“Remember that nothing is forever, except that you’re a parent.”
— Ivanka Trump, “Women Who Work”
May 8: Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces that a new zero-tolerance policy of prosecuting all those who enter the country illegally may cause families to be separated. Based on statistics released Tuesday by the Trump administration for May 5 to June 9, approximately 65 children are separated from their parents every day.
May 9: About 65 children are separated from their parents.
May 10: About 65 children are separated from their parents. I should not say “are separated.” This is too passive. The children and their parents arrive together, and then U.S. agents mark the children as unaccompanied minors and send them to a detention facility.
May 11: We separate 65 children from their parents. It is like a summer camp, except for the minor detail that you get to go to a summer camp voluntarily and your parents know that is where you are being sent.
May 12: We separate 65 children from their parents.
May 13: We separate 65 children from their parents. It is just like when a parent commits a crime and goes to jail, defenders of the policy suggest. It is just like that, except instead the children are sent to a detention facility all by themselves.
May 14: U.S. agents separate about 65 children from their parents.
May 15: At the border, U.S. agents separate 65 children from their parents, give or take a child. Give or take a child.
May 16: Sixty-five children, more or less, are marked as unaccompanied minors, although they have arrived at the border with parents, and are sent to a detention facility.
May 17: This is not so bad. The 65 children who are taken from their parents today will get to watch television at the facility, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen reassures us.
May 18: Thirty children are taken from their parents, then 35 more. Or maybe yesterday they were lax and only took 50 children away (telling their parents they were going to take baths) and did not bring them back. But if that was true, they must make up for it today, and so today it is 70 children.
May 19: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
May 20: A child is taken from her parents and then a child is taken from his parents and then a child is taken from her parents. This happens 65 times.
May 21: Another 65 children arrive at the border with their parents and are taken away from them.
May 22: As a special surprise, the children taken from their parents today are all child actors! No. They are just children, again.
May 23: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
May 24: On Instagram, Ivanka remembers the time her son came to visit her at the office as her ”#lunchdate” with a #tbt photo. They had chicken and broccoli and walked past the Rose Garden. Also, 65 children are taken from their parents.
May 25: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
May 26: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
May 27: On Instagram, Ivanka holds her son close and presses their foreheads together. “My <3,” she captions this, using an emoji heart. Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
May 28: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
May 29: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
May 30: We take 65 children from their parents.
May 31: We take 65 children from their parents.
June 1: We take 60 children from their parents. Then five more.
June 2: We take 65 children. Their parents are given a piece of paper with a phone number they can call. The phone number is maybe right.
June 3: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
June 4: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents. This is about three small school buses full.
June 5: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents. If we are lucky, they will not be permanently traumatized, but the American Academy of Pediatrics does not think we are lucky.
June 6: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
June 7: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
June 8: Sixty-five children are with their parents and then — they are sent somewhere else, and they do not know when they are going to see their parents again.
June 9: Sixty-five children are taken from their parents.
June 10 to 13: The data only extends through June 9, but if we continue at the same pace, we separate 260 children from their parents from June 10 to June 13. A small elementary school.
June 14: “Happy Birthday, Dad!” Ivanka posts on Instagram. “I love you very much.”
June 15: Ivanka’s daughter gets a photo credit for a picture taken on “date night.” Ivanka is walking across a log in bluejeans and a clean white shirt, smiling a broad smile.
June 16: Again, the data stopped on June 9. It is possible that 65 children were taken from their parents today. Or it could be even more.
June 17: Ivanka wishes “Happy Father’s Day to these two amazing dads” to a picture of Jared Kushner and President Trump low-fiving. In another post, she wishes “my love” a “Happy Father’s Day.” In the accompanying picture, she and Jared stand with all three of their children. Everyone is smiling. No one is crying or screaming. Not where Ivanka can hear, at any rate.
Alexandra Petri | The Washington Post
Alexandra Petri writes the ComPost blog, offering a lighter take on the news and opinions of the day. She is the author of “A Field Guide to Awkward Silences.”
Twitter: @petridishes.