Entering a country without a passport, visa or some form of documentation is REQUIRED, Everywhere. Otherwise, it is ILLEGAL. Adults who put their children at risk should have the children taken away; some are props. Responsibility means you do things logically, safely, rationally and most of all you obey the laws. These people don't seem to understand there are consequences for their actions. I don't believe they are ignorant or stupid but want to get here to get something for free; have an anchor baby. They don't want to speak english, work, most go on welfare and drain the working people of resources.
I am not opposed to immigrants but am opposed to those who know the rules, laws and still have no respect for what this country stands for or cares about what is given up for them to illegally be here. We pay for them and get nothing in return. The school system is destroyed, already have American homeless and veterans on the streets and yet they expect to be treated as citizens. When ALL AMERICANS have jobs, homes, education then we can allow legal immigrants into this country. There is a huge burden on the lower and middle class and especially seniors who live alone or are ill in this country. THEY NEED HELP FIRST! Not illegal immigrants. The heart may say something else but reality needs to be first in that equation. The world is not always fair and everyone is not equal even though we want to believe that.
3
The Los Angeles Times is reporting the case of a father who fled risk of death in Guatemala with his six year old son. They legally crossed at El Paso on May 28 and requested asylum.
The authorities incarcerated the father and shipped the son to a NY state detention facility that has several hundred children.
The father is now confined in Los Angeles. After 25 days, he was allowed a phone call to son. The boy asked his father, " Don't you love me anymore"?
US officials intend to let the father have a hearing with ICE in OCTOBER!!
8
This article seems to be written by reporters living in the alternate Trump universe in which all is well. In fact, judge handling the case was very angry with the ineptitude of HHS and DHS and asked the ACLU to come up with penalties if the stalling continued. The "tender age" children separated from their parents have suffered lasting harm and their parents have suffered as well
8
The Michigan radio stations are reporting that many of these children have been sent to Michigan. The state law requires that underage children without legal guardians in the state must become wards of child protective services. So it is straining that part of the state budget. And officials have no idea where the parents are, and cannot get answers.
7
Who let's idiots run this process, now the parents are rapists. Just how were these parents determined to be criminals?--HHS couldn't figure out how to keep track of the Parent/Child connection but on reunification we are to believe they miraculously retrieved all criminal records. Not believable these idiots turned into geniuses---tactic to keep the kids.
5
THE US HAS NOW INCURRED The debt of providing therapy and compensation for the torture the children and their families suffered due to the illegal, inhumane, shameful abuse they survived. There will be a certain number of families where the emotional trauma is minimal. But they may still stuffer from delayed onset of symptoms of Post Traumatic Shock Disorder as a result of the TORTURE they and their children survived.
7
The first repurposed Walmart and next repurposed big box stores were opened for detention business in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
"On Fox News Sunday, former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that under the Barack Obama administration, they did detain some children alone and some families together, two policies for which Donald Trump has been widely blamed.
"Johnson told host Chris Wallace that they "thought it was necessary at the time," and that it is still is.
"Without a doubt the images, and the reality, from 2014, just like 2018, are not pretty," Johnson said. "We expanded it, I freely admit it was controversial, we believed it was necessary at the time, I still believe it is necessary to remain a certain capability for families."
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/obama_dhs_sec_jeh_joh...
1
I wish more Americans would travel a few miles away from their affluent neighborhoods and see how other Americans live.
Perhaps Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Washington D. C. and other large cities could show you people who need help, who need better schools, safer neighborhoods, tutors, etc.
6
Actually under Trump and Sessions, we have been ignoring our own laws and treaties, and asylum seekers who entered legally have been detained and had their children taken from them. That part is new.
5
You are correct in part - the Trump administration made the decision to put parents who entered the country illegally in jail and put their children in detention centers.
But according to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson, the Obama administration separated parents and children, although Sec. Johnson said when he learned it was being done he ordered that it be stopped.
In order to learn, one must keep an open mind - and learn from more than one source.
You don't have to believe me that the Obama administration did separate parents and children, nor do you have to believe me that the Obama administration leased big box stores and converted them into detention centers, beginning in 2014.
But perhaps you will believe the words of Jeh Johnson. If you do have an open mind, you will trust and verify. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/obama_dhs_sec_jeh_joh...
Canada has very strict immigration laws. Canada requires prospective immigrants who can prove they can support themselves and their families: see below from Canada's website:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/come-...
"Do you want to work, study, visit, travel through or live permanently in Canada?
"Answer a few questions to find out what immigration programs you can apply for. Each immigration program has different application and eligibility requirements. You will need about 10-15 minutes to complete the form.
"You may be asked questions about your:
nationality
age
language ability
family members
education
work experience
income and/or net worth
details on any job offer
"Based on your answers, we will tell you what programs you may be eligible for, so be as accurate as you can.
"If you are eligible, we will give you a detailed list of instructions on what to do next."
If you look back at articles about this wave of migrants, you will see pictures of people, some with their children, who are waiting on review of their applications for asylum.
The people who were arrested did not apply for asylum. They crossed the border illegally and were thus arrested.
The arrests and keeping of children and families in detention centers has been since as early as 2014, when big-box stores were leased and used by our immigration authorities to house illegal immigrants.
