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Alexandra Petri: Appropriate ways of describing what is happening at the border

We know absolutely and clearly what is not happening at the border and the words we must not use to describe it.

Three people have died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody since April. The children who have been separated from their parents are still reeling from the consequences. But it is nothing, if you see what we are saying, like the worst thing that could possibly have happened, and those who suggest this are wrong. It is horrible, but it is not an Unthinkable Horror. It is — thinkable, I think. It must be thinkable.