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President Trump’s much vaunted address from the Oval Office didn’t have many fireworks . . . unless you listened to the words he actually said. Even though Trump appeared unusually composed and/or stiff, he didn’t stray too far from his usual demonizing immigrants script. (Thank you, Stephen Miller.)

The Xenophobe-in-Chief has proved a master at conflating illegal immigration (which is way down) with asylum claims made by families escaping violence in Central America. Claiming asylum is not illegal, it is a legal process that the United States used to be pretty good at.

Trump’s wall, which his own administration said will be ineffective and easily breached, will be particularly ineffective at stopping people who are applying for asylum. Asylum-seeking families tend to turn themselves in at the border in order to get the process started. Unfortunately, that process has been hampered now by cruel Trump administration policies like “metering” and keeping kids in cold concrete cells with emergency blankets.