Star Trek actor George Takei imagines that enforcing American immigration laws is somehow the same thing as “slavery.”
Jumping on the bandwagon that the same U.S. immigration laws that have been in place for decades in the United State are now the epitome of evil under President Donald Trump’s administration.
“This nation has a long and tragic history of separating children from their parents, ever since the days of slavery. We must end this practice. It is barbaric,” George Takei said on Monday.
Of course, there is no logical comparison between slavery and U.S. immigration policy, even in the tangential “separation” of kids from their parents. After all, over 150 years ago when slavery was still in practice, families were permanently separated. Today some families are separated but only temporarily detained separately while their immigration status is cleared up. The policy of separating children from adults expanded during Barack Obama’s tenure. His administration separated thousands of children from their parents to deter future illegal immigrant from coming to the U.S.
Further, one of the things often discovered about these children is that they aren’t related to the people dragging them across the treacherous trek to be used as a shield to sneak into the country. Curiously, George Takei does not seem all that upset that the coyotes are buying and selling children.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.