Google Jeh Johnson interview by Chris Wallace to confirm that this has been an ongoing process.
6
Obama's administration didn't lose track of which children belonged with which adults.
This is a new low to need to do DNA testing to rematch the children and parents or grandparents.
4
None of this had to happen if these mothers hadn't brought their children illegally into the U.S. They had plenty of opportunity to seek asylum prior to getting to the U.S. border.
7
Actually, some asylum seekers were prevented from approaching to identify themselves as such. The problem here is that our government implemented a policy that had profound implications for the health of children and gave no thought to how to mitigate the effects. Not thinking about the next step and the step after that is not unique to this administration, but it seems to be getting worse the longer Trump is occupying the White House.
1
Now is the time for all good WOMEN to come to the aid of their Country.
No excuses: Vote in November. Vote them ALL out.
5
We need a common-sense policy on immigration. I suggest looking to the past for immigration reform, to the Clinton administration.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton appointed Barbara Jordan (D-Tx) to head up the Commission on Immigration Reform. He also honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom that same year. Read her words:
“Immigrants with relatively low education and skills may compete for jobs and public services with the most vulnerable of Americans, particularly those who are unemployed or underemployed. Jobs generated by immigrant businesses do not always address this problem.” – June 28, 1995
“Immigration policy must protect U.S. workers against unfair competition from foreign workers, with an appropriately higher level of protection to the most vulnerable in our society”– June 28, 1995
“The Commission is particularly concerned about the impact of immigration on the most disadvantaged within our already resident society – inner city youth, racial and ethnic minorities, and recent immigrants who have not yet adjusted to life in the U.S.”
It's about jobs. It's about survival by black and white and ivory and brown families who have been here for years, for centuries, who take pride in being self-supporting. It's about fairness.
6
When you hire someone who has no administrative experience, lacks impulse control, and is motivated by hate and greed, you can expect the type of job performance that we have seen - a huge waste of public funds, a huge embarrassment internationally, and a cruelty that is not consistent with decency.
Why do we tolerate this?
10
Please! This government does not care about "acting in good faith." How can you watch their actions and say something so very naive?
They grabbed peoples children. They LOST peoples children. These children were treated poorly. They took very young children to immigration court after incarcerating them. The trauma could last their entire lives. The government action were and are shameful. Hopefully ACLU and others will help these people sue the US government for the trauma caused.
One can only hope and pray that the families will get their children again. The US government threatened to put some of the children up for adoption. The trump gop has been quite silent--what does that say?
This is horrible, inexcusable. We must keep protesting. Please remember this in November and VOTE.
15
I was intrigued by the story of the “First Wave of Migrant Children Reunited with Parents,” because it reminds me of what I have believed for the past couple years at least. I always used to think that we, people living in the U.S., are all immigrants. At one point in our heritage, someone took the chance and came to the U.S., for many different possible reasons, but that those chances make us who we are today and hope to become in the future. The fact that young immigrant children were separated from their families along the U.S. border is not easy to accept. I first thought, “They are just kids,” but then came to realize that it’s their parents who are doing this. They are tearing their families apart by trying to enter the U.S. illegally, or without a visa. It is heartwarming that they are being reunited with their parents, the younger ones currently (under the age of five), but it is still a step in the right direction. Background checks were being conducted on parents to see if they were really the child (children’s) legal parents and if it were to be safe for the child (children) to be returned or reunited with the parent(s).
(@[email protected])
3
These sadistic and cruel actions represent a new low in US history. Another ingenious Republican administration has distinguished itself. Please don't try to top this one guys.
4
Trump when asked about missing the reunification deadline said--"Well I have a solution-Tell the people not to come to our country illegally, Don't come here illegally." Except it's not. Not illegal to come to the country to seek asylum which is what most of theses people did-you do not have to go to a port of entry--INA: ACT 208 - ASYLUM 1
Sec. 208. (a) Authority to Apply for Asylum.-
(1) In general. - Any alien who is physically present in the United States or who arrives in the United States (whether or not at a designated port of arrival and including an alien who is brought to the United States after having been interdicted in international or United States waters), irrespective of such alien's status, may apply for asylum in accordance with this section or, where applicable,
7
Laws? Governments don’t function via morality. How cruel!
The attempt on the part of these heartless agencies criminalize immigrants and refugees is cynical, craven and self-serving. The President specifically and explicitly enacted this policy to frighten those seeking refuge in the United States away; come, and we will take your children away. The behavior of ICE and DHS agents, many of whom tricked parents into relinquishing their kids or told them they might never see their babies again, is criminal and the American people should demand that those responsible be fired at the least and, at most, punished. The American people will not stand for torture, denial of human rights, or the torture of vulnerable populations. Chris Meekins, complicit in the torture of children (for that is what it is to separate a pre-verbal human from his/her parent) is protecting no one — but himself. SHAME.
3
At this rate, it will take months to get children back with their parents. Maybe trump needs to bring in the Thai seal team to speed things up.
3
This administration snatches a child away from its parents but requires considerable time to reunite them. This is child abuse. This fiasco will rightfully so be a stain on American history. The cruelty, contempt and inhumanity shown by this administration to fellow human beings is the definition of evil.
7
"We expect that the government will act in good faith, as the American people are demanding, and sit down with us, put all of our cards on the table.”
