While I understand the outpouring of sympathy on this board for "the children" of these illegal immigrants one cannot help but be bemused at the irony and hypocrisy of what Americans are doing to their own children: the out-of-control obesity, high rates of diabetes, accepting (and defending) the use of dangerous psychotic drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall etc. whose monstrous consequences are still unknown, to treat "ADHD" - an affliction not even heard of in many countries.
10
When America, destroys countries through war and forceful policy and sanctions, what would you expect?
Don't want immigrant/refugees in high flux like this? Just don't create them.
3
It could help if Trump had a high schooler's familiarity with the Constitution. No asylum-seeker broke any immigration laws. Assylum seekers are allowed to enter the U.S. at any point, whether it's a port of entry OR NOT. Maybe he could enlist Sessions as a study buddy. Surely they both deserve impeachment for the cruelty and devastation they have created -- from their ignorance and greed. Trumps wants a wall, and that's what this horrible debacle is all about. Our grandchildren will ask, "What did you do to stop the madness?"
10
Any chance the International Court can step in to enforce crimes against humanity committed by Trump and his minions?
Could the heroic Thai Helpers join the thousands of American reporters, members of Congress, refugee agencies, the ACLU and folks who rally in their home towns to free and reunite these children? Our government is obviously not up to the task.
The tears of these caged children are flooding the cold cement floors of their man-made caves.
7
I am distressed by any complacency in response to these events. There is no point in discussing whether "policies" of this "administration" can be rationalized. There are none. There are only loathsome impulses that are acted upon, by criminal abettors in Congress, in federal agencies involved and among the "only following orders" conscienceless personnel of ICE, Border Patrol HHS and elsewhere.
The only topics worth bearing in mind are:
(1) the grotesque illegitimacy of Republican influence, who, in their quasi-Vichy capacity are destroying this country by permitting this - see John Cassidy in today's New Yorker:
"Cconsider some counterfactuals. Absent the Supreme Court’s 5–4 ruling, in 2000, under Rehnquist, to halt the Florida recount and allow the election of a Republican President who lost the popular vote, Roberts and Alito might not be on the Court today. If, in 2016, McConnell had adhered to precedent and allowed filibusters on the nomination of Merrick Garland, Gorsuch might well not be a Justice, either. And but for the quirks of the Electoral College nullifying Hillary Clinton’s almost three-million-ballot margin of victory in the popular vote, Kavanaugh would still be a relative unknown."
(2) The root cause: the individual occupying the White House s an unintelligent, deranged sociopath, severely afflicted with character pathology.
(3) The incomprehensible fact that everyone isn't screaming at the top of their lungs for Trump's removal.
10
I am haunted by signs that originally Trump, Sessions, Miller and Nielsen intended for the children to never be returned to their parents. Their claims that they had kept records to ensure easy reunion of the families do not bear up under the amount of time it is taking to reunite these children. And scattering the children across the US, thousands of miles from the parents' site of detention, as well as deporting some parents without their children — these indicate that the foursome who ordered this intended to wreak a far more horrible wound on thousands of children and parents than what we are seeing now after the courts put a stop to it. And even as it is, with a few weeks or months separation, look at the expressions on these childrens faces in the photos. The top photo clearly shows the trauma the US has inflicted, the other photos follow suit. It still makes me feel throwing up to read about it, especially the question, is the US administration just going to grin and waltz away without any punishment? Judges have found these policies illegal. Is the law enforcement community just going to shrug its collective shoulders and leave it to the electorate to vote these scoundrels out?
16
The headlines reminds me of a neighbor who was a hidden child in The Netherlands. When he was reunited with his parents, he didn't know them and had a very hard time going to them
5
The headlines reminds me of a neighbor who was a hidden child in The Netherlands. When he was reunited with his parents, he didn't know them and had a very hard time going to them.
As far as Chicago and murders, that needs attention, although that is not the gist of the story.
2
This is so sad- it's what traumatised children do when they are separated from their parents. In order to protect themselves from further pain, they shut down. Their attachment to their parents has broken- of course it can be repaired with patience and gentle affection, but the long term implications for these children are not good, the hurt they have experienced will persist for a long time.
Trump is a very bad person, using little children in a power play like this. And his apologists are beneath contempt. How low America has fallen, in the eyes of the world, when a one year old baby can be forced to attend court,his distress ignored.
6
Why would any parent put their child thru this , separation , privation , danger , and then expect to be admitted in to do as they please ? They do deserve to be treated with dignity , but surely they , understand that this administration will do everything to keep them out . Trump is intent on satisfying his base and will do so without batting an eye . All the voices decrying his policies towards their treatment , which agreed is inhumane , will do little to change things . The parents are responsible for any major trauma inflicted on their young and must take responsibility . Go vote if you really want to change things .
10
How can President Trump and his advisors who designed and implemented the plan to separate parents and their children sleep at night? How can we American citizens sleep at night knowing how government did this to people? Time for us the " for the people and by the people" to rise up and demand justice for these parents and their children.
9
Let's be clear here - it's not just about young children being separated from their parents - it's about young children being separated from their parents and then being put in an unrecognizable place with unrecognizable people - who may care for them - but do not love them. We also know kids have a very different sense of time than adults and so four months may equate to a lifetime. It will be a small miracle if these children are ever able to fully trust anyone ever again. This combined with Trump's positive comments about water-boarding - make this the cruelest administration we have ever had.
15
As our President stated just yesterday, the best way to avoid separation is not to cross the border illegally. Legal immigration is welcome.
On a human level one can have sympathy, but we still have laws. if I am a American citizen must follow the law, why should non-citizens be exempt?
12
As our President stated just yesterday, the best way to avoid separation is not to cross the border illegally. Legal immigration is welcome.
On a human level one can have sympathy, but we still have laws. If I am a American citizen must follow the law, why should non-citizens be exempt?
19
Many of these families are crossing legally to seek asylum and are still ripped apart.
8
OK, one more time: many of these people did not cross illegally. They requested asylum, a totally legal procedure.
7
not one word about the responsibility of the parents to care for their children. It is irresponsible to drag children across a desert or other hostile environments--especially children under 5. It is irresponsible to subject very young children to unnecessary trauma and emotional distress, based on a gamble that you might or might not get into America. Separation is just the latest trauma in a long list of events initiated by the parents. I am not confident that such parents will be any more responsible or show any better judgement if they are admitted. It would be a better use of border agencies time to give every child a complete health check up, and begin elementary schooling of both children and parents. Birth control education would also be a big plus. Let us use their time productively and get beyond turf issues.
19
There are federal officials who directed the kidnapping and child abuse and who stand in violation of the court ordered deadline to end this criminal conduct and reunite all of the families who were separated. The same officials are ordering that adults who are given temporary releases be released wearing shackles. This must never happen again. The plaintiffs in the federal district court litigation that resulted in the reunification order which has not been complied with are considering sanctions. The sanctions should include reparations to the families, payment for counseling, and jail for the officials who caused these human rights violations.
9
This act of separating parents and children--and the callous way in which it was achieved will- I think, be remembered as we remember the treatment of the Japanese Americans in WWII. As Jon Meacham writes in "The Soul of America": "What injustices are we perpetuating even now that will one day face the harshest of verdicts by those who come after us?"
This is what happens when a government's use of a law results in wrongful actions. When we, as a country, respond to the desperation of others in this way, we are shown to be weak, not strong.
13
Primary culpability belongs with the parents/adults who brought the kids into the U.S. against our laws. That should be a felony (probably is under some legal theory of child smuggling).
19
You know that some them come legitimately seeking asylum, right? What about them? It all has to be sorted out when they get here. The question is, what kind of country do we want to be?
7
Please realize that the better part of the US population is horrified by these events and is working to minimize the horrendous deeds of this administration. Midterm elections are still 4 months away.
7
Parents are being rejected because they are not the actual parents.
13
Nothing of the kind.
The Constitution is protection for all of humanity or it is nothing at all.
These people are not violating the law, they are as the law states coming to the US and entering it so that they can ask for asylum. They cannot legally ask for asylum from outside the United States.
If you don't like that talk to your Representative and Senator to see if they can get our treaties changed.
This is exactly the same as Rosa Parks event with the exception that she was part of a years long plan of winning other cases that set up the argument they made for her case then she happened to be the owe who volunteered to be the one to get arrested. Otherwise everything about how the law is falsely and unjustly being applied here is the same.
3
For those who want to decriminalize illegal entrance into the US and open borders, why don't they petition to abolish custom check at airports.
I wonder what would happen when a parent with a child just skip the lines and walk right thru the counters. Let's see what would happen to them.
13
When did this deplorable program start? The basic where, what , who of journalism needs to be answered and Congress needs to investigate. And most importantly who is implementing and profiting from this immoral program? They need to be held responsible.
This is an attack against the very fiber of this nation. These are children not unfeeling things that can be warehoused without damage.
Shame on us.
6
Plain and simple: this is a crime against humanity.
9
Trump and Jeff Sessions should be charged with crimes against humanity for this. The worst in generations. Shame on all of those who were complicit in these broken bonds.
10
That child may have been placed with that so called mother right before the border in order to cross. Those children may have a reason they do not recognize those women.
13
This is cruel and unusual punishment and should be illegal. Those responsible should be prosecuted. Shameful for US to stoop so low.
7
This is such an evil practice that the United States has engaged in. It is unconscionable that a country like the USA would do this. However, nothing that the USA does is a surprise to anyone anymore.
If USA wants to discourage this type of immigration, USA must take this up with Mexico and let it be known that USA will not tolerate Mexico allowing these folks to come across its territory to the USA. USA must punish Mexico. However, the TIRED, the POOR, the WEAK, who have turned up with little children should be treated with utmost civility and dignity. Those not eligible for asylum returned, if possible, to their countries respectfully or accommodated in the USA.
Whenever there has been a discussion of illegal migration into Australia, I always say that Australia should welcome each and every one but with a modified welcome: upon arrival arrest them, take them to a detention center and let them stay there for 2 or 3 days, give them food, medical care, etc. Then have someone from the immigration service meet them and tell them that what they have done is totally wrong and immigration Australia does not condone such practice. However, since they are already here (as in Australia), now they must learn English (those who can't speak) and give them temporary residency status. Also help them get a job and try to put the person in a job with their capabilities. For uneducated men give them jobs in nation building, like roads etc.. Good for new immigrants, and great for Australia.
4
This country has tortured people. And now we have these reprehensible acts against children. These are both crimes against humanity, and should be dealt with accordingly. Shame on us and the criminal administration that has hijacked this country. Trump and his criminal minions should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law while these laws still exist. Trump will get rid of the laws if he is given the chance.
This country should be so ashamed of itself right now.
Trump needs to go, and quickly, before we have nothing left.
6
Who makes that decision? Congress!
1
Most remarkable to me are the heartless comments below. Trump is only the id. The voters who elected him are indeed deplorable.
10
Trump is simply following up on his campaign promise to make foreign death squads seem preferable to people trying to enter the United States.
1
It's not hard to imagine Trump sitting around in private with a bunch of other country club bores and laughing at all this.
"Look at that kid crying his eyes out! It's hilarious! He's probably scarred for life! Ab-so-lute-ly hi-lar-i-ous! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"
That's just the kind of guy he is.
5
Much of the issue with illegal immigrants in this country, and others, is that the illegals will come in and take American jobs while also driving up crime. In reality it ignores the fact that illegal immigrants are one of the lowest crime-committing groups and that the jobs they take are those that even poor Americans don’t want or take because they just get by on welfare (something you need a ss# for) or whatever job they have. Illegal immigrants work hard and long for their crime of doing jobs that no American wants to do. All the arguments fall apart under critical examination and reveal the underlying racism; we don’t care that they are taking our jobs that we don’t take anyway, rather we just don’t want telemundo to become a thing. I guarantee, if you ask one of the commenters about how bad a crime it is to enter a country illegally, to work hard jobs that no one else wants for pay that may or may not even be given, I think they will sympathize with the immigrants. Also, what’s the point of borders these days anyway? Everyone watches American films and wears jeans and eats McDonald’s. There are relatively few cultural dissimilarities between people in different countries these days, so who cares if their neighbor prefers telemundo or geo news or The NY Times?
4
I'm glad you are publicizing this so that liberals will educate the teaming illegals clamoring to swim across our border what they can expect. Maybe they will act responsibly and NOT KEEP DOING THIS. They cause their own problems. You try breaking the law and then telling the police officer its HIS fault for putting you in jail and separating you from your kids.
8
"Catch and release is a term with no legal definition and has been used as a pejorative alternative to jailing illegal immigrants." That should say "pejorative for the alternative" there. The NYT should rehire the copy editors fired last summer (or at least have a "Report Error" button on each article in the app, though honestly, this shouldn't be our job). I keep seeing mistakes like this, lately.
3
Trump's cruelty, child-abuse and destruction of families (Remember "long ago" when Republicans claimed to be all about family values?) lead me to wish for there to be hell.
7
If your three year old does not recognize you after say four months, I think your relationship is suspect. I hear that children are crying for their parents, yet forget them so easily?
12
You do realize the government is using DNA testing to verify a parental relationship right? You may also want to do some research about how young children react when separated from parents for long periods of time. Not all young children will react this way, but many will. It's their way of dealing with trauma
12
It is a very common reaction in young children who have been separated from loved ones and caregivers.
7
During WW2 Anna Freud did research on children sent from London to strangers homes in safer areas of England. Very young children weather separation from their parents differently than older children. What has been done to the mental health of these kids is criminal.
Your assumptions are incorrect.
7
‘He Didn’t Recognize Me’
[ Imagine, this lament in America. I cannot imagine. ]
2
Alex Azar; HHS; says migrant children are treated with charity and generosity by Trump. Stories are emerging of migrants starved and put in solitary confinement. This is child abuse. HHS (Alex Azar) lied when he said children would be re united quickly with one computer key stroke. Trump treatment of immigrants is immoral and illegal. Alex Azar needs to resign. Ray Sipe
7
This country has turned dehumanization into an art form. Children from Latin America are deemed inhuman and incapable of experiencing, terror, trauma, and devastation.
Will anyone (trump, Miller) go to jail for this catastrophe?
12
People aren't fish, and the reference is offensive.
2
If these illegal aliens are so concerned about the well-being of their children, they should have entered the United States legally, with a passport and visa.
21
Migrant children crying? It's a GOP dream come true!
Hail Victory for The GOP! The "master race" returns.
Freed from all constraints, I wonder what horrors of depravity Trump would unleash on the world if given the chance?
He would probably make The Inferno seem like a picnic.
5
Perhaps because "their mothers" aren't actually their mothers amd many of those kids were brought across the border by smugglers pretending to be family? Just asking.
16
Inflicting massive psychological damage on 3 year old children? Why, it's a dream come true for Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, and the GOP!
No cruelty too great. No trauma too large. No brutality too excessive. Just call it "deterrence", and the deer-in-the-headlight Nuremberg like crowds of propaganda swallowing lowlifes will lap it up like so much pablum.
"Against The Wall!", they'll say.
At what point do we say, enough is enough, and storm the Bastille?
Watching what Trump is doing to this country, is like watching your own child die a slow, protracted, and painful death from cancer.
6
This administration continues, every day to sicken me with their bigotry and contempt masquerading as patriotism. ICE, Border Patrol, DHS all ought to be abolished and replaced with professional public servants focused on specific goals and held to professional standards.
While I am almost sure no DHS, ICE or Border Patrol agents read the NYTimes if by chance you do ask yourself this "how will I explain what I did to my grandhildren"?
8
What is this headline if not shameless pandering to the political left, in order to generate outrage? There are certainly some issues upon reunification where children are separated from their parents for extended periods of time, but to include it as the headline of the article is the very type of liberal hyperbole that leads to the use of the term #fakenews. If the NYTimes wants to continue to be the "paper of record" and a trustworthy source of news, I would suggest reporting just the facts. Let the partisans generate the spin.
20
Wrong Trump is not "changing the law" good grief educate yourself. Virtually the children have been brought by traffickers and drug mules. Jeh Johnson clearly stated the Obama admin did it for the same reasons Trump did it. Listen to him below:
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/24/obama_dhs_sec_jeh_joh...
