Thank you for your response. A few things to follow up on:

“Asylum seekers used to be able to cross the border legally at any point, not just at ports of entry.”

https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/refugees-asylum/asylum/obtaining-asylum-united-states

Directly from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: “To obtain asylum through the affirmative asylum process you must be physically present in the United States. You may apply for asylum status regardless of how you arrived in the United States or your current immigration status.”

As part of the zero-tolerance policy, Jeff Sessions has asserted that you can only seek asylum at ports of entry, and even then, as I said before, he has changed what qualifies as justification for asylum.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/sessions-rules-immigrant-victims-of-domestic-violence-cant-always-seek-asylum-1528754063

“Now they are not only being turned away at ports of entry”

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/5/17428640/border-families-asylum-illegal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/national/segments/danger-everywhere-a-honduran-family-is-turned-away-at-the-us-border-and-detained-in-mexico/2018/06/20/339bbbb0-748e-11e8-bda1-18e53a448a14_video.html?utm_term=.90eb90c3bf80

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/litigation/challenging-customs-and-border-protections-unlawful-practice-turning-away-asylum-seekers

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/15/620310589/after-a-2-000-mile-asylum-journey-family-is-turned-away-before-reaching-u-s-soil

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-asylum-seekers-meet-when-they-try-to-cross-legally

“they are being arrested before their due-process asylum interviews and being separated from their children.”

https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-prison-asylum-zero-tolerance-immigration-children/

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/migrant-seeking-asylum-says-his-toddler-was-taken-away-at-the-u-s-border

Yes, Jeff Sessions was attempting to justify enforcing and obeying the laws of the land. In context, the specific enforcement he was speaking about was enforcing arrests at the border that lead to child separating.

This isn’t a “race card.” This is racism, and it is not “devoid of empirical evidence to support such a charge.” When the rhetoric surrounding these migrants is they’re criminals, they’re rapists, these aren’t “our” kids, they’ll “infest,” they’ll overrun, they’ll take your jobs, they’ll ruin our culture, they’ll breed, they’re animals…that’s racism in action. This specific instance of racism isn’t out of the blue, either. Trump and many of the people he surrounds himself with have long histories of racially-charged words and actions.

https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racism-history?utm_campaign=vox.social&utm_medium=social&utm_content=voxdotcom&utm_source=facebook

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/12/02/jeff-sessionss-comments-on-race-for-the-record/?utm_term=.e3bb8372457f

https://rewire.news/article/2018/03/14/time-honest-stephen-miller-whose-radical-vision-u-s-immigration-spreading/

If you look into the reasons why people voted for Trump, the top cited reason was “cultural anxiety.” If you can twist that to mean anything other than racism, I applaud you. There’s a reason Trump’s campaign was built on birtherism and a chant to build a wall.

I, admittedly, don’t know your ethnic background or your experiences thereof, but in general I don’t think it’s the business of people who have not experienced racism themselves to determine what is or isn’t racism. If members of a marginalized people group are telling us that something is racist, it’s not unreasonable to believe them.

As far as “declaring Trump’s faith to be one thing or another,” that is not a “debate outside known facts.” We are known by our fruit. Trump has declared he has no need for confessing his sins because he has no sins to confess. That alone proves no desire to know or seek Christ, which means he is not a Christian. If you can bring yourself to ignore that, everything else he does is a reason to objectively question his faith. The pride he takes in cheating on his wives, his complete inability to be truthful, his sense of greed and gluttony, etc. all would point to a complete misinterpretation of scripture at best. Our faith is seen by our fruit, and not one of Trump’s fruits points to a trust and hope in Christ.

I never said that America should not have immigration laws, but as you said yourself, the laws are cumbersome and outdated. Of all the problems we have in America, undocumented entrants should not be our top priority. Migrants and refugees are proven to commit fewer crimes and contribute more to our economy than most other groups, and they should be treated with respect and dignity. The zero-tolerance policy is inhumane and unjust. Period.

The overall point of my piece was not so much to debate policy itself, although I have enjoyed the respectful discussion with you. The point was to point out the hypocrisy of those who think Trump’s zero-tolerance policy is unjust, but have not seen the lack of justice in his other policies.

Again, thank you for the healthy discussion points. I can always respect someone who disagrees thoughtfully.