With Hurricane Florence bearing down on the East Coast, promising to affect 1.7 million people and cause billions of dollars in damage, it has been reported on MSNBC that the Trump administration, already under fire for completely bungling the response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, has diverted $9.8 million away from FEMA to ICE detention facilities, where 471 immigrant children remain separated from their families, thus ensuring that FEMA will face the worst hurricane in decades without crucial funding.
The short-sightedness and cynicism of such a move cannot be overstated. But it is also typical of this president, whose ineptitude and ignorance is Washington’s big secret that everyone knows. And the Republican Party enables his worst instincts.
We need a Congress that puts people before party and can keep Trump in check, and that starts with voting out Jaime Herrera Beutler in November.
Kim Matthews
Kelso