10
Please, spare me the sob stories. These parents know precisely what they are doing, which is using their children to keep a toehold in the U.S. to avoid being excluded (as opposed to being deported) altogether.
32
Wow such a coldhearted statement. Every immigrant story is different and we must take that into consideration.
6
Hope you are never in the same situation. There but for the grace of God go you. Never say never, sir.
6
Parents who have broken the law and are incarcerated are separated from their children and if incarcerated out of state to where there is no visitation may go years without seeing their kids. There is no difference here. Break the law, pay the price. All this so-called melodrama wouldn't be happening if people didn't break the law. Don't come here illegally. End of story.
22
It is as if Trump is re-enacting the Stanford Experiment with his base in which they become increasingly more monstrous. Melodrama, Spare me the sob stories, womp womp and so on is the response to ripping toddlers and infants away from their parents for seeking asylum. I suspect that soon enough, Trump will have them on railroad sidings separating those who are able to work from those that are too weak or feeble to work.
3
So who’s paying the $800/day it costs to “care for” these kids? Could it be US taxpayers? And whom do we pay? The already wealthy 1%.
5
A story on NPR of a boy needing to appear in court - unrepresented. A boy, now somewhere in New York, who is 6 years old, talking by phone with his Mother every 8 days! This is beyond, beyond any sense of human dignity while his Mother, now deported, is in Guatemala. The boy trying to figure out, asking his Mom, what a Judge is, and a Lawyer at six years old. What his knows is he wants to go home. I'm surprised that he has this sense still or who his Mother really is when they talk on the phone after reading here. WHAT HAS THIS COUNTRY COME TO? How can this be happening? We are responsible collectively for this great trauma. Most of us didn't know it was in place when it began. And the cost, the huge costs, human costs, cost of disgrace to us as a people, cost of our reputation as a people, and not to mention the crazy monetary (and environmental) costs involved in this mess.
14
Republican apologists for the Trump administration are twisting themselves into knots trying to defend this morally reprehensible policy. Meekins of HHS continues this practice by claiming the reunification process is taking so long because the department is "protecting children." The level of bad faith and outright mendacity is breathtaking.
13
Love the way organization bungled logistics to keep families identified. All of a sudden it was a monumental task as if in 1800's delivering mail by mules and not a fiber optic environment. But when time came to reunify-- all of a sudden fiber optics returned to identify criminals to delay family reunion. Convenient Contrivance.
8
Does it strike anyone else that the insistence on having crossed the border line to get to someone to ask for asylum is a crime for which they must be prosecuted is wrong and unAmerican in all ways?
Kind of like how Rosa Parks was arrested and charged for not getting out of her seat for a white man was wrong and unAmerican in all ways.
It is a technical legally correct proceeding that ignores reality and the intent of our system to seek Justice.
13
Please don't make the grotesque error of comparing this to Rosa Parks refusal to give up her seat to a white American and subject herself to arrest. Rosa Parks was a US citizen, whose birthright was protection under the laws of the US Constitution and for which generations of African Americans had fought and died. The laws protecting the US borders aren't immoral laws but are laws which are similar to laws of every other nation on Earth. The Jim Crow statutes used to segregate, discriminate, terrorize and excuse murder were immoral and and later struck down as unconstitutional. How does that compare to inforcing the laws against illegal immigration?
11
Nothing of the kind.
The Constitution is protection for all of humanity or it is nothing at all.
These people are not violating the law, they are as the law states coming to the US and entering it so that they can ask for asylum. They cannot legally ask for asylum from outside the United States.
If you don't like that talk to your Representative and Senator to see if they can get our treaties changed.
This is exactly the same as Rosa Parks event with the exception that she was part of a years long plan of winning other cases that set up the argument they made for her case then she happened to be the one who volunteered to be the one to get arrested. Otherwise everything about how the law is falsely and unjustly being applied here is the same. It is meant to terrorize and otherwise unjustly abuse these people.
WHY has congress not DEMANDED the resignation of the so-called Attorney General?
Have our "legislators" become so afraid that they will allow ANY TRAVESTY in the name of "justice" and protecting their chances for re-election?
This is EXACTLY what tyrants count on.
8
The GOP aren't afraid, just collaborating.
3
Also, please support the A.C.L.U., which is filing lawsuits and keeping this administration in check (something the Republican-controlled Congress refuses to do, despite the fact that it's their Constitutional duty to do so.)
3
Mothers can never fail to recognize their kids even in the wild animal kingdom. Could some of the migrant mothers be carrying others children in consideration of a reward to get them US citizenship? People are ready to pay millions to get US citizenship? This new dimension complicates further the task of already strained homeland security!
6
I think you are confused. The mothers recognize their children! But very young children, some only months old, may not respond to their parents after being separated from them for so long. This is not because the parents were bad and the kids don’t want them, but because young children may not be capable of comprehending such a situation. Come to think of it, I can’t comprehend it either.
19
The mothers DID recognize their children. It was the traumatized 3 year old CHILDREN who cried and didn't initially recognize their parents.
Learn. To. Read.
5
I think you read that wrong...or typed it wrong...they said the very young children were forgetting their parents after months of separation and shock and trauma--not the mothers. Small children can forget, they can experience the lack of emotional permanence. These are great periods of time when you're that young, that's why children adopted at very young ages may not remember their parents at.
4
I hope these families know that a huge portion of Americans repudiate these vicious, heinous, and monstrous practices. We had 600 protests across the country ten days ago, condemning these atrocities in the strongest possible terms. I hope that if, somehow, these protest photos are ever seen by these mothers and families, it will give them some comfort and solace, to know that many of us stand together with them, adamantly opposed to cruel and unusual punishment for anyone, and strongly in support of family values for all families worldwide.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/8703833@N08/albums/72157698316196334
12
The rejection may well be a basic trauma response...having lost their parent, they may be afraid to reconnect because of the fear of losing them again. The ability to trust that they won't suffer the "abandonment" again has to be rebuilt over time. Doing this deliberately to a child through policy is unforgivable.
17
Isn't that nice, the staff came in early to make sure each child got a hug and a goodbye and a back pack full of stuff. Initially they ripped these kids from their parents, didn't let the child say goodbye to their parents, nor did the parents have time to explain anything to the their kids give them a hug or say goodbye. The anti trump bunch as you call us do not need any events to gin up support. All we have to do is READ Trumps tweets, LOOK at the corporate/lobbyist swamp people he appoints, LISTEN to him speak and see the RESULTS of his actions.
20
Next time you get a parking ticket? We will deport your family together! Deal?
17
Reality check too late to stop people who come here illegally all ready 32 million here in usa. Best to encourage countrys to keep their people there by giving them free health care an welfare even if we have to contribute here. American crperations how exploit free labor in these countrys should pay expense in there profits.
3
All of them need to come to California where they will be welcome! Soon we will offer all undocumented immigrant workers free health insurance! It's a beautiful thing!
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article209...
11
What a fiasco. I'm completely unmoved. Additionally, the melodrama in these comments is not at all persuasive. And the hypocrisy of progressives is breathtaking. Time for Zero Tolerance. It is long overdue. The ACLU is more focused on illegal border criminals engaging in distinctly poor and serious risk parenting choices than the needs of actual US citizens and legal immigrants. It's offensive. An insult. Further, this open/no borders approach, let's game and manipulate, and a ridiculous catch/release strategy. simply perpetuates countries of origin continuing to get away with not addressing the needs of their own citizens and pushing it on the US. Zero Tolerance ! Zero Tolerance !
22
The "poor" parenting choice for these families would be to remain in a lawless country, watching the murder of family members, and fleeing when they themselves are threatened with rape and/or death. They're coming here for safety and to give their children a "right to life."
If conservatives truly believe in the right to life beyond the uterus, this is the time they should step forward. Or is this only for American (usually white) women, and only while pregnant?
7
I'm sure most of Trump's supporters would read this story and go to bed with a smile on their face, and dream sweet dreams of traumatized brown children.
9
This is a crime against humanity and my country is the villain. I’m beyond heartsick over this but I will not give up or give in to despair. Keep resisting, write letters, make phone calls. No Republican is off the hook for this travesty. Vote them out of office- what a despicable bunch of spineless cowards.
17
Would the NYT, please, please stop repeating the phrase “catch and release” to describe releasing humans from custody? The quotation marks don’t cause hardliners to self-reflect on its use; Repeating that fishing term just reinforces their notion that these people are not people.
8
If you go crashing over the Rio Grande into Mexico and claim asylum from oppressive U.S. Law...guess what?
They will separate you from your child...and you will end up in a Tijuana hellhole for 2 years. That's the prison sentence for violating Mexico's sovereignty.
21
Legitimate asylum-seekers from the south would seek refuge in the safest country nearest their own not at war. That would be Mexico...NOT the United States.
Millions of foreign nationals have unilaterally decided that our our sovereign borders and immigration laws don’t apply to them. They should be deported immediately, along with their progeny. Want to come here? Respect our laws and get in line!
15
So a country that had their most violent peace-time year in 2017 (29,000 violent deaths) is really the nearest safe country? Besides, if you're following the narrative spewed by this admin, it's loaded with criminals...
Alot of people being arrested went to legitimate points of entry and applied for asylum, that isn't illegal. Human rights violations againt them is, but i know folks in this admin only care about the rights of folks that look like they came from Norway...and join their DT cult.
4
As a mother I can't imagine going through what these parents have had to endure. This process has been inhumane and illegal from the start. The stories are heartbreaking and there are still so many more families to reunite. Trump's immigration policies and his utter disdain and neglect of Puerto Rico during the hurricane are the two worst things he has done in office and show what a racist, heartless man he truly is. The problem is that his followers don't care if he is racist or heartless, so maybe that means they are too. It is a sad and unpleasant thought to have about your fellow Americans.
9
He said that means the migrants will be given ankle bracelets “and released into the community.”
Homeless America but with a tag. At least without a tag there’s the animal shelter. Thank you Judge Gee for your big heart.
1
Could it be that some of these adults really aren't the parents of these children and were used as a bargaining chip to get into the United States? Probably.
23
Why don’t you listen to the child psychologists and pediatricians who are trying to explain to soulless Americans what happens to traumatized children.
5
They're being reunited using DNA testing, so no.
2
I have no answers. I do agree with many NYT commentators that our own citizens should come first. We have hungry children without parents. We have victims of domestic abuse suffering ‘in the shadows’ with no support system.
Cities across the country have backlogs of DNA testing of rape kits. Yet we’re wanting DNA tests on illegal immigrants for their ‘rights.’ How can it be that children separated from their families do not recognize their mothers?
Reports like these do not ‘pull on my heartstrings.’
Rather, I’d like to point out that our non human brethren recognize each other after years of separation.
17
The heartlessness of Americans never ceases to shock me. Were you outraged when Trump defunded CHIP, food stamps, Medicaid, housing , education? What about the dirty air and dirty water our children now breathe and drink?
7
Aid to central America to stabilize their governmental rule of law, so hundreds of thousands of their desperate citizens don't try to come here, plus aid for foreign family planning to reduce the dire poverty so many must suffer, would do more to reduce illegal immigration than separating families and building a wall.
Sadly such rational actions are verboten for the GOP.
6
I see that some commenters here cannot resist pulling out those old canards of immigrants seeking to take American jobs. Oh, please, you mean those jobs coveted by all Americans such as harvesting crops, processing chickens and house cleaning? And that American children are being hurt and traumatized every day and we do nothing about it yet cry over "alien" children. We DO try to take care of our nation's children (except when Congress takes money away from programs that would help them) and when we see wrongs being done we try to fix them. And that is the point here. We SEE these refugee children being done wrong and are trying to help because they are innocent children. Maybe not American children but human children. We shouldn't prioritize children, turn our heads and harden our hearts because they are not American-born. America is better than that. We can't afford to do right by these children? Then be a bit more outraged at the money being spent unethically by people in the Trump administration who feel entitled to special treatment on the taxpayers' dollar.
9
The power of the media has certainly proved itself in inspiring anger and hatred for Trump over this immigration issue. Imagine the same forced used to guide people how as individuals they could help really people in tangible ways as opposed to just complaining about its leaders. Life is way more than just winning elections in your favor. Such a waste of what could be a valuable resource for mankind. No doubt if Hillary were president, El Salvador would be the garden of eden and this could never have happened to begin with.
10
When children have been separated from their parents for awhile and tend to reject them upon being reunited, it's not a good sign. Those kids were severely traumatized and it will take months of therapy to help them recover.
8
This policy and its effects are not an accident or mistake.
This is the intended result of a policy meant to terrorize the world but mainly those who live south of our border away from seeking asylum here. In this current case from the problems our republicans have caused in their countries for the last 40 years.
On a grander scale the US through both parties has interfered with governments south of us to the detriment of those nations and its people since Monroe was president at least.
6
Unfortunately, get used to seeing this happen more. We live in a time of consequences. World population has quadrupled since I was born, the planet is running out of resources for all of us, and earth is drenched in weapons. The first category of these refugees all over the planet are those fleeing wars and violence, and the second are those fleeing ravaged lands that suffer crippling droughts and other climate change effects.
4
WHY has congress not DEMANDED the resignation of the so-called Attorney General?
Have our "legislators" become so afraid that they will allow ANY TRAVESTY in the name of "justice"/
3
I think we just added a new tactic and profits for human trafficers. Why are these Central Anerican governments working with Mexico to transport all their poorest people to the US. I believe tbe US has become a social safety net for all of Central America and Mexico.
11
While I am sure that it added insult to injury for the parent to experience that, it reminds me of an witnessing something similar when I was 6. My youngest brother is 6 years younger than I. At one point during when he was 2, my dad left for a month for a business trip. We he had left he had a full beard, and had be bearded my brother's whole life. When my Dad came home from his trip, he was clean shaven. When my Dad tried to pick him up to give him a huge, my brother started screaming bloody murder. It wasn't until my Mom came rushing into the room and greeted my Dad with a kiss and my brother heard more of my Dad's voice that my brother calmed down and accepted that he was indeed our father.
These kids should have never been separated. These people should have never crossed into our country illegally too. Both the child and the parent will get over it. I doubt the child will ever even remember it. But I doubt the mother will ever forget.
5
As an elementary school teacher, this bears repeating: I will not endorse standing or reciting the Pledge that we start our day with until every single child is reunited. And again, as a Navy veteran (21 years), please refrain from the "disrespecting the vets" talking point. Thanks.
This was completely unnecessary and by this administration's logic? People who commit crimes need their children taken away from them. So what is it trump supporters? Please advise.
21
Quit your job as a teacher then in protest.
4
We need criminals apprehended. Is Robert Mueller ready to start with more arrests? That is what informed and educated taxpayers/voters care about. As to the obsession for the GOP to harm children and attack the innocent and most voiceless in the US and elsewhere? Informed Americans already know. This entire GOP debacle has cost us a ton of lost tax dollars and has harmed the US, as usual. Nothing the GOP does, with the usual eager help of Mitch McConnell and his buddy Trump, ever helps the USA. The GOP is the proven anti-American club. This Nation of Immigrants is the greatest country in the world and the GOP simply can't tolerate that. What a shame for the GOP. Maybe they would be happier if they joined Putin, back home.
4
What we do not see in this article and elsewhere in the news, is what efforts the US has initiated with the countries these people come from. Or whether there are actions taken already in place. It is agreed that illegal immigration into the US cannot be allowed. Hence, a policy to stop illegal migration.
The problem we see is the manner in which the policy is being implemented or enforced. The crux of the problem. To separate children from their parents, is just unthinkable. The only similarity we can think of is watching one of those Nazi Germany era movies where men, women and children were separated before they ended up in concentration camps. It is appalling to see the framers of this policy are doing almost the same thing. And, it is more distressing to see this happening, of all places, here in the USA. Are we not the world leader, usually in the forefront telling others, what is right and wrong?
If children, reuniting with their mothers, do not recognize the parent, this is not strange. It is a natural reaction on the part of children, at their age. One traumatized parent meeting an already traumatized child. Not to speak of the psychological impact for both parent and child. Even in a normal situation, we see how painful it is for children to be separated from their parents. The fact that those enforcing the policy are ignorant of this, is very regrettable. It is like they are here from another planet.
9
This is not about illegal immigration.