Don't be foolish. You are dealing with evil, a heartless bureaucracy who consider these people vermin. Take appropriate care and do not be naive.
9
I would like to know Raices plan on posting "bond" for certain detainees.
Is Raices going into the bail-bond industry? I suspect not.
Is Raices going to post bail for someone under arrest, who may have bail required for a good reason? Thats Scary. With no personal tie between this organization and the individual, there is no reason to respect the bail and return to court. The bail would literally be just a "get out of jail free" payment.
And, when the court returns the money to Raices after court dates, what then?
Please find better use of this money to help these people.
On the other hand, if these folks are being given bracelets and they are not are specific flight risks then the government should free them until their court dates.
Shame on the Trump administration and everyone involved in this mess from Ice on down. May this cruelty come back to haunt them.
5
More like a trickle than a “wave.”
Still thousands of children with strangers.
Government sanctioned Kidnapping.
5
The government really makes it easy for the people who denounce Trump over this to do so, for without all the social services and bureaucracy in place to do the work for them, how would these same people feel if these refugees just turned up on their doorstep one morning, while trying to hustle the kids off to school and getting to work on time? It’s too easy in America to be a bleeding heart.
5
Legitimate refugees could be allowed to enter with a church or other group sponsoring them in a particular neighborhood, furnishing housing for a year or so, clothes, supplies, mentoring them, helping them adjust to sponsored jobs and to school.
This is the way we often handled refugee settlement over our past century.
Please don't pretend you don't know this.
1
Setting aside the cruelty, and incompetence this, what about the waste and abuse of public funds represented by this fiasco? Where is the outcry from the right, who complained about every Obama vacation? How much has this mess cost us financially? Of course our reputation has now been irreparably harmed. but what about the dollars and cents of this mess?
12
Strange that many photos of these reunions are only with the mother. She initiated the separation by bringing the child to the U.S. border.
Very few liberals comment about this.
10
Very few liberals comment about this because that is not at all the perspective liberals have on immigration.
2
Many problems in Central America were CAUSED by the U.S. Take the countries over? Insane talk. Maybe clean up the mess we left. How about that?
1
You seem to miss how often the mothers fled because the father and sons had been murdered.
1
The US is completely incompetent at helping people in other nations, even if it were legal to forcibly invade Mexico.
1
“I’m saying this, very simply: We have laws,” Mr. Trump said.
============================================
Yes.
Which means that by not reuniting the families by the mandated deadline you are breaking the law.
And by pardoning Joe Arpaio and the arson father and son you have showed the same contempt for the law as those felons.
No matter. Trump's base has no problem with his and the GOP's lies and hypocrisy. It's cult worship, based on bigotry that is stronger than truth.
I'm happy to be in Mexico, where there are no illusions. Everyone but a tiny minority understands that the government is corrupt from top to bottom.
They're much smarter than 40% of Americans.
8
People in our government ordered these children taken quickly, without adequate planning or record keeping. They placed many children hundreds or thousands of miles from where their parents are or were. There was no apparent concern expressed by officials at HHS, ICE, DHS or DOJ about the incredible trauma and pain caused to these children. Now that reunifications are court ordered, suddenly government officials need bureaucratic forms, money, extreme vetting and other minutiae, which they say is necessary to assure the children's welfare. What a joke.
9
Failure. Less than half the required reunions occurred. Azar told Congress they could be found with a button-push and reunited quickly. Isn't lying to Congress a criminal offense? And isn't failure to obey a court order contempt of court? The court order itself reaffirmed the illegality of the separation policy, which also violates international criminal law - state-sponsored kidnapping and child abuse of foreign nationals. We learned from Nuremberg that laws and following orders do not justify immorality. Who will call the policy makers and all the complicit bureaucrats to account? Or will they all just get away with this international moral outrage that is sickening the world, blackening America's reputation and destroying its moral authority everywhere that it matters in its own self-interest? None of this state-generated evil will prevent "illegal" asylum seeking when legal asylum is denied by transparently cynical policies designed to curtail the legitimate reasons for seeking asylum. The President is telling them the solution is to stay away, like in the 1940s the solution was turn away boatloads of Jews approaching our shores. Well don't we know - those who can't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
7
If the Thai soccer team were stranded in Carlsbad Caverns with this totally dysfunctional government they would all be still be there. I have to ask, republicans, why is this OK?
4
Trump said he'd reopen Gitmo for business. Little did we know it would be a repurposed Walmart and the inmates would be toddlers, not terrorists.
14
Wave? This is only a ripple, not a wave. A wave implies a large number, not an incredibly insignificant drop in the bucket. Why would you choose the adjective Wave as opposed to something more accurate?
11
If Charles Dickens knew what was going on in America at this time, he would have put a gun to his head. What was the point of dedicating his life and work to reforming society when it turns out that, 180 years after the publication of "Oliver Twist," life in America is every bit as horrible as he depicted his world to be.
5
Does the government even know where they are?
