Roskam's 'wild card' in the White House makes plea for immigrant children ring hollow

My congressman Peter Roskam (IL-6) coming out against President Trump's atrocious policy tearing immigrant children from their parents at the border is simply too little, too late. Roskam eyed the racist, xenophobic candidate in 2016, who essentially called all immigrants criminals, and blessed his candidacy. "I do think time is Donald Trump's friend. I think people are saying... alright, I'm ready to hear this guy out, see what he has got to say with the flash and dash aside." Wrong congressman. The flash and dash hasn't been put aside in the 510 days since his inauguration. Everything we hear is scurrilous fear mongering, denigration of the defenseless, and appeals to the worst impulses in a minority base that loathes the 'other' in our society. Roskam knew better in 2016 and he knows better now. But political expediency required his unending obeisance to a man morally unfit to hold office. As long as Trump pushed Roskam's tax giveaway to the rich, Roskam ignored his malevolence.

Peter Roskam mulled the catastrophic spectacle of hysterical children and parents at the border over the Father's Day weekend and decided to appear reasonable. But for his 12 years in Congress he did nothing to solve the immigration crisis and protect millions of dreamers. He vehemently opposed Obama's sensible plan, preposterously claiming immigration was too big for one bill and needed to be addressed in 'chunks'. And the one and only chunk he ever advocated for was enhanced border security. Roskam's epiphany about distraught immigrant kids and their parents has more to due with the winds of change blowing in the Illinois 6th than ever doing the right thing about the most vulnerable in our society.