This, the abuse of children and fraudulent description of it by the perps, is about racism and bigotry. Or don't you remember El Trumpo's opening speech when he declared candidacy?
These people are not illegal immigrants they are asylum seekers running from the problems the republican party and its moneyed masters created in the home countries they come from. Rest assured they would all prefer to have stayed home and keep on living their lives uninterupted.
7
Just absolutely gut wrenching. As the child of an asylee and someone who deals with lasting effects of trauma from a kind of rocky environment in early childhood (yes, so early I can’t actually remember), I find the notion of subjecting so many families to this unbelievably disgusting. This is a human rights abuse, plain and simple. No one deserves it.
I promise you, if you in the same circumstances in your homeland as many of these parents, and unless you simply didn’t care about their welfare and survival, you would have attempted the same.
7
The fact that this President caused this to happen knowingly and with out any thought to how to actually solve the problem is sickening.
12
He caused it to happen knowingly.
This is the solution he thinks will "solve" the problem that only exists in his fevered imagination just like his belief that Obama is not an American and is probably Muslim.
He thinks inflicting lifelong injury on these innocent children will cause enough terror that the people who are escaping the chaos his fellow republicans caused in their home countries will no long run and stay to be murdered instead.
4
Where did you invent this fantasy of "dna testing for their rights"?
they are DNA testing 1. because they are racist dictatorial scum who want to be able to track these people forever. 2. because they intentionally did not create a proper system for tracking where they sent the children or keep and often never made record of who their parents were so they have to use DNA to identify them.
"How can it be that children separated from their families do not recognize their mothers?" It is a well known problem that the trauma of separation and the confusion/trauma the child must endure when there is no known family with them especially when their is no comfort by design (personnel were explicitly ordered not to comfort these children!) that the child's mind which is still developing loses memory. I have suffered this it is an injury well proven for decades and I can attest to this, which you never recover from.
BTW you no more care about "our own children" than you do about these children.
4
Dear NYT, please stop using the term "catch and release". As your article points out, "Catch and release is a term with no legal definition and has been used as a pejorative alternative to jailing illegal immigrants." Yet you repeat it several times to describe the practice of allowing migrants seeking asylum to live together with their children, under supervision, without being incarcerated. Migrants are humans, not fish. Language matters. Thank you.
2
What a fiasco. I'm completely unmoved. Additionally, the melodrama in these comments is not at all persuasive. And the hypocrisy of progressives is breathtaking. Time for Zero Tolerance. It is long overdue. The ACLU is more focused on illegal border criminals engaging in distinctly poor and serious risk parenting choices than the needs of actual US citizens and legal immigrants. It's offensive. An insult. Further, this open/no borders approach, let's game and manipulate, and a ridiculous catch/release strategy. simply perpetuates countries of origin continuing to get away with not addressing the needs of their own citizens and pushing it on the US.
Zero Tolerance ! Zero Tolerance !
27
Please elaborate for us lefties: what do you mean by "zero tolerance?" It's a widely-used, broad, ambiguous talking point on the right, so we have to know. Thanks!
9
Completely unmoved by the trauma experienced by children.
That says a lot about you.
Republicans have hurt American children too, defunding CHIP, food stamps, education, health care, housing subsidies. Poisoning the air children breathe, the water children drink, the soil in which our food is grown.
11
They are probably getting better care by SWs than they did from their parents- IF they are even their real parents. Sorry but I deployed several times for over a year and my kid knew me when I got home.
24
Yes, with Skype, everything works out after deployment!
2
Duh! Trump and his minions blindly locked up people fleeing violence, sent their kids away, spent OUR tax dollars on detainment camps, and now whine that their hands are tied. We should lock THEM up for unnecessarily creating this whole avoidable mess.
12
They created it on purpose. the "our hands are tied" line was the planned excuse for the mess they intentionally created to maximize the pain and injury they are intentionally inflicting without valid reason. There can be no valid reason to do this sort of thing ever which they know and is why they are working so hard to make it seem like they are incompetent and incapable so they won;t be found out as having done it on purpose knowing how wrong and harmful it was all along.
2
What a complete disaster, reminiscent of some fascist state. Anyone involved in this, from Trump and Sessions down to the border officials, guards putting parentless children in carseats and cages, and even the social workers caring for them - anyone involved who collected a paycheck and did not raise their voice against this, is complicit and should be prosecuted as such. They should know that they have participated in one of the most evil acts carried out by the government on American soil since the internment of WW2, and I hope they think about that everyday for the rest of their lives.
12
The sociopaths who have been allowed to act in their roles as president and attorney general have made our country's policies sociopathic. No conscience. No empathy.
But some sociopaths are worse than others. These two seem to be particularly sadistic, especially as it relates to their racism and misogyny.
8
Okay, Michael, let’s charge them with reckless endangerment. When we’re done doing that, can we charge Jeff Sessions with aiding and abetting crimes against humanity? If that won’t hold up in court, how about we charge Donald Trump with failing to do his sworn oath to support and defend the Constitution? It seems to me he isn’t doing much of that these days, instead just being a loudmouth troublemaker who’s promised the NRA that he’ll never let them down. Or perhaps we could charge him for inciting violence? (The failure to condemn the white supremacists in Charlottesville, the encouragement he exercised at his campaign rallies that his followers do physical harm to people he found objectionable, etc.) How does that sound to you? No, you object? Okay, I’m sure there are a few contractors of old Don’s out there who would love to finally get paid. Maybe we can charge him with something relating to nonpayment? Surely there must be some sort of law relating to that on the books.
Let this disloyal American know when you’ve made your decision. I know how concerned you are when it comes to those who break the law. I can’t wait to hear from you about what we should do about the thieves and liars in our midst! But don’t take too long, Michael: there’s a guy in Washington working on this right now, and his name is Robert Mueller. You wouldn’t want him to beat you to the punch, now would you?
6
Willfully separating young children from their parents is a crime against humanity. Full stop.
The Trump administration must be held accountable for this cruel and immoral act.
20
Here's the legal definition of Crimes against Humanity:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/crime_against_humanity
The list ends with this:
"Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health."
4
@magic is not real: you have it backwards. They SNUCK into the country and were coached to say "I want asylum!" when they are caught -- precisely to create this "catch and release" scenario -- to get a free pass for having a child with them -- often the child isn't their own! -- some people took one small "Cute" child and left the siblings and their spouse back in Central America! -- just what you'd do if you thought they were in danger from gangs? leave your spouse and other kids to die?
3
Obama did it too. We do it every day with criminals in our justice system -- with the mentally ill -- abusers -- drug addicts and alcoholics.
But you only care NOW? because these are illegals? Or because you see a chance to bash the President?
3
May Steven Miller and Donald Trump writhe in hell for eternity for what they did/are doing to these families. May their cruelty to those not as rich or as white as they are circle back to visit them and *their* families -- because maybe THEN, they’ll get the point of what they’ve done to others.
But that’s not all because this is the gift that could keep on giving: Think about the terrorists they may be creating now. Who among these children (or parents) won’t think about revenge one day?
I never used to talk or even think retribution or "may bad karma visit them", but this administration has shown me the cruel underside of Americans, including those staying silent (i.e., complicity) during all of this. Shame, shame, shame on you all!
Legal, illegal, seeking asylum or not, Americans being inhumane to others has never been the hallmark of America. We rejected labels and instead helped others -- our true calling. Sure, we’re not perfect but we have so often come down on the side of good. Apparently, we no longer stand for good. Instead, we stand for meanness. Personified by this callow and soulless crew in the White House and cabinet (and Congress).
And won’t THAT come back to haunt us, the American people, who are being used to justify this treatment of others?
Chilling, isn’t it.
7
BearBoy,
Many of these people are families seeking asylum.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/ice-and-border-patrol-abuses...
5
Please show the proof of the guilt you have assumed with no evidence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan_Doctrine
Simply replace every mention of communism with democratic grass roots people movements to rid themselves of American supported dictators and you'll start to get the point.
And it leaves out the death squads reagan set up to make sure the people could not take over their own government. Basically it is a microcosm of how the Monroe doctrine played out from day one.
I know a lot of children here in America who call their day care providers or nannies Mama because they spend the majority of their time with these people instead of their own mothers and fathers. It's terrible, the situations so many parents put their children in.
16
Vote Republican and you too can work 4 jobs to make ends meet.
3
The families torn apart by this atrocity should receive appropriate restitution. They should all be given citizenship. The education of their children should be paid for through college. Parents and children should be eligible for lifetime counseling. America must stand up and make amends for the monsters who have torn these families apart.
11
Oh, sure. That would just encourage MORE OF THE SAME.
NO, they do not deserve "restitution" in any way for delays in verifying their claims.
They do need to submit payment for their applications, at the very least.
4
For all you Maroons out there who think we US citizens are victims of this desire to come here to ask for asylum, It is a Luxury problem to be so loved by all that they wish to become one of us.
BTW the reason these people are coming here is due to what the GOP who is now abusing them here was doing to abuse them in their home countries. The GOP policies since the 1980's when we set up death squads to squelch democratic reforms by the people and keep criminal dictators most of whom our corporations set up in office in power. The devolution of society from which our republican corporations have profited so magnificently has lead to the chaos and anarchy & criminality these people are running from.
If you do not want them coming here fix the problems you and your politicians created for them at home!
15
Is the US this incompetent? No one in the government has a brain anymore? We are looking to be more and more like a third world country with a useless government ... big sigh.
7
Why is it America's responsibility to FIX the corrupt gov'ts in Central & South America?
With all the immigration gerrym/pandering at the Southern Border, where's the proposal to annex every country down to the Panama Canal for starters? Doing that would achieve the Liberals goal of doing away with/reforming ICE so it only had one side of the Canal to patrol.
If Canada and Mexico want to renegotiate NAFTA, in exchange for lifting tariff's, there should be some reciprocal help in combating the migrant crisis in Central America as well as deploying troops along Mexico's southern border in an attempt to curtail the drug flow.
NATO should also be involved. The member nations expect the US to protect their assets yet only complain when the US expects some semblance of gratitude.
15
It is our responsibility because we created the mess down there.
Since President Monroe the US has used nations south of the border as play things ot make money and otherwise do as they pleased for fun and profit.
6
Balderdash!
The Monroe Doctrine was about Latin America freeing itself from Spain's control and the collateral damage it would create in Europe if 'we' got involved.
When someone shows you who they ARE, believe them. The GOP are Monsters, and Collaborators. There is no other rational explanation.
VOTE them OUT. ALL OF THEM.
27
I know from experience that you guys likely will reject comments that focus on the newspaper's coverage rather than the subject of the story, but I must say I do not understand why this most dramatic humanitarian story perpetrated by our nation is not more prominently displayed and more urgently covered. Yes, a lot is going on with the Supreme Court and the NATO summit, etc., but there is no more demanding story than this in human terms and it is being created by an incompetent government that happens to be our own.
13
My daughter wouldn't even look at me after a 6 month deployment. I'm hardly alone. Where's the NYT article about us? And since when do 3-year-old kids suffer Stockholm Syndrome? We're told that these kids are in the hands of Nazis.
20
So you left her alone with no family among strangers who would not hold hug or comfort her in any way while also speaking a language she did not understand, giving her a noisy plastic sheet to make sure she couldn't even get the small comfort of a soft material in a blanket and mocking and belittling her for being where she is?
I believe what you have done here is called a false comparative. BTW you should be registering exactly how harmful this is if your daughter who I assume you left with loving family reacted like that.
Rest assured this abuse was calculated and planned out to inflict the damage you have read about and more that you won't be hearing about for years when it starts to shows its symptoms if someone happens to make the connections.
7
It is my considered opinion being a victim of this by the State of NJ and my own family that they these facts fully and that was actually the reason they chose this particular method of abuse.
They wanted to inflict a very large injury on a large group of innocent people that no one would be able to overlook to create fear (terrorize) the people of the world who might consider trying to ask the US for asylum.
Of course if you pay attention the GOP does not believe they seek asylum as they have already decided they came here to commit crimes.
6
Can anything more sad to be a news line in USA.
But all Trump voters who elected him and those abstained in 2016 must love this .. so I guess its not sad.. I thought any person crossing the border is M.. gang member or drug dealer or rapist .. I just did not know they were infants .. oops.. well President is a human .. every body lies.. ( Breitbart and Fox says Obama lied too see what I mean .. ) ..
I can still see Americans still voting for this morally corrupt person on Evangelical dictum and conviction any time .. Trump himself he can shoot in middle on Fifth Ave and people will still vote for him.. Just too sad for American Democracy..
4
Thanks, donnie, jeffie, tommie, and kirstie! You have made yourselves enemies of the U.S., and the world, in general. You have created immense, and unnecessary, suffering for some of the most vulnerable people in the world. You are liars, child abusers, and law breakers, and all of you should be prosecuted for your crimes.
9
The problem, you see, is that these are living, breathing toddlers (albeit brown, foreign ones). If they were a fertilized egg, the right wing evangelical trump supporters would be rioting in the street for justice. These hypocrites are pro-birth, not pro-life.
21
This is the hideous face of a mentally ill, morally defective president, those in the Republican party who look away to preserve the votes of willfully ignorant people, those officials in government who yessir, nosir though they know better, the American system that allowed a minority of people to exert their will on the majority who voted otherwise, all the rest of us because we are Americans. I'm personally shamed, and not for the first time with this monster, and I hope I don't get used to it.
9
There’s a special place in hell for anyone in this administration that supported this (hey there, Jeff Sessions!) and continues to support it, as well as any average citizen who condones it. And no, don’t tell me that these people shouldn’t complain because they broke the law, or that we can’t afford to have everyone here anyway. This is not how a government hammers out sound and immigration policies in the 21st century. Separating children from their mothers for so long that the kids no longer recognize them, mistake other kids for their siblings or regress back into diapers is not making America great again: it’s just cruel and if you support this, then one day you’re going to find you were on the wrong side of history. I hope you like it there on the other side. I hope Trump was worth your conscience and your humanity.
11
OK, so the kids finally got a hug when they're released? This after we're told that no touching of the children was permitted while they were in custody? This is supposed to make it all better? never for these children and their families.
What vicious, cruel, stupid and abusive and rules.politicians we have these days. What cruel people profit to from this.
Worse - the sound of silence from those who could and should stand up to this. Thank goodness for the few who have and do.
There is no point in asking if these nasty peole have no shame - of course they don't!
8
This is the fault of the illegal alien parents. Do NOT bring your children here. We don't like you breaking our laws. Deport the families together
30
Please someone tell me this is USA and not north korea and this is not China either!
4
Sorry. No sympathy for people who subject their kids to lawlessness. You cross out border illegally...guess what? You get separated from your kids.
Obama did the same exact thing. Except Obama encouraged lawlessness since he loved the welfare state for all...including illegal immigrants.
22
Parents should be charged with reckless endangerment of children. With this charge, activist judges couldn't order them reunited. Who doesn't consider illegally crossing the US-Mexican border reckless? These people are economic migrants and are abusing the good will of the American people. Their supporters are disloyal Americans. Don't be surprised when this becomes a more violent confrontation. And put the blame where it belongs, on the people who are breaking the law and those supporting them.
22
Human beings and their eternal ignorance, tribalism, and selfishness. Thank God those same characteristics are leading them to upset the balance of their ecosystem in a way that will destroy their entire species.
4
No, I put the blame for violence on people who commit violence.
3
It must be god`s will since, as the crooked EPA manager Pruitt said on leaving , that Trump is POTUS because god wanted it.
America , what have you done to yourself ! You are no longer just the laughing stalk of the developed world. You are now a reprehensible Fly Over country.
Trump is a mentally ill conman being abetted by swamp creatures for their exclusive benefit. Please fix this nightmare ASAP.
13
What do you care? You elected Trudeau to lead Canada on his “awesome” lack of economic development experience? Now, your country has 27 percent of families living on debt, and unemployment hovering about 10 percent (and more on the Native reserves and selected industries). And you blame us for Trump’s 3.8 percent unemployment! Yeah, sure, what a nightmare——for Canadians and Mexico!
7
Finally, these crimes against humanity are ending. However, we must be aware that the consequence will be that more migrants will bring very young children with them rather than leave them at home, even though very young children are usually not the direct victims of gang or domestic violence, because the toddlers are their tickets to release in the US. When is ICE going to target the profiteering smugglers? Oh yeah, that requires cooperation with the Mexican government, that our leadership has destroyed.