4
The Canadian press was reporting early that reunification would be difficult and in many cases impossible and that many would never be reunited, leading them to becoming permanent wards of the state. As a Canadian, I feel the cruelty that the U.S. has inflicted on these vulnerable and innocent babies and children is tantamount to torture. The word "illegal" is used to justify this forced separation and detention, however most come from Central American families who are making a legal claim for asylum as is their right under Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the U.S. not only recognizes, but helped to draft. Canada is currently overwhelmed with asylum seekers as well, but we treat them humanely and with dignity and respect. If they have no criminal record they are not detained while their claim is processed which can take many months. The families remain intact and they are given healthcare and the right to work. They do not wear ankle bracelets and nearly all show up for their hearings. There is also no reported increase in crime.
In the U.S., human rights organizations are reporting that some children are being used as hostages with reports of parents being told to drop their legal claim to asylum if they ever want to see their children again.
This is unconscionable.
13
I am ashamed of my country l
3
Why weren't all the kids reunited by the deadline, per the Federal order?
The Trump Administration doesn't care, and no one is going to hold them accountable.
Apparently, there is no recourse to these cretins. Our government is a complete joke. If this isn't stopped, and stopped soon, we are going to have nothing left.
MEGA. Yeah right.
9
Be certain to note that ONLY parents and children are included in this supposed goal to reunite children with families.
Some children have sought asylum with a grandparent/ guardian after losing their parents to the violence they flee in Central America.
An example is 3 year old Sophie, being followed by PBS News Hour. She is in day 15 after separation from her grandmother who is her legal guardian after death of parents and siblings. It will be at least 10 days before her grandmother is processed through some of the examinations required before the US government will EVEN consider letting three year Sophie see her.
Hundreds of miles and as much red tape and apathy stand between them, after enduring the deaths of relatives and turning to the land of Lady Liberty.
When will we honor what is etched in stone at Ellis Island, where Lady Liberty says "Give me your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"?
18
Excellent point about Ellis Island, Jean. That should be the place were they try and enter illegally at, then no questions would be asked. Hang a similar sign on Holland, Ohio, while you’re at it.
4
Regarding your reply comment, John Doe:
NW Ohio is 1 hour from Canada, and for more than a century, a sizable percentage of the population have been families that are first generation immigrants, or a generation later.
Of those, a very large number came as refugees from Europe, the genocide of Armenia, were fleeing Lebanese Christians many decades ago, or came from Latin America half a century ago to be farm laborers for such places as Campbell Soup factory ( largest food factory in the USA).
So don't make the mistake of thinking people are too parochial to have some understanding of issues here on America's " Third Coast"--the Great Lakes.
2
A church in my small community sent several members to a Latin American country and made the decision to sponsor a family. They made the proper applications for admission to the US.
The people of the church leased a house for one year, provided everything needed including furniture, curtains, linens, dishes/glassware/ silverware. The family was taken to a grocery store and the church paid for food. The family was provided with a car for several months' use, and were assisted with job applications.
Before the end of the first year, both adults had jobs - the wife in a garment plant; don't recall the husband's job.
The couple returned to their home country before 18 months had passed. They expressed their opinion: they were far from ready to be on their own, financially and culturally, and were not happy.
Many of today's immigrants need support for far more than one year. The first generation needs considerable support, often lifetime support. The second generation needs support. The third generation becomes self-supporting.
“I’m saying this, very simply: We have laws,” Mr. Trump said."
Trump says this on the day he pardons domestic terrorists who committed arson and staged an armed insurrection of a federal wildlife refuge.
16
In Thailand 13 people are rescued from dangerous cave; U.S. cannot reunite even that many children with parents, when not in caves, just cages. Shame on our country!
15
How ironic that these child abusers are now concerned about the children's well-being.
5
One was reported to be an Aunt who adopted the child unofficially when the child wad orphaned. We need to know how many of the others are a grandparent, older sister or brother or an Aunt or Uncle who is the primary caregiver.
8
How did the headline writer for this article come up with "First Wave of Migrant Children Reunited With Parents"? It's 4 children, or perhaps 38 children total by the end of the day. And that's out of 103 under the age of 5. The total number of children snatched away from their parents is around 3,000. 4 is a ripplet at best, 38 maybe a full size ripple.
10
I wish more Americans would travel internationally to see how others live and the challenges faced by people outside of their zip code. I wish people in opposition to asylum seekers would take a simple DNA test. Our blood tells stories that a lot of people need to relearn.
17
Amen. Americans need to see many of these nations for themselves.
I, for one, am going to Guatemala in September.
2
I doubt the goal was never to reunite these families. However, not being involved with Trump on a daily basis I can't say this with certainty.
Apparently the naysayers have more inside information than myself as to what was/is taking place than I do. But one thing is certain: Trump himself should be forced to pay for this entire fiasco and the vast majority of separations I assume should have never taken place to begin with.
C'mon Donald... do what is right with this. Pay the tab for the entire operation. You created the problem; you pay for it.
7
Isn't violating a court order contempt of court? Doesn't that mean jail time? The government had a clear time frame to reunite families established by the court. I wonder how long it would take to reunite those families, I mean all the families, with the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Secretary of Health and Human Services sitting in jail?
