THE CRUELTY

The cruelty is the point.

A 12-year-old Bahamian girl was separated from family at a South Florida airport after fleeing the destruction of Hurricane Dorian and was sent by U.S. Customs officials to a Miami Gardens shelter for abused or abandoned children.

Kaytora Paul, 12 — accompanied by her godmother — had flown from Nassau to West Palm Beach Sunday night after being evacuated from the hurricane-ravaged Abaco island. However, when the two landed in Florida, U.S. Customs and Border Protection transferred them over to Miami International Airport and ultimately separated the pair because the woman wasn’t the child’s biological parent, the girl’s mother, Katty Paul, told the Miami Herald Tuesday.

Officials also refused to give the girl’s biological aunt, who had come to pick her up at the airport, custody....

And no, this isn't likely to be rectified quickly:

The mother, although having arrived in Miami on Tuesday, can’t pick her up. Paul was told she had to go through the process of applying to be her daughter’s sponsor with HHS. In order to get custody of her daughter, Paul would have to collect documentation that would prove she’s her mother — like a birth certificate, government identification as well as proof of address. In the past, this process has taken anywhere from weeks to months.

Trump defenders, who routinely overlook the legitimate risks to migrants in their home countries, have argued that migrant family separations are the fault of parents rather than the Trump administration -- if the parents don't want to risk separation from their children, they shouldn't make the journey in the first place.

But what's their argument here? That if the Pauls didn't want this child separated from family, they should have lingered on a devastated island where they have nothing? They shouldn't have been born in a hurricane-prone location in the first place? They should have been born white and European?

Ultimately, I blame Republican voters, because nothing of this nature ever stabs at their conscience.

I know, I know: My intemperate response to this is our real problem. I'm helping to destroy America because I can't disagree with political opponents without being disagreeable. So I guess I'm the bad guy here.