7
Maybe the children did recognize their mothers but were very upset and angry from the separation, which led them to push their mothers away. It was their way of saying: Why did you leave me? Do you really love me?
I have seen this with children whose mothers go away for a couple of weeks and then return. Children are upset that they were left. They do not understand the circumstances and feel abandoned and angry. They push their mothers away.
11
The reason these kids are "calmer" is because they are either
in shock or they are being pumped full of drugs. I have seen reports of anti-psychotics being given to toddlers. When is someone going to do a piece of helping these parents understand the dangers and severity of any withdrawal effects? Many immigration activists, and others helping the kids, may not be aware.
5
And now we begin to see the horrible consequences of separating children from their parents. I hope these families will have access to some form of mental health care as part of a much-needed healing process.
This is all so horribly wrong, and the people who carried out these separations are evil.
5
I've mentioned before that I was abused at the hands of the State of NJ. One of the most lasting and personally painful injuries was not being able to identify my own parents without being told who they were. Worse not having it acknowledged that it was normal and not my fault but acting as if I were somehow defective for not being able to recognize them and then mocking me for having cried to be with someone I did not recognize!
It is CRITICALLY important that the persons who came up with and issued the order that the children were not to be hugged or comforted in any normal way be identified and held to account!
7
Please, @nytimes, you have a grave responsibility to our social and political discourse. Do not use the phrase "catch and release" to describe the processing of migrants on our southern border. These are people, not TROUT. Do not dehumanize them further with use of derogatory terms. Here it was used four times. Language matters.
13
This was a planned human rights abuse for political gain. There is more care taken with library books and checked coats than was considered for these kids. How and why was it necessary to scatter these kids across the country and move them under cover of night???? Unless you planned to make reunification difficult. Why were local government officials denied access and inspection of facilities in their communities? And now - we are "vetting" the parents for fitness before reunification? How ironic that the party of small government has taken on the role of Big Brother.
16
To really understand the depth of disorder this treatment causes, watch THE SEARCH, a 1948 film with Montgomery Clift. In the film, Clift is a US soldier who meets a 12 year old who speaks no languages he knows, begins to teach the kid English, until his student flees to find his mother. It is a brilliant film about child victims of the Holocaust, with hundreds of children released to Israel with parents lost to the Nazi's. And it painfully echoes the Trump treatment today.
7
This is so utterly heartbreaking, it is difficult read.
The long term effects of Trump's cruel inhumane
policy will be a stain on America forever.
8
Who were the victims in this action by Trump? The most vulnerable of course, the children. The psychological scarring may be permanent.
5
A word to all those braying, "Deport them all, lock them up!" (And who exactly are these people? How heartless can they be?): Need I remind you that unless you are the descendant of a Native American your ancestors all came here from "somewhere else." We are a nation of immigrants!
9
Could it be that the children are and were being used as foils for those looking to skirt the immigration procedures?? Nah..never.
28
maybe the kids are angry at their parents for putting them through this agita.
14
You'll have that when they are not the true parents. Why would anyone assume that these adults are their real parents when there is a noted human trafficking ring bringing in these children? I think Americans are too gullible and naive and base their beliefs emotions rather than logic.
25
Please provide proof of this "noted trafficking ring bringing these children in"!
You are conflating the racist lies made up to excuse this policy with reality. Another of teh shams they have pulled was to arrest and jail the parents then declare the children to be unaccompanied minors and play it off as if they had arrived in custody that way so they could not be called out for the obvious fraud they had just perpetrated!.
Americans are too gullible. Republican Americans!
The only "problem" at the border is the arrival of the victims of the GOP in central and South America.
5
Kagni, the gangs you speak of work as debt collectors. Those "coyotes" aren't cheap and if the loans aren't repaid the remain family gets squeezed. It's self-perpetuating that way.
Break the chain, make it stop.
4
Kagni, the gangs you speak of work as debt collectors. Those "coyotes" aren't cheap and if the loans aren't repaid the remain family gets squeezed. It's self-perpetuating that way.
Break the chain, make it stop.
Illegal entrant's crying towel story du jour. Because absolutely no one else in America is at all suffering or having a bad day.
31
What will happen with children over 5 going forward? Children still need their parents at 6, 9, 11...
3
The Dystopian States of Trump (DST) will put migrant identities including facial recognition data on a blockchain, and monitor them for life. Then this data will be financialized and securitized, packaged as a Citizen Default Swap (CDS) and sold to Pension Funds, Banks and the futures markets. Who knew slavery could be so profitable. Best slavery ever! you won't even know your a slave, so relax, it's going to be terrific. Like being born again and we all know how great it is to be born (again). Citizens, lend me your ears, Hail Trump!
(Alphabet patent pending [sic])
6
Horrible!
However, the parents should not have illegally sneaked into the country. You want to come here? Go to the US embassy or consulate in your home country and apply. Learn our language, and history. Drop the native costumes and headgear. Convince us that you want to be an American.
19
Two points...
1. These AREN'T "immigrants", these are asylum seekers. There is a difference. The US by LAW is required to grant anyone who requests asylum a court hearing based on their merits.
2. If illegal immigration is truly your concern, then maybe cracking down on the employers who hire these people should be at the top of your list for how to fix the problem. Funny how the Trump administration has REJECTED all attempts to hold the employers accountable for their role in attracting undocumented workers to this country.
What's going on at the border with our government ripping children away from asylum seekers is both racist and evil. Stop trying to justify it by lying.
11
They did not illegally sneak into the country they openly came into the country and asked for asdylum!
7
Well yeah, except the law specifically states that they CANNOT go to the US Embassy in their home countries, and that they are REQUIRED to present themselves at the US border in order to request asylum.
And since the Trump administration has implemented a policy of pinching off the number of asylum seekers even allowed to make this request at official ports of entry, and immediately arresting anyone crossing anywhere else, this "crisis" is entirely manufactured by Trump.
Those responsible for this travesty, starting at the top with Jeff Sessions, should be fired.
6
Alex Azar said Tuesday that his department was performing "one of the great acts of American generosity and charity" in its care of immigrant children. (CNN- "The Situation Room")
"It is one of the great acts of American generosity and charity, what we are doing for these unaccompanied kids who are smuggled into our country or come across illegally,..."
America can now add these infamous words to the "Happy Slave" narrative and "It's in their best interest-Executive Order 9006."
7
There are still over 2,000 kids who are currently separated from their families. The court has only ordered that those under 5 be reunited with their parents which is a total of 200. Only 13 have been reunited thus far because the gov't is having trouble locating the other kids and parents; they have asked for more time to do it and were given it and still are asking for more time. What about the kids who are 6 to 12? Where are they? Our gov't says they know yet can't seem to find them. Some parents have been deported without their children thousands of miles away. This is beyond incompetence and cruelty. It is a crime. And everyone who took part should be held accountable in a court of law. "I was just following orders" is no longer an excuse in a court of law. When did America forget the difference between right and wrong? Child kidnapping and abuse is never ok. Do we really need to tell some Americans that in 2018 that? Do they really not know? This whole nightmare could have been stopped by Americans refusing to take 'illegal orders.' These workers need to find their spines and refuse to do illegal and evil deeds. Get a lawyer if you must, but refuse Trump's illegal orders. Find your spines and just say 'no' to inhumane treatment of humans or perhaps one day soon you will find yourself defending your decision in a court of law like Hitler's henchmen did.
14
It might be something more subtle. Young children who aren't able to understand what happened to separate them from their parents may blame their parents for leaving them. That often happens when children are left by their parents who go on vacation without them - and resent them when they come back.
Of course, this is not what happened, but it may be one way that the kids cope with feeling like they were abandoned rather than separated from their parents.
3
During WW2, when children were separated from their parents in England, J. Bowlby said they experience: protest, despair, detatchment. Fast forward, to the toxic stress research at Harvard by J. Shonokoff. Small children's developing brains basically fail to develop in healthy ways because of stress and no secure attachment (a parent). Young children must have a steady, ongoing, secure relationships with a caregiver for healthy development. We are a morally bankrupt nation to have done this to innocent children regardless of their parents' choices.
11
And what about the children of Americans who are in the military or get went off to prison for whatever reasons?
Do they matter? As well as the millions of homeless children in America today?
10
And even if you are legal don't come here, Americans only like people exactly like themselves, they're fearful of everything but sameness and will only try to hurt you if you are not the same as they are.
1
Very young children ripped away from their parents and not recognizing them. Classic kidnap trauma.
The Trump administration could not even reunite 102 kidnapped children with their families. They seized around 3,000 children from their parents. When taken, often ICE takes all the belongings, and sometimes people are deported with only the clothes on their backs -- any documents they had brought with them in thousand mile journeys disappear, one reason this reunification process is dependent on DNA.
Losing children, losing property, and losing their souls -- this is the Trump regime and all those who support it. This is a dark chapter in American history, and it is not ended yet. How many orphans did the Trump administration just create? Virtually all the children suffer trauma for the rest of their lives.
Shame is too mild a rebuke to the heartless, cruel officials and Republicans who support this.
Vote all mean-spirited Trump Republicans out in November and in every future election.
8
You describe the very heart and soul of the republican party since Nixon was Veep at least.
Vaguely recalling some of FDR's fireside chats which I have heard in documentaries where he counters their arguments suspiciously the same today as they were then, I'd say they have been soulless cowardly evil scum for the better part of a century.
4
I remember my daughter and son being very fussy and angry at me at the end of one day of daycare. It would happen on and off. All of the emotion of the day would come out but at first the child would be closed off and not responsive. They were angry that I wasn't there for them during they day. Usually after a cry they would be very cuddly. I hope these families can move past this trauma as quickly as possible. These are strong parents and they deserve our respect and empathy
8
Even so, her world is much better, for the moment, as she will discover when she and son are sent back to where they came from. It seems the only message that will get through.
7
The other side argues that if migrants don't want to be separated from their children, they shouldn't come here. I just want to put it out there; has anyone considered that these migrants have no access to the news? No cellphones with data plans and no newspapers?
11
Look at the photos. They ALL have smartphones.
17
Look at these infants and their parents.
How many of these babies were dragged through the desert as their parents pursued financial gain? Think of the risk to these children.
Then, too, think of the Indian and Pakistani children shown in coal mines (NYT magazine article a few years ago) or "sold" to be domestic and sex workers.
In too many third world countries children are currency for their parents.
Only the most sheltered in our society can fully believe the stories of parental angst at being separated from these children when there is some anticipation of financial gain, they do not share our values.
10
You do not believe that parents try to escape from violent gangs ?
Think back to the 30th when people did not believe Jews in Germany were in danger.
Do you know your own family history, why they came to America?
12
You are mistaken. These people are fully western, you do know that Spain was the EUropean power that set up each and every state south of our border?
They are more US american than most of the Americans I grew up with and have more respect and decency as well.
Example; few if any of them could be as callously dismissive of someone they do not know as you are in this post. Most could not even conceive of what you say is taking place. BTW the real problem is not so much the parents pain it is the actual injury being knowingly and intentionally inflicted upon the children.
1
Once again, one sees that Trump is correct - the USA has a failed immigration policy and law that is impossible to execute and which has resulted in some 11 million illegal immigrants living in the USA.
Of course, this is acceptable to many Democrats, who do not believe in the rule of immigration law.
21
Unless you're Choctaw or Ohlone or Potawatomi, etc., you are an immigrant or the descendent of immigrants. This was not a barren land just waiting to be filled by white people and, eventually, their slaves.
2
Another gut-wrenching day here in the New York Times reading room. From the comfort of our desk chairs at work we get to experience real life suffering in our own imagined ways and effortlessly proclaim out virtuosity with something as self-sacrificing and demanding as a post. A real testimony to the triumph of the human spirit and the deviousness of technology. My thoughts are with all those tireless civil servants who have had to deal with these poor moms and kids and sort this whole mess out. They're the ones who should be credited for having to had change and feed these kids all this time. They're safe and now mommy is good until the next changing is due.
4
It's called "Trauma". All for nothing. What they did was not illegal contrary to what our well-read "president" said. 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, section 235(b).
9
If parents do not want to be separated from their children they should not attempt to enter the United States illegally. So simple.
20
Reading history is important, including reading the whole book, not just the parts you like or agree with. My ancestors greeted those European immigrants, fed them, sheltered them, taught them how to live on our lands, and in return, they were murdered, enslaved, and robbed of their homelands by successive waves of determined immigrants who refused to assimilate to our cultures. We Indigenous people are now .09% of our homelands population, and largely ignored except as team mascots & on Thanksgiving or Columbus Day.
Are we America's canary in the coal mine? When our children were taken by the government and put in re-education camps
where was the outrage? My own mom was taken from her family & had her proud heritage beaten & abused out of her.
Do Indigenous people get to decide how many more immigrants can come to our shores?
Will Americans live to regret helping millions more come to "your" country?
As Migrant Families Are Reunited, Some Children Don’t Recognize Their Mothers Or Even Know Who Their Fathers Are
3
No one should ever, ever forget that it is the Trump administration that caused this. Vote out every elected official who did not speak up, who did nothing to prevent this from happening in the United States.
25
I will remember his efforts as I vote for our President Trump's second term. The job he's doing on immigration and the economy is far beyond this former Democrat's expectations.
15
Are there no immigrants entering from the northern border seeking asylum? Are there any detentions along the northern border? Probably not.
4
Ask yourself "why not?" Because no sane Canadian would want to come here! They're better off where they are!
7
If you're not legal, don't come here. How parents can put their children through this is unforgivable. So, if you didn't understand before- again... if you are not legal, don't come here.
23
from another commenter:
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, section 235(b).
9
"He said that means the migrants will be given ankle bracelets “and released into the community.”
This is precisely the problem; these folks should be sent home at once.
Flores needs to go. That one thoroughly political BHO USDC judge can make immigration policy for the nation is utterly outrageous. The Clinton administration's dive on this issue should not be permitted to bind subsequent administrations which actually care about enforcing the law.
These families should all be reunited, in whatever country they came from.
In the interim, they should be closely watched, and if they even so much as burp without asking pardon, should be immediately sent home. No work. No driving. Nothing.
We should be clear and unequivocal: if your government has not targeted you for oppression, you are not eligible to asylum, and must go home. Not tomorrow. Now.
7
Service men and women leave their children for months, even years, yet that child is there with open arms when mommy or daddy gets home. Heck, I had a dog recognize me after not seeing him for over 2 years after I moved away...
I think this is a beefed up story to tug at the heart strings of America.
19
American's kids and Americans in general do not matter. It's all about the illegals, DACAs, immigrants and refugees.
20
The NYTimes sure loves these human interest pieces. Never mind the fact that they're here illegally and we've returned to a broken "catch and release" method that essentially means open borders after some paperwork. This whole ordeal tells me that
nothing's more dangerous to the law than a constant stream of pictures of crying babies and liberal California judges.
20
Apprehend, Detain, and Deport ALL illegal border crossers.
Build the wall.
Support ICE.
21
Allowing asylum seekers to declare themselves as such and enter at the border crossings, as has been traditional, would have gone a long way to avoiding this mess of DJT's making. Once he disallowed asylum seekers this option, they were left with only two choices: (1) enter illegally or (2) return home to nearly certain death. Which would you choose for your family?
6
And put every single employer that hires an undocumented person in Federal Prison for 10 years.
17
Where is Super Mom Ivanka Trump on all this? How about Barron's mother?
So far, crickets.
But - hey - Ivanka: big time congrats that your schlock line of clothing and shoes will not be subject to Chinese tariffs.
You go, girl!
NOT my president
17
Policy is a good topic of discussion, the families of politicians should not be a part of this.
3
Calling them migrants seems to miss the point that they are fleeing life threatening violence. They are asylum seekers. Why else would you leave all that is dear to you with only the clothes on your back and your child on your chest?
14
Anyone who votes for the GOP and professes "family values" is either a hypocrite, or has been living under a rock for 40 years.
17
There has got to be a special place in hell awaiting Trump for what he has done here with/to these people. These children will likely have psychological problems forever. He has no humanity, no compassion, no ....nothing. What an awful heartless individual he is.