13
It is obvious that the governments south of the border, despite having plenty of natural resources, have failed in their basic duty to the citizens in terms of providing them human rights at home. Would it not be more fair especially to the women that did not make the trip who are forced to live in mud huts without screens sleeping on one dirty mattress with six kids that the US government take these governments over and institute the rule of law and plan on integrating these countries into the US eventually? In the US public school runs anywhere between 29 and 35000 per pupil. Would it not make more sense to just send the money to the poor of Honduras. I mention Honduras only because I spent years there. Given Mexico's total failure and corruption why has the US not taken it over? Most Mexicans, surveys show, want to go to the US. The only people who might object are those stealing from the populace.
3
Your comment is written well enough to suggest some sensibilities. Are you not in the least aware that countries respect one anothers' sovereignty, and that if countries start taking each other over, it is not clear a) where that would stop, b) what wars it would provoke, and c) what the death toll from such military actions would be?
3
I agree...in 50 years dubious Central American countries will be US wards or real US states, the status quo is perfectly ridiculous...Because I bet 98% of Central Americans are technically eligible for refugee status...No wall, laws or moat will stop folks from coming...It’s impossible...
2
Some of the problems in Latin America were caused by US intervention in the first place.
Could Elon Musk please go to Texas with eight of his most talented employees and build some kind of contraption to aid this miserable, incompetent administration.
Maybe they could build Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan something resembling human hearts.
16
Four families is not a wave.
17
Exactly; 4 families is barely a trickle in this situation.
9
"Come legally!"--President Trump.
Except that, um, many of these families actually DID. They applied for asylum according to US regulations.
And were rewarded by having their kids stripped away and shipped 2,000 miles away from them.
For doing things LEGALLY.
28
Everything that happens under Trump is a secret. No one can say where immigrant children are. No one knows which child belongs to which parent. No one knows how the organizations in control of the children were selected or compensated. No one knows what Trump talks about with enemy dictators like Kim and Putin. Trump strives daily to undermine the free press. To limit interviews to biased media organizations. He obviously has an awful lot to hide.
21
Trump should ask the Thailand government for help. No scuba gear required. Just come,
14
Thirty-eight. That's how many tiny children have been reunited with their parents. Our government can keep track of every scrap of paper- every court document, every tax return, every social security recipient, but it "lost" two-thirds of the children in its care? The only explanation is that we never planned to return those children. The only appropriate sanction for failing to meet this deadline would be to jail the head of DHS until her people CAN find and return these babies. And then, for good measure, maybe we should just "lose" the records of where we put her.
19
Or better yet go home and stay there. We are over populated.
5
Best to be very careful here, rushing will cause issues.
2
The purposeful incompetence of the Trump Administration as exhibited by the various agencies having no clue what they are doing is disgusting.
The plan all along was to separate the children and pay various entities guaranteed government income for indefinite time periods. No effort whatsoever was made to correctly identify and track the location of these children. My Amazon package gets better treatment.
And now claims by these same agencies about concern for the safety of the children beggars all belief. They are just upset that they have to do the work. Someone should look into criminal charges against these uncaring bureaucrats.
Trump now goes to NATO with the stain of child abduction and cruelty under his name to America's shame. I hope some of our allies give him a hard time. He probably has violated international laws of asylum which we used to be part of.
This entire abuse of children had nothing to do with American immigration policy and everything to do with a sick hatred and desire to inflict pain on others because of the color of their skin.
That Trump and his cohorts chose the children is typical of cowardly bullies. They thought the children would not be able to complain. Public awareness and yes, public shaming worked this time. So keep up the reporting and investigating. It is the only thing that is guaranteeing the safety of the children.
41
"Mr. Meekins said that 14 adults were disqualified from reunification during the vetting process, including eight with serious criminal backgrounds including histories of child cruelty and drug crimes, five who were determined not to be the actual parent of the child, and one who was being treated for a communicable disease that would have made reunification unsafe."
THESE are the folks for whom the American left is willing to go to the mat.
But there is a hint of good news: "11 reunited families (returned to) Guatemala..." They should ALL be sent home.
And, finally, this simple truth:
"That’s the solution. Don’t come to our country illegally. Come like other people do. Come legally.”
Time was when even HRC and BHO said precisely the same thing. Now, "No Borders; No Nations. No Deportations" is the official slogan of the Democratic Party.
17
None of those people said anything like they wanted any borders. Obama,in fact deported more criminals during his eighth years in office.
1
Meekins’ reply about delays smacks of disingenuousness. Safety? Not wanting children placed with rapists and kidnappers? There we go again, comparing immigrants to dangerous criminals. As if separating families, and those with very young children, wasn’t bad enough.
The callousness of this Administration is appalling.
21
Wonderful, please go home and apply properly.
16
Many of these people did "apply properly." Seeking asylum is a legal process.
The administration intended to cause maximum pain to these people in order to send a message. They were so intent on their goal that they didn't even have a system or process in place. This was a criminal act of abduction. The US should be sanctioned for it.
8
They are desperate, risk everything, precisely because time is everything against them. They would gladly apply legally if our system was timely, efficient, and compassionate.
2
You are not "supposed" to stop at the first country you come to. There is no requirement about where you seek asylum.
2
I am very surprised that in 5 cases (out of 102, or 54?), it was determined that the adult was not the parent. This is a much higher percentage than I have read about in general statistics of adults crossing the border with minors, and it astounds me that that would be so with such young children. I hope there will be a follow-up story with more information on how that was determined and whether it is accurate.
20
No.
