov. Charlie Baker Won't Send National Guard to Border, Citing ‘Cruel and Inhumane’ Actions of Trump Administration — Fact Check: Dems Not Responsible for Families Separated at Border — Republican Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker said he will not send the Massachusetts National Guard …

Mark Osborne / ABC News:
Homeland Security chief slams ‘irresponsible’ reports on separation of migrant families

Discussion: Washington Post, ThinkProgress, National Review, Vox and Conservative News Today

Gideon Resnick / The Daily Beast:

Kim Jong Un More Popular Than Pelosi Among Republicans: Exclusive Poll Results … Self-identified Republicans now have a marginally more favorable view of Kim Jong Un than they do for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), according to a new Ipsos poll done exclusively for The Daily Beast.

Discussion: Mediaite, Daily Wire, Hot Air, Patterico's Pontifications and Political Wire

Jim Norman / Gallup:

Satisfaction With U.S. Direction Reaches 12-Year High — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Thirty-eight percent of Americans are satisfied with the way things are going in the United States today, similar to last month's 37% satisfaction rate but marking the numerical high since a 39% reading in September 2005.

Discussion: Townhall, RedState and NTK Network

Dan Alexander / Forbes:

Lies, China And Putin: Solving The Mystery Of Wilbur Ross' Missing Fortune — Amid President Trump's headaches confirming cabinet secretaries, from neophyte Rex Tillerson to conflict-prone Scott Pruitt to unprepared Betsy DeVos, all of whom squeezed through, Wilbur Ross was a tonic.

Quilliam:

Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. Admits It Was Wrong, Apologizes to Quilliam and Maajid Nawaz for Field Guide to Anti-Muslim Extremists, and Agrees to Pay $3.375 Million Settlement — MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA — The Southern Poverty Law Center, Inc. has apologized to Quilliam and its founder Maajid Nawaz …

Discussion: Southern Poverty Law Center, Townhall, Power Line, Popehat, The Daily Caller, Daily Wire and Washington Free Beacon

Jack Crowe / National Review:
SPLC Apologizes, Pays Settlement to Islamic Reformer It Wrongly Labeled ‘Anti-Muslim Extremist’

Discussion: Jihad Watch

The Daily Beast: SPLC Pays $3.3 Million Settlement to Counter-Extremism Group It Called ‘Anti-Muslim’

Dana Branham / Dallas Morning News:

Texas deputy accused of sexually assaulting 4-year-old threatened her mother with deportation, sheriff says — A Texas sheriff's deputy accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl threatened the victim's mother into staying quiet about the assaults, authorities said Sunday.

Discussion: VICE News, Law & Crime and Raw Story

Samantha Schmidt / Washington Post:
Deputy accused of sexually assaulting girl, 4, threatening to have mother deported if she spoke up

Discussion: MySanAntonio.com and The Daily Beast

Erik Ortiz / NBC News: Texas deputy sexually assaulted undocumented immigrant's child, sheriff says

Tal Kopan / CNN:

Exclusive: Trump admin thought family separations would deter immigrants. They haven't. — Washington (CNN)The Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy that has resulted in thousands of family separations at the border hasn't deterred immigrants from trying to enter the country illegally …

Discussion: National Review, The Daily Caller, Raw Story, The Week, Reason, Washington Post and AOL

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

What do Republicans suspect really happened in the FBI Trump-Russia investigation? — The struggle to uncover the FBI's conduct in the Trump-Russia probe has made some congressional investigators deeply suspicious of the bureau. But what do those investigators think the FBI actually …

Discussion: Washington Post, NBC News, ABC News, Towleroad and MSNBC

Washington Examiner:

Don't become the party of Trump — “Complacency is our enemy,” Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna McDaniel wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning. “ Anyone that does not embrace the @realDonaldTrump agenda of making America great again will be making a mistake.”

Stanley B. Greenberg / New York Times: Riling Up the Base May Backfire on Trump

BuzzFeed:

A Top Trump Aide Worked In Libya With Key Backers Of An Alleged “Sex Cult” — Joe Hagin saw Libyan expatriate Basit Igtet as a golden goose. Igtet was more than that. — Reporting From Washington, DC — Joseph Whitehouse Hagin, President Donald Trump's deputy chief of staff for operations …

Michael Hawthorne / Chicago Tribune:

Trump Tower, one of largest users of Chicago River water, has never met EPA rules for protecting fish, records show — A view of Trump International Hotel & Tower from across the Chicago River on June 6, 2018. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) — Fishing piers and floating gardens welcome anglers …

Discussion: Raw Story

Michael Tomasky / The Daily Beast:

Attention, Democrats and Donors: Defend Mueller Now—or Kiss Your Country Goodbye … I Google-Newsed “defending Robert Mueller” just to see what came up and who's been doing it lately. Result? It would appear that the highest-profile defender of the special counsel over the past two weeks …

Trent Baker / Breitbart:

Coulter Warns Trump on Immigration, Border: 'Don't Fall for the Actor Children' — Sunday on Fox News Channel's “The Next Revolution,” conservative commentator and author Ann Coulter advised President Donald Trump not to “fall for the actor children” at the border and cited …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Right Wing Watch, The Week, The Daily Beast and Mediaite

Chris Perez / New York Post:

Trump supporter disrupts De Niro's musical with ‘Keep America Great’ flag — A Trump supporter tried disrupting a performance of the Robert De Niro-directed “A Bronx Tale: The Musical” on Saturday — standing up during the curtain call and displaying a “Keep America Great!” flag toward the audience.

Discussion: Breitbart, Gothamist, The Gateway Pundit, Conservative News Today, The Last Tradition and TheBlaze

Olivia Goldhill / Quartz:

A new study ranks US states in order of psychopathy — Sometimes, it can feel like there are psychopaths everywhere. If you live in the United States, it's now possible to move to less psychopathic environs, thanks to new research ranking 48 contiguous states by psychopathy.