17
If anyone finds it hard to believe that a child may not know their parent after few weeks' separation, my mother was ill and away for few weeks when my little brother was 2 or 3. When she came back, he did not know her: he led her to her own picture, to show her his Mom. It broke her heart for a while. This happened when he lived with my dad and me, his older sister, in our house, very well loved, and a brilliant child. I only mention this because some may think his disorientation may have been caused by some problem of his own.
17
Trump has done a great job of positioning to his base that these people are law breakers.
They are not. You have to be a citizen of this country to break the laws of this country.
What they are, are people comming from places where they have lost hope, looking for somthing better. They still believe in the "American Dream" even though "Trump's America" does not.
8
Foreigners also break laws--if they steal, run red lights, drive intoxicated, etc. And we have laws about foreigners needing to identify themselves when they want to cross our borders.
But showing up and asking for asylum is NOT breaking a law.
11
I agree with your sentiment, but your assertion that non-citizens are not subject to our laws is completely false. If this were true, there would be no foreigners in anyone's jails, and no movies like Midnight Express and Brokedown Palace portraying these situations.
2
Such a dark time in our history. What kind of representatives do we have that allow this? The calls that I have made to my representatives in Congress have fallen on deaf ears and souls with no conscience. Why do they allow this administration to run wild?
12
Perhaps this is reason enough to run the DNA tests to prove the child is that of the parent. There is child trafficking. It is better to be certain that the child is that of the parent.
13
Everyone believing the Trump claim that there is massive kidnapping of children involved should realize the following:
The cost of paternity testing will range from $69 to $399, depending on the test and lab used.
(And I bet it will go to a lab owned by a big Trump donor, so cost us the max.)
PLEASE! most of these families simply presented themselves at the wrong place to ask for asylum. and the reason they went to the wrong place is that this administration has reduced access to the correct place. Imagine your children being taken from you because you went to the incorrect voting booth, failed to properly register your car, were arrested for jaywalking.
13
There are 50 legal ports of entry in the US along the Mexico - US border. Those would be the right places to go.
8
Check your facts. The teacher tax deduction is still in place for 2018.
We need to stop calling Trump cruel and heartless. His supporters LOVE how mean he is to people of color and foreigners. He's their alter ego.
We need to battle Trump solely on the numbers:
- There were fewer unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. in 2015 under Obama than there were just after the end of the Bush administration in '09. There was NO immigration crisis when Trump came into office.
- And speaking of people coming in from out of country, Trump's private club Mar-a-Lago is trying to hire 78 foreign workers for menial level jobs (and although the club doubled its initiation fee to $200,000 because Trump going there a lot is a tourist attraction - the $13/hour below poverty level wage for cooks is lower this summer than it was before the club started making so much more money. I wouldn't want to eat the food there!)
- And speaking of wages going down under Trump, weekly wages were down at year-end 2017, and, for good measure, the US Chamber of Commerce predicts that 2.6 million jobs will be AXED because of Trump's tariff war. Trump is NOT the jobs president, he is the layoff president.
And speaking of layoffs, Trump has golfed 125 days of his presidency so far (his next golf trip is in a few days to his golf club in Scotland) - and his golfing has cost the United Statestaxpayers tens of millions of dollars in security and transportation.
Stick to the numbers on Trump. Just like with his 6 bankruptcies, the numbers never lie about Trump.
9
Trump should be giving those jobs to the American citizens of Puerto Rico, who are struggling to survive-- not transporting cheap help from former Communist bloc nations.
6
CommonSense-Thank you for a large dose of reality-you are right- numbers don't lie although Trump does!
2
Speaking of sticking to the numbers, I'd be very interested in those tax returns we still haven't seen.
5
This crime, Trump's crime, goes unpunished. We saw no real reaction to this barbarism. And the time was then, not now. Now we observe our cruelty, our brutality. Who we truly are.
12
If we build the Wall, there will be no more heartbreak. Families can enter legally together.
11
Many of the families who were separated presented themselves legally and requested asylum at designated border crossings. The separation was planned by design to discourage families from coming and requesting asylum.
6
People who present themselves at U.S. borders are allowed to claim asylum. A Homeland Security agent interviews that person and if they determine the applicant has a "credible fear" of returning home, they are allowed to make their case before an immigration judge.
That is not the same as crossing illegally and being CAUGHT!
26
In a previous administration, this would be true. But while you enjoy paying GOTCHA!, it simply isn't true anymore. Families seeking asylym are being arrested as a matter of course, because they are systemically turned away at ports or entry.
3
Asylum seekers were being denied the right to enter as potential aslyees. If you've come to seek asylum and are denied the possibility of doing so, what are your options? They are: (1) enter illegally OR (2) go home and be killed by those from whom they sought asylum. I know which I would choose...especially if I had children.
5
Imagine, if you will be fair, how children manage to run into the arms of their mothers and/or fathers who have served overseas for a year or two. Aside from this separation there are 2.7 Million children with a parent in prison. These things happen all the time and no one in the Press has cared This problem of the border has needed fixing for decades.. It's high time to fix this border immigrant problem with logic.
26
Children who have a parent serving overseas usually also have a parent who is with them at home, talking about Mommy or Daddy, showing photos of the missing parent, etc. If both parents were somehow serving at the same time while leaving a child at home (a completely unlikely scenario, I know, but one I'm putting forward to make the situations comparable) with a stranger who did nothing to reinforce that child's bonds with its parents, then you would see the same outcome we're seeing here.
5
Imagine how much calm explanation can be made to children of the military about where and why their mommies and daddies go. And military families get lots of support for dealing with the difficult but expected (even "normal") separations. Children of military are not torn away from their family members after escaping their already traumatized homes and traveling to a foreign place without anything familiar around them. Even children with parents in prison, who might be moved to new places to live, have some consistency around them that these asylum-seeking children do not. Surely you can see the differences?
1
Perhaps the difference is the children of military families you describe remain in a stable loving home with one parent and support family and friends, continue their stable lives through school, activities, friends etc, are able to Skype, facetime, text their absent parent while these children were forceably separated from one or both parents after a traumatic journey, housed in a detention center with bars and locks, were not allowed any communication with anyone they knew....it's not really the same thing. It's inflicted trauma. And we can argue all day long about why it was done with the same result...innocent children are being hurt because of a government policy poorly conceived and horribly mismanaged.
4
"In some cases, he said, “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.”"
What about the fact that by denying those requesting asylum they are being condemned to death in their home countries once they are deported back? It's ironic to see that there's so much concern about reuniting children with "bad" parents when there was no concern about taking them away from said parents.
15
Identity & relationship should be confirmed before anyone is admitted or reunited. This is the norm throughout the world - usually in the form of a passport. Try entering Canada with a niece or nephew with a different last name - or no ID at all - you will be separated, detained, and depending on how the child responds to questions, possibly imprisoned.
11
And that HHS official had zip, zero in ways of stats about the frequency that his claimed event happens.....weak propaganda attempt to justify this behavior.
1
I am reading this story and I find it difficult to believe. Children as young as thirteen months taken from their parents? That can’t be right. Do we do that here, in this country?
It isn’t the same, but images keep running through my mind of the forced separations in Paris during the war, at the Vélodrome d’hiver and elsewhere. Is this really happening here, is it just possible that we have become this callous?
17
Yes - and unlike Paris, this is 100% preventable. Solution: either stay home or stop and stay in Mexico rather that traveling the full 2700 miles to reach USA for asylum. 120 million people already find Mexico a suitable place to live.
8
Mr. Dave T:
Unless you are a descendant of a Native American then I'm sure somewhere on your 'family tree' there is an individual(s) who was an immigrant seeking a better way of life.
I am convinced what we are witnessing never would have happened to these families if they had been Caucasian.
'People of Color' have targets on their backs. Yes, there are those who will be cherry-picked by individuals like Trump, meat packing plant managers, farmers and ranchers, basically all those who have been part of a pipeline that suppilies laborers for positions most 'whites' have wanted no part of for decades.
But these families we are seeing today-those who heard about the welcoming words emblazened on the Statue of Liberty, they have become fodder for Trump to dangle in front of his 'base', examples of what immigrants can expect in the future as Trump supporters wave placards at rallies stating, "Promises Made, Promises Kept".
And all of this horrific behavior on our part is a long way from the memories many in Europe have from the days right after WWll of their looking up as seeing tiny parachutes descending with little American Flags attached and accompanied by pieces of candy. Boy, is this not the America we are showing to the rest of the world under this abominable Trump Administration.
20
Judges ought not to intervene in this particular problem of reuniting families within a time constraint that may interfere with assurance that migrant adults are reunited with their legal children.
Unlike anti-administration reporters, our Justice Dept. Officials familiar with migrants to “El Norté” from “El Sur” well know that Central American countries have an inability to prevent many kidnapped children accompanying the adult migrants. Often the kidnappers, either male or female, claim to border officials that they seek refuge or asylum from domestic or political persecution when they are in fact fleeing prosecution for kidnapping. And when the child is a toddler who speaks an indigenous tribal tongue instead of Spanish, only DNA testing and analysis will indicate any family blood relationship between the adult and the child.
Based on DNA ties, the reunification process may take more than 21 days for Immigration and Border enforcement to determine legitimate family ties of the kids to the adult migrants.
7
If criminals were a nation, or the illegal aliens were from ONE country, your rage post would actually make sense in the context of the article’s scope of discussion. Sadly, it does not on either account.
2
The only immigration crisis is the phony one that Trump invented to stir up his base.
21
The liberal media is trying all tricks of the trade to turn the tide against Trump.Trump is protecting US, period.Your borders are out of control.Earlier, it would be Hispanics and Latinos jumping the border.Now, the ranks have swollen to include people from China,Pakistan,India,Eritrea and many other countries.Why is NYT not writing about this rabid violation of law?The legal way of dealing with illegal aliens is expensive and time consuming.How many anchor bracelets will taxpayers be funding ?How do you monitor millions of people released from captivity? Please recognise that USA, like all other countries, has borders which need to be respected.A way out of this problem may well be these migrants forcing their homeland governments to bring changes.That may include summary execution of suspected gangsters.Most of these illegals cite gang violence as the cauuse of their illegal journey.Radical solutions need to come from their motherland governments.Right now, they are choosing the path of least resistance, which is to cross over to USA.American taxpayers cannot and should not fund such choices.
23
The info you cite is from a working paper coauthored by Mohammad Fazel Zarandi, with a high end estimate of 22.8 million illegal immigrants. Why the need to exaggerate by millions? Also, have you read the paper? Are you in a position to comment on the statistical assumptions and approaches used? I was unable to locate a copy of the working paper to review. Educated people (I have a PhD) understand the need to do the above. Why can't the Right be intellectually rigorous, or at least intellectually honest?
6
@ michjas Children all over the world and in this country face daily horrific abuses and injustices. The difference, and why the separation of families makes front page news, is that in this case it is US government sanctioned child abuse.
3
“Summary execution of suspected gangsters”??? Don’t bother with trials, evidence, due process or actual justice?? You might want to live in that kind of world- but I sure don’t.
4
Please stop using the phrase "catch and release." Along with "chain migration", this fishing term is a product of clever marketing used to make fascism appealing and dehumanize people.
31
Yes, it's all in the liberal marketing.
7
Only if illegal aliens aren't constantly referred to as 'immigrants' or the new founded 'migrants'.
13
Do YOU know what ICE does? It was created after 9/11 and is NOT our only form of immigration enforcement.
11
How come is it that there is such an intense focus on the southern border and not on the northern border? I would be very interested if The New York Times would do an article contrasting the two. Thank You.
12
Has America taken a sadder, sicker action than this since my father and grandmother were put into a California concentration camp during WWII?
19
They tried to sneak in illegally too? I notice you're still here, by the way. Give America credit for something. People's personal resentment and hysteria is getting to point where many are going to even begrudge Trump for not wanting to reintroduce gas chambers, that's is how irrational most of these arguments sound to me. No one has any real solutions to real problems, they just want to criticize and bawl about how life is so unfair.
4
Honduras and El Salvador have the two highest murder rates in the world and no operative death penalty. Obama bombed ISIS as her monsters climbed a mountain to kill more Yezidi families. That or something similar should be done to criminals who extort houses from the poor in Central America. In Quatemala, a gang member gets on a bus and tells the driver that he will be donating to the gang from here on in or he will be killed in a country that convicts 4% of murderers. At least those three countries need to be wards of the UN or of the USA. Without using Trump’s vulgar term, such countries are a dangerous joke.
Stop migration at the source. Bring factories into their poor areas with tax benefits and arrest every gang member and shoot any involved in murders. Or let China take over the worst three countries....China, whose murder rate is about .28 per 100k...lower than Europe but with millions of poor people. China not only has executions but does them before the inmate gets grey hair....the USA oddity.
7
The answer is not American intervention into these countries that doesn't work. Where are the political leaders of these countries? Where are their Army's to take care of these problems?
6
Regarding the bringing of factories. Back in the late 80s to mid 90's a major US based sewing house that manufactured clothing for everyone from Wal-Mart to DKNY closed the majority of its US locations and sent all the work to Central America. They simply loaded massive shipping containers with all of the cloth and trimmings to make the clothes, had the clothes made at the cheapest labor cost possible and brought the finished goods back to the US tariff free. That was fine and dandy until it became "too expensive" to produce garments there and everything was sourced to Bangladesh and China. Central America will never be a massive manufacturing center. Poverty, corruption and violence don't have some easy panacea. That's why these people are fleeing.
4
If Trump is so serious about "zero tolerance" then he needs to have draconian punishment for the employers that attract these people. Then after a couple hundred white evangelical employers end up in filthy jail cells, the attitudes towards migrants might change. We need to have a compassionate and welcoming immigration policy. The folks at our southern border are overwhelmingly decent, gentle people with strong family values. They value the American Dream more than the smug native born. We need them and their values desperately to make America shine again.
4
Trump wants to take credit for a good economy - one that he did nothing to start the ball rolling, it was Obama's policies that helped our economy. However, when it comes to this zero tolerance policy and separating children from families and this cruel treatment of those seeking asylum he then blames dems and Obama.
You Mr. President are incompetent and embarrassment to our nation.
VOTE in November!!!!
18
Well I am relievednthat they are kind of going back to ankle braceletes instead of detention.
Thank you!!!!
3
I live outside the US and everyone almost everyone in my world finds this separation issue utterly sickening and shocking, right up there with serious war crimes. An appalling stain on the USA and this Ogre of a president and his enablers.
Completely tragic and unnecessary with lifetime trauma and damage.
31
The courts have done their job, stopped the government from its genocidal ambitions. Some will say “see, the system works”. But I am still profoundly ashamed.
15
The ignorance about child development displayed in some of these comments makes me despair. Why do so many Americans have no intellectual curiosity?
19
Well, it’s messed up when the state interferes with a family unit. That’s true. Happened to my kid. They took him, he came back afraid of the dark, eating nothing, drinking only meal replacement drinks, and scared/distrustful of everyone.
That said, these aliens got caught with their hands in the cookie jar. They had been told, they came anyway. Their entire plight and that of their families is their own problem. Maybe if Mexico had its stuff even remotely together and patrolled its *own* borders, this hot mess would not be in *our* lap.
And then there are the bleeding hearts, here in America, dying to rally to these kid detention sites for their virtue signalling selfies...Let me bust out an inconvenient fact: we have been doing this family seperation bit since before Obama, during Obama, and since Obama. Yeah. And Obama headed a lil pet project called Fast and Furious, which supplied current generation military weapons to people south of the U.S. So the likelihood is high (being that criminals were chief among recipients of these weapons) that a lot of the legitimate asylum seekers are running from people wielding Obama’s gifts.
But regardless of whether it is a desire for safety or just an urge to suck the taxpayer teat, they were all told about it being a crime to cross the border illegally. So, it’s stupid for any here *not* to be upset with these childrens’ parents first and foremost.
9
Just maybe the difference between President Obama & trump is that trump is a racist & a liar and President Obama is a man of truth & morally uplifting. So comparing just the act without the motive is disingenuous.
1
And are tou familiar with how long this policy has been in place?That Obama did nothing to curb this policy? What are your opinions on those two pearls?