"...of the 102 such children now in government custody, the authorities had been able to identify, locate and vet the parents of only 54."
The rest are not easily being tracked, that's a bureaucratic problem based on poor record keeping.
Only 8 were problematic based on previous criminal activity.
9
So 93% of the parents were accurately joined with thier children. That's proof most are the actual parents.
“If we had just reunited kids with the adults, we would be putting them in the care of a rapist, a kidnapper, a child abuser, and someone who was charged with murder in their home nation.”
Really? Prove it. Everyone knows that the Trump administration lies and this sounds like a whopper.
45
Four children is hardly a wave.
18
You are supposed to stop at the first country you come to, not seek our your favorite, which, in the case, offers the best benefits.
19
I saw an article stating that some women from Central America (that is, those who have access) get a birth control injection before leaving because traveling through parts of Mexico sets them up for targeted sexual violence. These people are seeking safety. In the future, they may decide to pass through the US and head to Canada because we're treating them pretty terribly, too.
20
Paul, I think you are mixing up the laws of the EU, which requires the asylum application to occur in the first country reached, with laws over here that do not contain such a provision.
1
Sally B, Perhaps you want to read to get more information about who was arrested. People who applied for asylum were not arrested.
The adults who crossed the border illegally were arrested and placed in jail. Their children were placed in the detention centers leased and set up by our government in 2014, 2015, and 2016.
You don't have to believe me that the detention centers were set up beginning in 2014.
Perhaps you will believe President Obama's Director of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson:
"On Fox News Sunday, former DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson said that under the Barack Obama administration, they did detain some children alone and some families together, two policies for which Donald Trump has been widely blamed.
Johnson told host Chris Wallace that they "thought it was necessary at the time," and that it is still is.
"Without a doubt the images, and the reality, from 2014, just like 2018, are not pretty," Johnson said. "We expanded it, I freely admit it was controversial, we believed it was necessary at the time, I still believe it is necessary to remain a certain capability for families."
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/obama_dhs_sec_jeh_joh...
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It is pretty clear that the Trump Administration never intended to reunite these families. This was meant as cruel, vicious torture for people they don't like. Shame on Trump and his cabal, and shame on us for letting our education system goes so far down that large numbers of people would vote for the despicable Donald Trump.
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Too bad Trump did not store immigrant children in Thai caves. They would be with their parents by now.
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Young children are now MIA .... thanks to Trump Thugs.....
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The unseemly haste of the separations is matched by an equal and opposite resistance to undoing the harm.
The elimination of "those people" by any means necessary is not remotely Christian (see the Gospels), so don't claim it is.
They really don't care. Do U?
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No. Please read this article and others. Some parents presented themselves legally at the border, and their children were taken away from them. It is completely legal to seek asylum, and there are courts and procedures that make the decisions.
Lost children because of the total and absolute cruelty of the Trump administration and its supporters.
Pope Francis, the U.N., almost all religious organizations, and others have strongly condemned this.
The great majority of Americans also oppose this. Atrocities should not be happening in America.
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But the trump apologists keep on keeping on.
This fiasco and godless policy that has been orchestrated by an administration that is more concerned with scoring points with it's base will cause untold harm to the children and parents who have been impacted. The total lack of planning to identify, track and collect the data by Health and Human Services is a terrible mark on our country . The very real possibility that some of the children separated will never find their way back to their parents is beyond tragic. All this from the party of family values. Sickening.
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The Trump government never acts in good faith. Look at the suspension of payments to insurance companies on last Saturday for services already made to treat extremely ill patients. Look at all the bait and switch in regard to the Dreamers, and so forth, as well as the nonsense that continues with Putin. Look also at the treaties and negotiations that Trump has refused to honor. His thousands of lies and back story of not paying for labor or contractors (case in point now, no overtime for 25 years for his personal driver who is suing him) mean Trump has no conception or honoring commitments or acting in good faith.
Bad faith yes. 38 children out of 3,000 is better than nothing, but this was a massive and expensive violation of human rights that seems to have been done on the fly, regardless of the lasting trauma to the children, the families that are torn apart, and the lack of due process and following either precedents or international law.
Trump, Sessions, and others cannot understand that asylum seeking is a legal option that has a set of laws and due process connected to it. They are now in violation of the law.
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"We have laws" says Donald Trump.
So what penalty will his administration pay for not meeting the deadline imposed by a federal judge? After all, aren't judges the law?
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Trump is the guy who cut off fund for his own nephew's sick child. Why is anyone surprised at the cruelty that his administration is willing to inflict on children?
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/us/politics/for-donald-trump-lessons-...
QUOTE:
In 1999, the family patriarch died, and 650 people, including many real estate executives and politicians, crowded his funeral at Marble Collegiate Church on Fifth Avenue.
But the drama was hardly put to rest. Freddy’s son, Fred III, spoke at the funeral, and that night, his wife went into labor with their son, who developed seizures that led to cerebral palsy. The Trump family promised that it would take care of the medical bills.
Then came the unveiling of Fred Sr.’s will, which Donald had helped draft. It divided the bulk of the inheritance, at least $20 million, among his children and their descendants, “other than my son Fred C. Trump Jr.”
