and so they re being presented with this very difficult choice where they have to decide do they see their child again or do they allow their child to stay here and continue their asylum case. and in many cases does the parent try to stay in the united states so that his or her own asylum case can continue. so it s really been this pressure put on these parents to try to leave the country as quickly as possible, because as we know, the thing that this administration has been trying to deter and crack down on through all of these policies, whether it s separation or prolonged detention, is fast claiming asylum. and this is the latest iteration of that. i cannot repeat enough times, the claiming of asylum is an international right. it is not actually a crime. there are certain things in the process of trying to get to the united states that may be a misdemeanor crime. but the act of seeking asylum is not actually a criminal offense. the president is enjoying the idea that he s taking a
i keep saying to them, look, there is is no way out of this crisis but through. we are going to organize our way out of it and it starts tomorrow. and it s important to remind people there is no offense in seeking asylum, crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor crime for which you would never round people up or separate them or imprison them. it s important to get that fact out. nobody in these camps has committed a crime. let s just talk about something else. but it s visceral to see children separated from their parents. it s visceral to understand that people can t come here because of a ban because of their religion. it s visceral to understand that being gay is not does not afford you the same rights as everyone else. it s visceral to understand abortion rights. that s right. it s not as visceral to discuss the appointment of a supreme court justice but it s way more important than all of these topics. i mean, it s critically important. and what i m seeing right n
this crisis but through. we are going to organize our way out of it and it starts tomorrow. and it s important to remind people there is no offense in seeking asylum, crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor crime for which you would never round people up or separate them. nobody in these camps has committed a crime. but it s visceral to see children separated from their parents. it s visceral to understand that people can t come here because of a ban because of their religion. it s visceral to understand that being gay is not does not afford you the same rights as everyone else. it s visceral to understand abortion rights. it s not as visceral to discuss the appointment of a supreme court justice but it s way more important than all of these topics. i mean, it s critically important and what i m seeing right now is that the explosive grass-roots energy that we are
outrage, i keep saying look which there is no way out of this crisis but through. we are going to organize our way out of it and it starts tomorrow. and it s important to remind people there is no fioffense in seeking asylum, crossing the border illegally is a misdemeanor crime for which you would never round people up or separate them. nobody in these camps has committed a crime. but it s visceral to see children separated from their parents. it s visceral to understand that people can t come here because of a ban because of their religion. it s visceral to understand that being gay is not does not afford you the same rights as everyone else. it s visceral to understand abortion rights. it s not as visceral to discuss the appointment of a supreme court justice but it s way more important than all of these topics. i mean, it s critically
saw, 60 to 70 defendants sitting waiting to enter their plea of guilty and be sentenced. that backlog, that bursting docket is the result of strict enforcement of the misdemeanor entry into the cup. when you enforce that crime strictly, what you end up with is a huge list of defendants being prosecuted then let s say the judge sentences them to time serves, ten days or 30 days after which what are we doing? exactly what we would have done had we not referred them for criminal prosecution, which is remove them from the country. in other words, we are seeing by prosecuting all these folks we are adding to the docket. we are adding to our costs of housing these people while we punish them. at the end of which we simply do what we would have done anyway, give then to customs and send them back to their countries. danny, the act of crossing the border not legally, as donald trump would say, coming in noted a a border crossing that is a misdemeanor crime in america? it is a misdemeanor.