9
That they are false. Under Obama, families were processed and released to await their court date to plead their case. Well over 90% showed up on time. The children seen in centers then were from that wave of truly unaccompanied children and teens and they were quickly processed and released to family members in all cases where could. This new policy of immediately separating patents from children apparently with very little tracking and accountability and often with cruelty was announced by sessions THIS SPRING.
2
The stories of children not recognizing their mothers are so sad. The little ones will appear to readapt quickly, but for most the trauma will never go away. As adults, they may not even realize the roots of their anxiety and insecurity.
26
When Democrats say there are 11 million illegals already in the country they are lying. A study from Yale says that its between 25 and 30 millions.
So for the liberals, that's not enough? How many landscapers does America need? How much should US citizens spend for their healthcare, food stamps, section 8, schools for their kids? I am sick and tired to hear what a plus they are for the US. I am also sick of wherever I go or call, I get asked to you want to be spoken in English or in Spanish.
Simple solution: deport them all.
20
I can't really understand how this relates to my expression of sorrow for the children, but as you must.
1
Undocumented cannot get Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing or welfare for that matter. Thats "fake news" to say they can.
Use my simple solution for the "problem" of being asked what language I want to use - speak 3 languages like I do.
Simple solution: Throw everyone that employs and undocumented person in Federal Prison for 10 years.
This solution was obvious from the beginning. If it was good enough for Paul Manafort (until he violated his terms of pre-trial release), it is good enough for people charged with less serious offenses. It is so much cheaper than custody, not to mention more humane. The statistics I have read show that with bracelets and monitoring over 90% of immigrants show up for their immigration hearings. That's not catch and release. That's smart.
I regret that even good reporters adopted the binary approach espoused by the administration -either lock 'em up or never see them again. This best choice has been available from the beginning and should have been discussed in press.
13
Cynthia: you have it backwards. 90% NEVER show up. They simply cut the ankle monitor off, and then blend into the huge illegal communities in blue sanctuary states and then "adios illegals aliens" -- we can never round them up again.
3
So, our immigration policy is that if anyone from anywhere in the world, shows up at our boarder with children, they are released into our communities on the honor system. Call me what ever names that you want, that is a crazy policy!
31
Border, not boarder.
2
Barry: the Republican Party NEVER takes action against business, no matter the crime. From big bank fraud to dumping toxic waste into rivers and skies, this is the republican program. You will note that all GOP SCOTUS picks must be pro-corporation/ anti-labor. Corporations are people when it comes to expressing their religious and free speech rights. Actual people, not so much.
4
Absolutely 100% YES! they are phonies, and the lefty media is duplicitous in pushing open borders and massive illegal immigration....just today, a couple of articles about how we have to permit massive illegal immigration, of virtually everyone in Central America! if they have a bad marriage, contentious divorce, unpleasant neighbors or local crime!
6
These sob stories from illegal aliens could be easily remedied and eliminated if the law breakers simply did not enter America illegally. Is that too much to ask, or does the law not apply to illegal immigrants?
31
How about Stop these laws? In fact no more laws at all. How about total anarchy as long as it all feels soft and warm and lovey?
How about everyone in the world who has kids under... uh... pick an age and they all can come here and live in your yard and eat your food and share your income and everyone will be full of love and peace and joy?
5
Seeking asylum in the United States is not a crime. And the U.S. traditionally provides due process for asylum seekers.
If you are so concerned with lawbreaking, I'd suggest that the current Administration contains numerous individuals whose conduct, based on publicly available information, deserves more attention.
1
Asylum seekers *are* legal.
7
NOT in MY Name. Stop this atrocity. No more Kidnapping, no more Baby Jails. Shameful, horrific and un-American. PERIOD.
31
Deport them all now!!! There are maybe 1% here who really deserve asylum, the rest are just gaming the system. A system corrupted by years of Democrat catch and release where the illegal never shows for the court date. Enough of this nonsense, deport them all and seal the border. These articles in the NYT have nothing to do with lawful entry, but have everything to do with democrats trying to create a new future voter base that they will control. The NYT is complicit in the deception because of it totally biased non-news positions.
22
James in Houston: Call it karma, call it the Golden Rule. For the love of God, try just for a minute or two to put yourself in their position. None of can be sure we won't have to run for it at some point in our lives. A war (not so inconceivable as you might think), an environmental disaster, communal violence, a communist or fascist takeover -- these are the sort of things that can happen anywhere, at anytime. I sincerely hope for your sake that you'll never have to run for it, but that if you do, you'll receive a more compassionate welcome than you were willing to extend yourself. In the meantime , I invite your attention to Matthew 25:36-40.
5
Great photographs. Talk about pictures being worth a thousand words! The Reuters/Loren Elliot photo in the print edition is even better; that's the one of Mr. Melendez and his son having lunch. It is Pulitzer Prize worthy. (I'm a prof of art history, so I have seen a lot of pictures!)
11
I am ashamed and disgusted by our government's actions. Thankful for the federal judge who is doing the right thing.
27
Imagine the fear and confusion these little children have experienced. Their parents were unable to protect them.
U.S. Government mandated trauma. There is no excuse for this.
32
I find the juxtaposition of ankle bracelets in the headline and "hands being tied" in the body of the article interesting. Perhaps ankle bracelets should have been used to "tie the hands" of all the border officials BEFORE they began separating children from their parents.
12
The TRUMP Administration displays their incompetence and cruelty every chance they get. Eagerly ripping children away from their parents, but cautiously returning them lest rapists, kidnappers, and murders claim the tykes instead. (We're protecting them from our heartlessness and incompetence!)
"Trumps Toddlers" languishing in limbo, kept in cages to deter desperate migrants from seeking asylum.
As we walk deeper into the woods, the light of liberty gets dimmer and dimmer. Scared Americans close their eyes to the banality and brutality oozing up from the depths.
It's called Fascism.
And we're already knee deep.
59
This sadistic, inhumane policy of separating children from their parents will scar many of these children for the rest of their lives and be a permanent stain on our country.
60
Re: Nothingbutblueskies:
This separation from their parents will result in permanent scars on these children for the rest of their lives. Anyone who knows about child development knows this. When children become pawns in a very cruel game, many will never recover from being torn away from their parents.
America doing what America does best: terrorizing the poor and defenseless. Time and time again, America has viciously attacked nations that did not threaten americans in any way and were too weak to respond. I will never stand for this flag nor honor the military that has caused so much havoc worldwide. As for its political leaders, with very few exceptions, may they all rot in hell.
20
Trump wins again. This whole debacle illustrates that the Democrats are solely responsible for the breakdown of our immigration system as they forced catch and release and encourage more exploitation of the immigration loopholes. Records have shown few of these "undocumented" will ever show up for their court hearing for deportation but will instead disappear into the USA only for their children to reappear years to request DACA like amnesty. Now the Dems own this and Trump will make sure the mid-term voters will mobilize to vote out the Dems.
11
Dems are solely responsible? WOW. That's some pretty warped thinking. Republicans have had majorities in the House and Senate for how long now? Why haven't they completely fixed the immigration issues? You can stutter and shuffle all you want trying to come up with excuses.
30
What was the name of the last President to have a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and control of the House? MMM? Was it Mr. Obama who had that ability to pass legislation? Did he pass comprehensive immigration reform? Did he pass single payer healthcare?
1
Actually records show 98% showed up for their hearings.
3
I would like to know how the officers that took these very young children away justified their actions to themselves. “Just following orders” has not always been deemed a sufficient excuse for committing atrocities. Can they be held criminally liable for following such orders?
27
You are not uninformed; you are misinformed. Children do remember, even very small ones. They simply lack the language to convey their experieces. I know this two ways: It is my profession and my personal experience with my child who was hospitalized for six months as a two-year-old. The hospital had a policy that parents could only visit on weekends and assured me that such a young child would not remember the experience. They were absolutely wrong. He rejected me when I visited, and he relived the experience many times as he grew and developed the capacity to express his experience. He is an adult with a family of his own. We still process that trauma from time to time. It never is forgotten.
39
I was 5 when I spent 6 months in the hospital, again with hospital policies that limited visits. While I having loving friends and family, I never married. It wasn't until I saw my nieces at that age that I fully realized why I feared attachments. Sadly, these children will bare the scars of forced separation. Shame, America.
19
"... release hundreds of migrant families wearing ankle bracelet monitors into the United States".
This is a ridiculous, terrible formulation. Tellingly, no one in the administration was quoted using those words.
The reporter and editors may consider: are the detention facilities in the United States? If not, where are they? If so, how could they be released from the United States "into the United States"?
"Release ... into the United States" implicitly accepts the administration's inhumane phraseology, "catch and release", as if migrants were fish, is if fish released back into their wild habitat have a duty to appear at an immigration hearing.
They are, as one official is quoted, released back into the community. They are released on an electronic tether. They are freed subject to their hearing. They are not released unconditionally. They are not released into the wild, as fish. They are not released into the United States. They are in the United States. Our laws, and our paper of record should regard them as humans. They seek asylum. Their cases should be heard.
18
Josh, I am sure there is a small army of people who are telling you and the rest of the mid-west and southern crowd this story to make what was done look reasonable. However, anyone who believes this is very mistaken. Children have feelings they are not able to express verbally. Rejection of their parents is a way to express the terror they felt and the anger they have for not having been protected by their parents. I am a trauma specialist. I know that what is happening in the reunifications is normal, to be expected. The children know only that their parents left them. They have no idea why. Children need consistency. It is the bedrock of trust. Their trust has been damaged and needs to be rebuilt. The tragedy is that it should never have happened. Don't kid yourself about it. Our government callously, cynically used these children as pawns for your votes. You are as guilty of child endangerment as Sessions and Trump are because you were praising them for it. This is moral rot, not security. Shame on us all.
131
Hey Nora,
There is plenty of accurate reporting in the Midwest, reporting just how bleak and bizarre Trump is acting.
Please don't play the game of claiming citizens who live in the Midwest are idiots.
Many are like me, from West Coast, or my husband, from NYC, who recognize that we can afford a vastly higher standard of living with the lower real estate costs, excellent symphonies and museums, abundance of natural beauty in Great Lakes, and some of the most efficient international airports in USA. (Our relatives still in Seattle, L.A., Miami and NY do not have as much disposable income left as we do to extensively and regularly travel the world.)
2
Words cannot express how monstrous Trump’s child separation policy has been! I sincerely hope he experiences emotional pain at this level at some point in his life. Sadly I don’t think he has the ability to feel such pain except over blows to his own properties and self image.
15
Darly and Carmen look like they are in shock in these photos. It might just be the angle or the captured moment, but I believe that it is more. Our government has put these children in harm and shown no remorse at all about the trauma inflicted on them and their parents. Trump's administration treated these desperate immigrant families like mere chattel, animals to be shuttled off, divvied up, so his connected fellow henchmen in the prison industry could collect their filthy lucre. I will not forget the cruelty of these people, our government's brutal "leaders". I will remember the looks on Darly and Carmen's faces, in November, and well beyond. This destruction of families and children's psyches is a human rights crime.
28
Utterly heartbreaking.
By the way, “Catch and release” is a damaging phrase meant to dehumanize migrants. These are human beings, not fish. To continue using this language in news reporting is to endorse the ideology of the immigration hard-liners who chose to alarm and divide their audiences by applying the term to US immigration practices. Can The Times please figure out another way to describe this process?
62
Thanks for your input, Ryan!
1
How about "arraigned and released on their own recognizance"? Or Applied for asylum & awaiting hearing?
Do not forget the cowards Kelly, Miller, Bannon, Conway, Giuliani, and pretty much everyone else in this administration.
How broken our immigration system had been for decades has only become fully apparent only after something is being tried to fix it. Congress continues to be incapable of reforming the immigration system that has been broken for decades.
We are a country that welcomes legal immigrants, native Americans, Americans born in the USA and naturalized Americans. Enforcing the immigration laws and preventing illegal entry of people by the thousands should not be discouraged all the while keeping families of illegals together. It is a tall order and a complex situation but there are happy endings and hopefully the reunion of families will be ultimately achieved.
Another positive sign that the illegal migration from failed central American countries will be reduce in the future came from the secretary of DHS Kristen Neilsen meeting with central American country leaders. It is this sort of a multi-pronged approach that will resolve the crisis that has culminated from decades of beating around the Bush and getting nowhere and kicking the can to the next president.
Finally there is a president who has in his own way making sloppy mistakes along the way taken the bull by its horns while the congress continues to flounder and some in congress making an absurd call to abolish ICE without knowing what is it that ICE does.
9
"Records have shown few of these "undocumented" will ever show up for their court hearing for deportation but will instead disappear into the USA"
Do you lie by nature or only in service to Trump?
By the way, one of the first things Trump's folks did was disband the program that had achieved a 98% court-appearance rate. They broke the system on purpose to inflict needless pain on innocent families. It's evil, and history will judge it so.
16
I have little confidence that a chat between the DHS Secretary and the Central American leaders will do anything to reduce this issue.
1
The concentration camp's origins was in South . African during the Boer War (1900-1902), where women and families were interned. The camps were originally called "refugee camps," but as the Brits interned more black South Africans and white Boer families, the concentration camp names was adopted. Over 25,000 women and children died in these camps, as unsanitary conditions led to disease outbreak. We've seen these horrible acts before; the comparison is a fair one. Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame documented the horrors of the South African concentration camps. He was fiction writer, and a truth teller, too.
24
I teach American citizens in the inner city; all of my students are African American and all have experienced trauma, some severe. Every single one of them has at least one relative in jail (in many cases because of drugs, a ludicrous, deeply harmful law).
I have yet to see even a single article - not to mention a barrage - of photos & articles about my students traumatized by years of separation, not recognizing their parents, ripped from their arms.
Why do progressives care far far more about illegal immigrants than about American citizens? These 'migrants' wouldn't have their children taken away if they didn't try to break into our country. Furthermore. American citizens can prove their parenthood--child smuggling/rape/slavery is a *real* issue that this very paper covered a few years ago (in the Obama era).
In my experience, this beating of the breast is done almost solely by those who aren't impacted by the illegal migrants and who are never around actual real life poor people. It truly disgusts me. To those who might counter, "well, I have to start somewhere," yes, you do--with American citizens. Do that first. Actually care about the African Americans you say you care about; actually care about the poor people you say you do, & the working class. Stop using them as convenient props as a way to make yourself feel good about yourself.
19
If you look at the history of immigration, you can see a pattern of turning a blind eye to illegal entry or of increasing the amount of immigrants let in legally just when African-Americans are starting to get ahead. It's also been used-- as in the case of Reagan's amnesty-- to increase the number of workers in the labor pool to drive down wages.
Nevertheless, what people object to is the inhumane treatment of children, some of whom will be damaged for life.
3
d, I also teach in the inner city (Bronx) and have to warn you that you are falling for a classic ploy. There is room enough in my heart to care for my American students and these immigrant children. And there is money enough in America, the richest country the world has ever seen, to address the problems plaguing both groups. When we bicker among ourselves, the rich and powerful get what they want: a stranglehold on our government and economy while we fight over the crumbs that drop from their table.
I'd also argue that the NYT writes about inner city kids a lot. Here's just one that I remember for the article as well as the visuals showing people how stressful life in these neighborhoods is:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/28/us/chicago-violence-walki...
3
"Catch and release" -- not as bad as 'infesting the country with vermin' but still a neat attempt to dehumanize asylum seekers. Are they trout, or people? I suppose if an organized gang was trying to murder the family of a GOP Congressman or a cabinet member, and the government offered no effective protection, the politicians might flee for safety with their kids . Pity those politicians haven't got enough empathy to think themselves out of their cushy police protection and imagine what it would be like to NEED asylum. Why do people elect such trash?
31
How disgusting our country has become. I do not know how Trump and our government can look at themselves in the mirror?
28
Attachment theory 101.
3
Thank you! It’s this kind of intellectual laziness that perpetuates racist and xenophobic ideology. It’s infuriating to read.
2
This good news. Now get them back to their own countries.