Freddy’s children sued, claiming that an earlier version of the will had entitled them to their father’s share of the estate, but that Donald and his siblings had used “undue influence” over their grandfather, who had dementia, to cut them out.
A week later, Mr. Trump retaliated by withdrawing the medical benefits critical to his nephew’s infant child.
“I was angry because they sued,” he explained during last week’s interview.
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Trump does not understand that refugees are not illegal immigrants, nor does he want to. If anyone thinks that Trump or anyone in his administration cares about these families they need to think again. These poor people will never be able to vote for him so he cares about them as much as he does Puerto Ricans, which is not at all.
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But are they ALL legitimate refugees? Highly doubtful.
Most are economic interlopers.
6
"Chris Meekins, a senior official in the Department of Health and Human Services, pointed to safety concerns to explain the delay and insisted that the reunifications could not be rushed."
Unlike the separations, he should have added.
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I know what a bunch of hogwash!
4
The lies about the delays are pathetic. The People and Government of Thailand used every resource and accepted as well as called for assistance to help in their effort. Under impossible odds all those Thai boys and their coach were rescued from drowned caves inside a mountain.
We are told that great care must be taken to reunite the families which we, the USA, tore apart. What a colossal joke except that the children and their parents are suffering. Is this country beyond any sense of obligation and remorse for creating these family tragedies? How disgusting, how immoral, how lacking in any human values other than making money and political capital.
Every day I read how terrible it is that we citizens are locked in political combat - Democrats vs. Republicans - and how we lack civility. Buh-loney. If you have any sense of compassion, if you have a moral compass, you stand up and call out as loudly as possible that we are headed for a brand of fascism the GOP and Trump will love.
Sadly, we'll probably have Justice Kavanaugh on the SCOTUS. Given his several Boy Scout renditions last night of the good community work he does with children, will he defend and protect the innocent children who were brought across our southern border? We shall see if he is indeed as mealy-mouthed as his president and the members of his Republican Party.
"This way to the showers, Ladies and Gentlemen"
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Someone should end up in jail for this crisis. I hope every NATO member country embarrasses Mr. Trump this week by asking him why he's separating children from their parents.
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Don't give us and these parents the dishonest excuse that the process is slow because you're worried about the children's safety. Give us all a break with this dishonesty. HHS is either so incompetent or so so cruel that it never had the intention of reuniting these children with their parents. And cared nothing about their safety when they separated them weeks or months ago. This is so shameful that it is hard to read about and write about. Disgusting.
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Blame Trump and his white nationalist cronies who wanted to teach those brown people a lesson, not HHS!
Pardon my skepticism, but would this be front page news if these separated parents and their children were, say, Norwegian?
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We wouldn't have separated those children from their parents if they were, say, Norwegian. Or Russian. Or Slovenian.
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But this would not be done to Norwegian refugees. And that is the point.
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That's right. Don't take your eye off the ball here. The color of their skin made this a permissible and acceptable solution to them.
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The trouble with the judge's decision is it has no teeth, no penalties. This fascist kidnapping goes on in our country with impunity for the kidnappers, Trump being their chief.
Even the Nazis did not take children from their parents in public, or advocate it.
The so-called vetting, the requirement that parents and relatives pay ridiculous amounts for transportation are just ways to stall.
And the profit motive? Everywhere.
I do not want to live in a country that steals and tortures children. I am sick unto death. And disgusted by the comments here blaming parents.
22
Heros can get 12 Thai boys out of a brutal cave, but our cruel gvmt can't bust a move to reunite little kids with parents whose arms they ripped them from.
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Yesterday nytimes had a story that included the information that "two faith based organizations" had contracts with the federal government to care for the children. What organizations are getting taxpayer money for holding detained children and how much are they getting?
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If 12 American kids (who were non-white and non-wealthy) were trapped in a cave in the US, Trump would shrug and say they deserve it for going in there in the first place and that we weren't going to 'waste' resources getting them out. And his followers would scream and nod and clap enthusiastically.
This is what we've become.
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Anne
You hit the nail on the head. How sad is that?
MIMA
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There is another article in today's paper that talks about how a portion of the boys caught in the cave are stateless and poor -- and even so, they are valued and cared for by their community:
https://nyti.ms/2L5EkyP
Including the 25 year old coach, who my heart has really been breaking for throughout this ordeal. I have a 25 year old son and felt a lot of sympathy and compassion towards this young man -- and now this article demonstrates how compassionate and caring the boys' parents and the larger community have been towards him, a stateless orphan and refugee who taught the boys how to meditate to get them through their ordeal.
That community didn't need a court to tell them to treat each other decently. If only people in the U.S. could learn from these Thais' example.
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Not we. They. They are the other now.
Pretty darned sad that the government needs the court to tell it to do the right thing.
This is a human tragedy caused by a select few miserable people who seem to live their lives in a perpetual state of abject bitterness. How anyone would think that separating children without keeping the accurate, or any, documentation needed to reunify those families beggars belief. That these people are still in jobs, beggars belief even more. As a ditch digger, if I lost my tools I would have been out of a job. They lost children for gawd's sake! Scores of them.
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Deplorable. Not meeting a court ordered deadline to return children should be a criminal offense. Trump promised to drain the swamp in Washington, but reading this article about how poorly this reuniting of the children to their families reads, the swamp now reaches from coast to coast.