9
I can tell you from first hand experience that what these children are going through can and does happen. I have two sisters who were born 13 months apart. I am about 2 years apart from my middle sister. My mother was so worn out from taking care of me and my second sister that she had a hard time devoting care to the youngest one. One day, we went on a family trip to Korea when my youngest sister was 12 months old. My grandmother who lives in Korea, saw that my mom was struggling to properly care for my youngest sister. My grandmother (who was my mother’s mother) offered to take care of her for a month. After some convincing, my mother reluctantly agreed and she went back to the US with me and my second sister, and left my youngest sister in the care of my grandmother and extended family. Even in the care of a close family member, that month long separation was traumatic enough for my youngest sister that, when my mother went back to Korea to take my youngest sister home, she reacted the same way these immigrant children did. My sister did not recognize my mother, constantly cried for my grandmother, and did not play, speak or go to my mother for a few weeks after they were reunited. To this day, my youngest sister has a strained relationship with my mother, and generally has problems in all her relationships. And my mother continues to carry enormous baggage over that separation.
21
When will the NYT start saying illegal immigrants?When will the NYT blame the parents for the inducement of their families problem?When will the the law abiding Central Americans waiting for visa in their home countries will get more sympathy then lawbreakers?
22
Oh good lord. We don't punish children whose parents commit tax fraud, do we?
Ya think these people were following Trump's tweets and internal DOJ memos to keep apprised of how exactly this administration would choose to handle illegal immigration and consciously made the decision that they were okay with being separated from their children?
27
I had forgotten that, Kay. You're right that this cruelty didn't come from nowhere.
Hm, have no idea how my reply to Kay a few comments away ended up here.
But I am sickened by people who look at mothers fleeing violence and trying to get their children to a better place and see only "illegals". The First Peoples of this hemisphere look at those of European descent who stole their lands as illegals. We weren't coming here to be a peaceful, productive part of an existing culture; we came here to grab land and impose our institutions. (I am not arguing that European institutions are inherently unjust or "bad"; only that they were imposed by invaders.)
The people coming here over these imaginary lines in the earth want to be part of this country's culture and aspire to its ideals of freedom and flourishing without fear. Borders are supposed to keep out invaders who would destroy us, not those who want to contribute.
But I am sorry to tell them that they are too late. They have arrived at a time of precipitous decline and the dawning of what may turn out to be the darkest era since the 1850s-60s.
3
I understand why the white supremacist administration is using the term “catch and release” unironically to describe alternatives to detention, but why is the New York Times following suit? I expect better from this publication.
That phrase is propaganda. We’re talking about vulnerable human beings here, not feral animals. DO BETTER.
27
I am almost lost for words that this is happening in the U.S.; under such heartless treatment by low lives in the G.O.P.. If this had happened anywhere else in the world these same people would have been howling about human rights abuse; and how shameful it all is. And they would be right to do so. Yet because Americans are "always" the good guys; that wold never happen in the U.S.A.! Yeah right.Trump and the rest of these morons will never live this down.
17
This is the Trump team in full gear. They planed to do the most damage possible to make those brown and black people stay away from us. It was a very deliberate move and there was no need to allow for reunification. It may seem cruel and sad to most of us, but to Trump and his confederates, it was a way to stop the influx of vermin. No more, no less. Now they are supposed to do something they had not thought about and they can't handle it----reunify. Why should they, reunification means being a little nicer to the refugees and that will not do. You can't run them off that way.
25
You forgot to capitalize Confederates. The term is especially apt for Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. (I guess his parents ran out of room on his birth certificate to squeeze in JEB Stuart, Robert E. Lee and "Stonewall" Jackson.)
Except if the Trump administration believed they were animals, they'd be afraid to take babies from their parents. Most mother and (and sometimes father) animals, particularly birds and mammals (humans are mammals) can be ferocious if you get to close to their babies. The parents must have been terrified not to fight tooth and nail when ICE took their kids. The other possibility is that the Trump administration contains sociopaths who were once cruel to animals and have moved on to people.
If it's Wednesday it must be another sob story from the border. All of this anger at big bad government, and POTUS and Pence. To the bleeding hearts here, these kids were forcibly taken from their homes in Honduras, Mexico etc by their "parents" trekked across a desert escorted by coyotes and entered our country by breaking our laws. Why do you blame OUR government? How about directing some of that towards say the governments of each of these countries that can't/won't take care of their own?
19
We blame our government because our government is responsible for its policies.
Just the other day, the Supreme Court decided a man couldn't be forced to pay dues to a union that bargained on his behalf but that he didn't support. Well, I'm paying taxes to a government that is wasting money on cruel policies specifically for political theater. Sessions and others have said explicitly that by making an example of these people, they'll discourage others.
The only crisis here is of the administration's own making. Instead of $900/day, and untold harm to children, we could spend $36/day with equal effectiveness by hiring case workers to supervise them. They could live at home, go to school, and await their trial. No harm done.
Whatever you may think about these "'parents'" (so you say) tearing their children from their homes, it is incumbent on our government not to compound the harm. Else, who are we?
17
Whoa. My bleeding heart breaks for your heartlessness.
And for someone with such strong opinions it would be wise to be better informed.
Most all these detained immigrants are seeking asylum, which is perfectly legal in the (once-great) United States.
Most of the recent immigrants are NOT Mexican as you erroneously state, but from gang-ravaged Central American countries fleeing severe DRUG GANG violence fuelled by OUR unprecedented illegal drug use. Survival instinct is 'flight or fight' -- how is a young mother and child suppose to fight gangs running rampant with U.S. weaponry, no less?! Follow the money -- U.S.drugs and guns.
And our current government is at fault for hastily, cruelly, without any real plan, changing the protocol for handling asylum seekers and immigration at the borders, creating this heartless (expensive!) chaos. Typical of our No Leadership Leader and his Gutless GOP.
11
We, the empathetic among us, know that it’s a hopeless task to try to convince some people why it’s important to care about people. It’s what makes them deplorable, an incurable condition. For them ‘rules is rules’, and the consequences of law violations don’t need to be considered. Well, consider this: Auschwitz was legal and helping anyone to escape was illegal.
8
Mothers, your children recognize you. They are rejecting you because they are angry that they were left without you. It will pass rather quickly. Most of all, they need to know that you are there and will continue to be. They have experienced fear, loneliness, panic, and the anguish of loss. Patience and love are what they most need. No, they will never forget what happened even if they do not have words for it now. One day, perhaps years from now, your child will sit in your arms and cry and tell you what she experienced. Your role at that moment will be to comfort and accept the sad, scared, and angry feelings. Healing is possible, but undoing is not. My heart goes out to all of you and your children. This was a trauma that never needed to happen. The separations were not for our safety. We were never in danger. The separations were for spite and to make a weak and frightened man look strong, but strength is not cruel. True strength is tender, compassionate, and protective. I am so grateful to the army of lawyers who are putting aside the temptations of greed to serve justice. They are our heroes now. Bravo to the ACLU and all the other lawyers fighting for justice in this cruelest of all injustices, visited on vulnerable children. Thank you a thousand times for showing the true face of this country of immigrants.
51
Thank you, Nora for your intelligent and heartfelt comments. I have struggled to articulate how many of us feel about this terrible situation and you said it perfectly! Thank you, thank you!
8
There is no evidence in this article that those children didn't recognize their parents. On the face of it it would appear they PREFERRED the life they've been living since they were separated from their parents. They PREFERRED their caregivers to their parents.
10
They got beds, food, tv, no chores, even some medical care and education. Makes you wonder about their life at home.
3
You need to read about separation and trauma in young children. You could remove a two year old from wealthy loving parents in a big cheery home, place him in a situation in a grim, poverty stricken home with a constant caregiver and after several months you would get this same reaction- they would avoid the parents and cry for the caregiver.
6
After President Trump proposed while on the campaign trail to kill the families (including the innocent children) of the ISIS terrorists, I knew then that Trump had no boundaries as to what he was willing to do to achieve his goals.
Therefore, I honestly was not surprised at all that Central American parents were being deported back to their dangerous home countries without being allowed to take their children back with them and with there being no plan in place for them to be reunited back with their children.
15
These children show classic symptoms of deep attachment wounding from their enforced, involuntary separation from their parents/families. Horrendous for little kids. As painful for them as physical pain is; attachment research over the past decades shows again and again. Shame on the U.S. for inflicting these kinds of cruelties on defenseless, young toddlers, infants. Heartbreaking. Shame on feckless immigration and refugee managers who enforced this policy.
152
Take that criticism and shoot it all the way up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
2
I understand the outrage, but I feel like those of us on the progressive left should also feel heartened by this.
Because we’re clearly making progress! Right now, migrants traveling with children are able to make it in. And while this may be a return to the status quo, as more come north that 80,000 number who are currently out and free - albeit with ankle monitors - is only going to grow larger. Same too for the 800,000 who are awaiting asylum adjudication. And as these numbers swell, it becomes increasingly harder for the government to inhumanely deport them.
Basically, we’re winning. We’re making this country more diverse. Next steps should include abolishing ICE, and discontinuing the hateful use of ankle monitors to track these people like cattle or criminals. And after that, we can focus on the people who were described as having to wait for days in the hot sun at the Mexican border to enter.
Perhaps with President Obrador, and after impeaching Trump, we can develop an easier way for more people to come north.
11
"Perhaps with President Obrador, and after impeaching Trump, we can develop an easier way for more people to come north."
That is perfect political fodder for the Right in the upcoming elections and is an issue that gave a guy like Trump the Presidency. I think that the Republicans will thank you.
2
I am a democrat and I am appalled by the separation of children from parents but we should NOT have open unregulated borders. I support immigration rules that make obtaining a work permit possible (right now there really isn’t any way for a poor person to come in legally). I think we should have an amnesty for current residents provided they pass a criminal background check. But I also think we have to be able to control the flow and gather identification information and do some sort of criminal background check before allowing people into the country. And I support wholeheartedly deporting anyone involved in, or with a past in, violent crimes of any sort.
6
Are you seriously promoting illegal immigration? I don’t understand why liberals don’t respect the rule of law. FOLLOW THE LAW and we’ll welcome you with open arms. What you’re promoting would negatively affect our country, U.S. born citizens, and LEGAL immigrants. Embarrassing.
8
Ummm...the court order was to reunite families whose children were under five years of age. What’s going on with the older children? Does anyone know?
7
The deadline for reunification for 5-17 year olds is July 26th, one month after the ruling.
4
Chances are, absolutely nothing. They are doing all of this as slowly as possible in order to make it look like they are complying when actually they are not....
Lots of $$$$$$$$ in it for everyone involved.
I've also heard rumors that one of the objectives is to permanently separate some of these kids: Lots of $$$$$$ in setting up kids for adoption, too. (Ask Betsy DeVoss). I didn't believe that at first, but the longer our country stays hostage for this government, the more likely the impossible seems to be.
5
Mark, so torturing children is a reasonable way to stop people from requesting asylum?
You are trying to justify the indefensible.
3
Hey, Ivanka. Let’s try an experiment. Have a stranger keep Theodore for a few months. Then we’ll see if he recognizes you and wants to go back to you. No harm done, right? Cool.
223
Keep the politicians kids out of it.
1
This entire situation is reprehensible and barbaric. These detention camps are nothing more than concentration camps. The precedents being set are chilling and terrifying. United States Immigration personnel, especially those in management positions, should be arrested and jailed for what they have done. Donald Trump's hatred and xenophobia caused this to happen, and it needs to stop now. This so called president is dangerous and extremely unqualified and unbalanced.
63
Agree these camps are reprehensible but please STOP comparing them to concentration camps. I do not know such horrors during the round up of Jews during WWII and I’d bet neither do you. The use of concentration camp is insulting...please find another comparison.
25
Plenty of historians have noted the parallels. The comparison is apt. If you find it uncomfortable, put pressure on your elected officials to stop what’s happening.
10
They are NOT concentration camps, but they are equivalent to POW camps or the camps in which we held Japanese-Americans in WWII which is quite horrific enough.
4
As a child of 4 or 5 I was left with a family while my parents traveled around Europe for the summer. I distinctly and still remember that when my mother came for me, I did not want to return to her but preferred the dear little Tanta that had taken care of me all summer. It was short lived but I remember clearly. Children adapt quickly as a survival.
44
If and when children of illegal migrants recognize their mothers, their sadness and pain will be in proportion to the degree to which they realize how their parents neglected, abandoned and abused them by their illegal actions; "All for their own good."
18
That won't happen. They will understand why their parents came here, and they may very well hate the country, or at least the administration, who did this to them.
5
Neglected, abandoned, and abused, eh? How so? And how do you know? You're speaking for thousands of people.
A family flees their home under threat of violence. The son was about to be forced into a gang, or the daughter into prostitution or similar. They arrive at the border but are turned away by CPB, told — falsely and illegally — they have no right to asylum or just that there's no one available to talk to them.
Just by the way, that violence wasn't spontaneous. It has roots right here, in our gun and drug trade.
They cross the border anyway, illegally, prepared to face US justice rather than suffer the chaos and violence back home.
Explain to me where is the neglect and abuse. Who was abandoned?
You seem to judge them by their one infraction, breaking a single law. You're willing to extrapolate from that act that they're ipso facto bad parents, neglectful and abusive. I offer you different words: protective and desperate.
I could be wrong. Every family has its story, some noble and some doubtless ignoble. Fortunately we, you and I, don't have to decide. We have judges for that. Why don't we let judges judge, and save our prejudice for something else?
18
Most of these parents undertook this very difficult voyage specifically so that their children had a hope of safety, adequate nutrition, The US taxpayer cannot be the sole provider for the poor of Central America. The belief (somewhat erroneous) that we are being asked to fill this impossible economic role is understandably upsetting, however it shows a complete lack of empathy or understanding to suggest these parents are not dedicated to their children’s wellbeing. I say that the belief that we must shoulder a huge unending economic burden is probably erroneous because many studies show that immigrants eventually make positive contributions to the economy and society that outweigh the initial cost.
8
We along with the rest of the world should call this what it is, A Crime Against Humanity and both Pence, Trump and Sessions are guilty of it.
175
Ankle monitors are not equivalent of catch and release as the device is used for house arrest and parole and here to guarantee return of alien to court.
9
Trump is a criminal and should be made to pay for his harm to these children and parents.
63
I woke up at 4:45 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I had a dream that my children and I were separated in detention (I have no idea why we'd be in detention, but that's dreaming for you) and they were bringing my son to see me. We met in some kind of room that looked like a DMV. In the dream he hugged me quickly and began immediately looking for his sister and became irate that she wasn't there. I was told they'd been kept together and apparently they had been separated from the beginning. We had no idea where she was and neither did any of the officials. They didn't even know he had a sister. How do you lose a 10 year old girl?
21
The headline supports the argument that many of these poor children are not related to the adults claiming to be parents, and were used simply as pawns to get into the country. That idea cannot be ignored.
21
No, this phenomenon of small children forgetting their parents is well documented in other situations.
I once knew a foreign-born academic who left her 3-year-old daughter with Grandma in the Old Country while she herself was scrambling for tenure. When she went back to the Old Country during winter vacation, her daughter didn’t recognize her. That was September to December in the custody of a loving grandmother. Add the trauma of impersonal detention, and this phenomenon (forgetting parents) is almost inevitable.
39
Yes, it can. It's a right wing, cynical lie.
11
No it does not! First of all, the delay in reuniting the families was partially caused by the exhaustive amount of proof our government required, including DNA tests, to prove the relationship. Secondly, the children’s behavior is consistent with documented cases where children are separated from parents for months at a time. It is hard to see ourselves as citizens of a country that has committed a human rights violation, but unfortunately the children’s’ behavior does not prove that we were right to separate them, it proves how very psychologically damaging our actions were.
11
Shame on the Times, its reporters & editors for casually using the term "catch and release" to describe a federal policy. You "catch and release" fish, not people. Yet the reporters use the terms three times in the report (only once in quotation marks), & it's part of the URL. This kind of reporting is dehumanizing the very people the report highlights as victims of the Trump administration's policies & practices.
176
Very food point! I noticed his too! I also noticed them at the Tines refers to Stephanie Clifford as “Stormy Daniels” without quotes - what gives?
4
Thank you, Marie! I noticed the same thing and feel the same way! I also made a comment (and a tweet) expressing my displeasure. Glad to see I’m not the only one.
It’s absolutely infuriating to see the New York Times using the administration’s dehumanizing propaganda.