Trump knows little, and cares less about the court order, and nothing about the organizations under him required to meet the deadline set by Judge Dana M. Sabraw.
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Truly, this must be referred by the UN to the ICC for investigation of possible crime against humanity.
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No. Lost children because of their parents choosing to ignore US law and come into the country illegally.
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All humans deserve to be treated with decency and respect. When my grandparents came to the U.S. in the early 1900s with the hope of getting in and eventually becoming citizens, after fleeing persecution in their country of origin, U.S. officials did not separate them from their families nor degrade them as sub-human nor label them "illegal". How is this immigration situation any different from that?
17
It's legal to seek asylum.
46
No lost children because of a lack of a plan resulting in chaos and misery for children. Don’t Christians have any empathy for the less fortunate any more? Are they following the teaching of Jesus with their callous attitudes?
2
I feel terrible for the children. I do not feel bad for the parents. They knowingly and willfully broke American law.
20
People are allowed to seek asylum. That's not illegal.
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Really? You think that makes it ok that these children were taken away?
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Until Trump, it has not been illegal to request asylum.
3
Trump is NEVER absolutely correct. You stand corrected!
4
What a mess. First Trump creates a crisis then when stage management of the production blows up in their faces they scramble to fix the mess, showing us more of their ineptitude and lack of leadership. Live by the sword, die by the sword, eh?
22
This is disgraceful. The confluence of incompetence, of a campaign of gratuitous hatred, designed by the odious Steven Miller, and of a little man in the White House and his disreputable cohort fighting to design a law specifically written to allow him to continue the misery of separating families in this manner, all to "win" the next election.
America is better than him.
The damage he has done to our country is palpable. He has inflicted enduring tragedy on immigrant parents and children fleeing terror and seeking asylum in America. He is a sadistic beast and his claim to power rests on a sea of lies and human misery that has only just begun.
33
Hopefully these people can impart the lesson that showing up at the border and trying to enter this country without an invitation to the USA, with or without one's children, is a crime. And the presence of children does nothing to deflect the due process of Title 8, USC [immigration law]. Come back, if you can, with a more substantive reason for Uncle Sugar to welcome you to the fold.
20
The administration’s haphazard and slipshod family reunification efforts show how unprepared it was to enforce its scorched policy to deter asylum seekers from entering the country.
Border patrol and Homeland Security failed to connect even the most fundamental of identification dots, that is, to note the names and number of family members and, if separated, where the parents or children could be located to get them back together. Records were not kept, or soon deleted by the authorities who were charged with detaining these families.
Maybe the president thought that families could be rounded up like a herd of cattle and ushered back across the borders. He didn't see migrants as human beings with names and faces. The president can blame himself for the mess he created at the southern border by being unprepared for the failure of his immigration policies.
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The real problem was 40-50 years ago when a larger influx of immigrants came to the USA. Businesses large and small welcomed the cheap and willing labor, the fact that suddenly once-mighty labor unions were busted, and encouraged more of these adroit and hardworking people to arrive. Problematic was that we already had a large population of people whose labor and wages were marginalized because of institutional discrimination on the basis of skin color. Now we have tens of millions of Latino people on the ground in America, most of whom are unquestionably US citizens. Are they all supposed to leave too?
6
We still have xenophobes who believe all of the children are being smuggled into the country and have no blood relationship to their "supposed" parents who brought them to our borders. DNA testing is insane as is the demand for birth certificates. Most of these people fled their homes under the threat of death. .
32
As of midday, it's being reported that only 4 children have been reunited with a family member today.
So the Thai government can get 12 children safely out of a treacherous, underwater cave. But the US government can't bring children safely out of it's own malevolent, chaotic-on-purpose, inhuman detention system.
The Trump administration is pathetic and cruel in the eyes of the world.
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Judge should jail responsible parties for a night. They are flouting his orders.
4
A night? Why not as many days as these devastated children and their parents were separated by us?
Lost children due to government irresponsibility and prejudice.
Ah, what a country. Never mind humanity.
40
This is a national disgrace. The Trump administration is a clear example of indifference to human suffering compounded by incompetence.
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Trump's comment today about don't come here illegally ignores that many of these families entered legally to apply for asylum. Trump and even Sessions want to pretend that our law and international law don't allow asylum applications, they do. The law doesn't guarantee that asylum will be granted.
Under this administration Health and Human Services will more aptly be named Inept and Inhumane Services. The establishment of ICE and Homeland Security after 9/11 was to prevent terrorist attacks and to assume all parts of the intelligence services worked together seamlessly. Head of HHS said he could find all parents and children with a few keystrokes in a recent hearing before Congress. This administration could not manage a kindergarten class, and they forgot all the life lessons they learned there.
17
It appears that it is quite possible that some of the families will never be reunited since parents were deported without their children. What happens to those children? Hasn't ICE in effect kidnapped them and transported them across state lines? If the parents are not found, who becomes responsible for these children? And what becomes of their citizenship? And their futures?
19
My Happy Pic Of Today: The pic of the little boy with curly, big, beautiful hair so happy to be arm of his father, looking back, and grinning to the crowd, grinning to the world.
I didn't know such a happy scene was happening only a few miles from my house here in Grand Rapids. What a small world we live in.
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