7
History will judge Trump and his administration very harshly as the worst ever. The zero tolerance program is just one of many reasons. The overriding reason is that Trump by his words and deeds has shown himself to be evil incarnate.
59
Two wrongs don't make one right. Had the pols come up with a compromise - during Bush era, if they don't like President Obama - to improve on President Reagan's, this would not have happened.
There is no question some of these migrants are genuine asylum seekers but many more are not. But the rejectionists over estimate these people's aptitude. One has to wonder if there are agitators who stir up this migration move in their home countries. And why?
Of course, instead of interdiction, it may be cheaper to supply these countries with foreign aides. At a faction of the cost, the U.S. can be the friendly influencer to these countries and their citizens have a means to subsist. Who want to leave if they don't have to? They may even look up to and respect America. Winning all around.
27
common sense all the stories ate the same. what about the victims of domestic violence from Asia etc who cannot get here
agree foreign aid
2
That's because many children didn't arrive here with their parents. They arrived with someone who used them as a prop to gain entry to the US - and now some have forgotten who that "parent' is supposed to be. We, including our government, are all dupes in this ugly business. No children should ever be reunited unless identities can be verified through DNA. It is irresponsible to allow this human trafficking to continue.
36
Who you calling a “dupe”? So are they “crisis actors” like the kids slaughtered as first graders or high schoolers or merely “props” for human traffickers? Maybe we should test the DNA of every kid every day at school entrances or check for SAG cards. Problem solved.
18
You aren't standing on scientific grounds. The reason for their reaction to seeing their parents is clearly described in every study about attachment and abandonment depression. Maybe some kids did arrive with strangers, but to claim that they all did is nothing but a story.
50
These are very young children who have been traumatized, and they interpreted separation as parental abandonment. To refer to them as props is dehumanizing and cruel. Yes it is important to make sure children are reunited with the right parents, but sadly that will not be enough to heal a very deep lifelong wound.
39
Do those who consider this separation acceptable think they would be fine having their children taken from them?
Would they accept the platitides of "don't cross the border illegally"
Would they be unable to "figure this one out"?
We the people of the United States through our representatives brought about the destabilization of the very nations these refugees are fleeing. We supplied the arms to their suppressors.
I'm not thumping my chest just stating the facts.
Why are we so afraid of anything which doesn't drip of "free enterprise"
Could it be we are brainless consumers who don't even know our own children?
53
When did we last invade Mexico? Nicaragua? Dominican Republic?
4
If, and most agree, there is a primal bond, then the lack of recognition might indicate the kids were used as a "smoke" screen to enable illegal immigration. Just a thought!
22
Please educate yourself on the effects of early childhood trauma before making statements like this.
154
As a matter of survival, children will attach themselves to whichever adult has been caring for them. Three or four months is a very long time to a three year old. The kids who consider themselves siblings have probably been in foster homes or shelters together. I assume they have used DNA to match parents and kids. That’s what they had been planning to do. The kids and parents shouldn’t have been split up, though that does not mean they all should be allowed to stay. If they don’t qualify for asylum, they need to be sent home quickly with their kids.
40
Children that young don't understand what the separation is about and think their parents are punishing them for something they have done. When they see their parents again, they conclude more punishment is coming their way.
Just an alternative theory.
8
Shame on the United States!!
194
I think every sensible person on both sides of politics opposes separating young children from their parents.
The difference is that Republicans attempt to stop the illegal immigrants from coming while Democrats believe hand-wringing is the best solution.
37
No - hand wringing implies that immigration is a crisis - in fact it is lower than its been in 40 years and the US has unemployment near 3%. The “crisis” is simply a lie used by Trump to exploit fear and hate to gain political support.
349
It is a crisis. Illegal immigration is drain this country. The democrats don't just wring their hands, they encourage it. Yay catch and release is back! In fact. Let's abolish ICE! They don't have a solution because they don't want one. Open borders for all! Even the NYT wrote of a parent claiming that he brought his daughter as his "passport.".
31
If republicans truly wanted to legislate immigration they could. But they don’t because it provides them something to talk about for mid term elections.
34
I'm not buying it.
They've been separated for a couple of months, what child won't recognize their mother in that short of a period.
Typical hyperbole. Not that they're reunited they can go back to their country of origin and apply the proper way.
29
A child who has undergone trauma and separation may well not recognize a parent.
72
Children have very short memories, except in the case when they have been traumatized by a parent or a care-giver. They turn to the person who is taking care of them, and that is it. This is plain and simple survival instinct. Only when children are older, from fours years on up, do they consciously remember people.
61
Those of us with extensive experience in child development will tell you that is absolutely believable that a child 3 years and younger may not initially recognize someone last seen over a month ago, even a parent.
145
Remember traumatized children barely speak. We must speak for them.
133
THE INFANTS AND TODDLERS Who do not recognize their birth parents have been profoundly damaged by the torture they have suffered at the hands of the sadistic, amoral monsters, Trump and Sessions. In order to survive, they became attached to the caregivers they came to know. But unconsciously they still recognized their birth parents. It will take awhile, because the normal healthy formation of primary emotional attachments has been severely disrupted, due to the ignorant, brutal, animalistic, heartless, unconscionable actions of Trump and Sessions, who have subjected these innocent children to such profound shock that they do not feel safe to reattach to their biological mothers and other biological family members. History will look back o this episode as one of the darkest, most evil, cruel and destructive chapters in US history. It is a stain the character of our nation. THIS IS NOT WHO WE ARE! As Obama would proclaim. But it IS who Trump and Sessions are. Inhumane, sadistic, racist, Nazistic, xenophobic, chauvinistic, monsters, who have turned the US into a pariah among the community of civilized, humane nations of the world. What we are witnessing in these tortured, tormented children, is the results of inhumane treatment: profound emotional child abuse knowingly perpetrated against innocent parties whose parents sought refuge in the US, having survived, in some cases, as the last persons alive from their extended families: A toddler was taken from her abuela!
405
Amen. They are monsters and deserve every adjective you have aimed at them and worse.
1
Most Americans welcome legal immigrants, but not illegal aliens. US laws allow foreigners (aliens) to seek entry and citizenship.
Those who do not follow these laws are in this country illegally (i.e., illegal aliens) and should be detained and deported; this is policy in other countries, too.
We cannot afford to support our own citizens: the poor, the ill, elderly, disabled, veterans, et al. It is therefore utterly impossible for US taxpayers to support the millions of foreigners who would like to come to the US.
The cruelty lies not in detaining and deporting illegal aliens, or forcing those who wish to enter the US to wait for processing. What is cruel, unethical and probably illegal is encouraging parents to bring their children on the dangerous trek to US borders and teaching parents how to game the system to enter the US by falsely claiming asylum, persecution, abuse, etc.
Most people understand that it is necessary to establish that persons claiming to be a child's parents are in fact the parents. If we did not do so just imagine the further hatred directed at Trump.
Abolishing ICE makes sense only to advocates of open borders, a policy no nation will ever approve. We will lose the mid-terms and 2020 elections if open borders becomes part of the Democratic platform.
As many others have pointed out here, who is responsible for putting their families in this situation willingly? Parents
The fact that this is a better alternative from where they are coming says a lot and should inspire some compassion, but we can’t just have an open borders policy.
If you want to welcome families, do what you can to sponsor or support one financially.
4
What a bungled mess, and sadly, I believe, deliberately so. The outspoken advocates of family values turn out to be monsters. How any USA citizen or government employee could have advocated for or been part of this policy boggles my mind!
335
"The outspoken advocates of family values turn out to be monsters." As usual. They're particularly fond of 'tough love'.
2
This situation is abhorrent - entirely meant to be punitive to the parents while disregarding the health of the children - and the data indicate that only a small, single-digit percentage of adults are attempting to cross the border with children who are not their own.
That said, I would simply like to ask, hoping that my question is answered entirely satisfactorily, if it is normal, even under these circumstances, that children old enough to speak would not immediately recognize and be drawn to their natural parents, regardless of any "toddler-Stockholm-syndrome" bonds that may have been established in 1-2 months. In other words, has the identify of the children been documented through paperwork or DNA testing?
We can enforce our borders without inflicting pain on the children and innocent parents, violating international and U.S. law regarding refugees and losing the moral high ground we have in the world, despite our many domestic flaws, newly re-exposed to the light of day, and serious foreign mistakes, inconsistencies and self-serving, Machiavellian policies over the decades.
12
Why does this have to be so dysfunctional?
Are all these parents actually related as bilogical parents of the children they claim to be theirs? Are the no “paper children”.? Do any have documents, such as a passport?
How many ‘parents’ will cut their ankle bracelets?
Why not adopt the same policy that Mexico, or any developed nation, uses to counter illegal immigration? Perhaps we need to end automatic birth citizenship? But to have hordes of families roaming around the nation with bacrlets and no visible means of support - give us a break.
35
Hordes? It's ~0.02% of the population. It's not a large number and in general the problem is more visa overstaying than I think crossing the border illegally that's the problem.
73
Given that DNA is being used to reunite families, it seems clear they are related.
5
Hordes of families roaming around the nation..., like what, the dust bowl days? Give me a break.
4
As a US citizen living in Australia, I read with horror and sadness about President Trump's cruel policy of separating children from their parents. Regardless of what the parent might have done in crossing the border, these children did not ask to be born, and most are young enough to have to do what their parents have them do. But I guess this is all to complicated the President, he is too busy pardoning arsonists. It is really hard to explain this to my Australian friends. They are gob-smacked about this mean-spirited policy from the President and can't believe a trusted ally like the US would treat children in this way. Shame.
239
P.Gorman — Most of these parents that were jailed and had their children separated from them had done absolutely nothing wrong.
13
Have your Australian friends read about Nazi Germany to understand how this happens - and have them take those lessons to heart. It can happen anywhere. In the US we were warned - we were warned - but we were not vigilant enough.
3
Your Australian friends are displaying a classic example of cognitive dissonance if they are "gob-smacked" about this as their nation has led the way in harsh treatment of migrants including the separation of families and indefinite detention of migrants in third world conditions as has been well documented:
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/jul/24/unhcr-says-austra...
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/09/opinion/sunday/australia-refugee-pris...
Trump's actions are unduly harsh and he should be held to account, but all countries should be held to the same standard on this issue but it seems that you are applying one standard to the U.S. allowing your Australian friends to ignore the actions of their own government.
4
Somehow the advocates for this "cause" have totally misread or refuse to believe that illegal immigration was the issue to secure Trump's election. He started to fade in the polls until he came back to it as they fail to recall. Every time they hi-light the action restarted by Jeh Johnson under President Obama to attempt to control the overwhelming use of kids by the illegal alien population it does them no good because it reminds many that illegals are perfectly willing to use their children during long, dangerous journeys as bargaining chips for acceptance into this Country with the effect of our citizens paying all their upbringing expenses which they cannot afford. And re-energizing the support Trump had to win the election, not engender sympathy for their own choices no matter how many times they spout "just trying to give their children a better future" while ignoring our own they seem to deem below their care.
75
Mike if you remove the lie from your comment - the lie that our safety net will be supporting undocumented immigrants for life - what are you left with as reasons for your anti immigrant stance? It is not pretty!
89
Re-read the comment, Mike. At no point do I say they will be supported "for life"; however, the children will receive Federal and State aid for food, rent, health insurance , schooling and possibly, college. Sorry also that despite the newspapers' change in their stylebook to use immigrant when referring to illegal aliens, most citizens do not agree.
The people who are ignoring American children are the Republicans who are rapidly dismantling the social safety net, defunding schools
& undoing decades of progress we've made toward clean air and water. What they are doing on the border is what Romans emperors did in the Coliseum -- distracting their base from government mismanagement and channeling their bloodthirst toward the vulnerable and powerless. I'm sure that spending millions of dollars to carry out brutal reprisals against TODDLERS is pleasing to some part of the American population, just like a sizable part of the German population took pleasure in seeing Jews beaten and humiliated on public streets every day. Inhumanity has often been popular. That doesn't make it less vile and immoral.
Judging by the attention it has gotten, separated children is the story of the century. But you must admit it is somewhat melodramatic. After reunification it is front page news that two of the lmany separated children didn’t remember their mothers Meanwhile, dozens of children were murdered in Chicago, St. Louis, Detroit, an New Orleans. But there was no space for that.
94
This crime is being committed BY our government as ordered by the President - that is in fact a very big deal.
250
Do you care about those dozens of children or understanding the policies that lead to their murder, that in fact murder entire communities? Or is this just a rhetorical device on your part?
18
Children who are separated from their parent feel totally abandoned. The forced separation breaks the bond of trust that a child has toward his parent. That is why Trump’s policy of state sponsored kidnapping is so monstrous and criminal. As it is coming to light that the government never had any plan to reunite the families, but only to put them into the mis-care of his cronies making billions on migrant detention government contracts, there is no other word for it but kidnapping.
12
Reading this article was shocking and tragic. Of course these little children who are taken away suddenly from their parents who have been with them through a treacherous journey from Central America to the US border are going to have serious and significant mental and emotional trauma in response to being abruptly taken from their parents.
Those that take these children provide them with many 'amenities' that their parents, who often only have the clothes on their back, cannot.
It's evil to break the primal bond between these children and their parents. It's evil to not tell the child or the parent what is going to happen. It's evil to ship parents and children thousands of miles from one another. It's evil to not permit any contact whatsoever between parents and children. Familial bonds are being broken. DHS isn't providing sufficent consideration of the importance of maintaining intact family ties in the midst of what are in most cases legitimate refugee circumstances.
Most who cross illegally seek amnesty due to fleeing violence and risk of death in their home countries. When this is their first attempt to cross without proper protocols, this is misdemeanor offense. Removing a child of ANY age, but ESPECIALLY a child under age 5 from a parent in these circumstances is heinous indeed. and unfathomable to me.
We need to face reality: The majority of those who are coming from Central America are refugees.
469
I am a lifelong democrat anf fervently anti-Trump. This policy is horrific. But we liberals need to be honest—most of these folks are economic migrants who put their kids at risk using them as pawns. I DO NOT in any way condone the horror of separation, but we cannot fix the social problems of central america with an open borders policy. DEMS get smart—we will losecand lose more liberties if we lose at the polls in 2016 and 2018–so stop the open borders stuff now.
35
these are not hordes -a disgusting characterization—
but as a lifelong Democrat and fervently antiTrump I do believe most of these folk are economic migrants endangering their kids on a long journey and using them as pawns. STOP family separations. But we DEMs must get real-if we go open borders we will lose at the polls insuring increasingly worse policies. Lets get real: we cannot fix the social problems of central america with an open borders policy. Even Canada dies not have that...
10
You speak so authoritatively about these migrants. You must have spoken to each of them. How did you get into the prisons to interview them? What questions did you ask of those threatened with rape and murder and slavery by the gangs we exported and the despotic regimes we supported? Ever been to the border? It ain’t “open”. It’s covered by fence, drones, sensors, border patrol and ice.
4
Children who have been traumatized or abused usually appear passive or afraid when reunited with loving parents. They have no other way to express depression, which may be long lasting throughout life, a psychiatric knife wound. Can't we, as a nation, love living children? Perpetrators of abuse rarely feel guilt due to their own narcissism. The effects of abuse are not well understood by the legal system, either. Our family courts many abuse legal residents, too. Lawyers know too little about the emotional lives of young clients, and this filters up to Congress as lawyers are elected to Congress and then appointed to the Supreme Court. It is little wonder that Mr. Sessions thought so little about the consequences of his plan, because our legal systems thinks so little of living children. The Religious Right will holler about not yet alive reproductive tissue, but say nothing about the abuse of living children, some starving within our own borders. We should be grateful to those few Judges, those outliers on a increasingly conservative court who can see past their own noses and help these babies escape from abuse. This is yet another example of the Great Republican Myth that we, as the public, should stop swallowing. Immigration reform was needed many yesterdays ago. Republicans are responsible for the decline of the middle class, war, crumbling infrastructure, poor health care, and now, the abuse of children.
347
These children were traumatized BEFORE they made it to the border.
16
Perhaps that's why their parents made the long, dangerous trip.
I think that as long as children are with their parents, they feel safe.
4
That is probably true and we have made that trauma infinitely worse by breaking their attachment to the only figures of safety or comfort they have ever known.
2
For anyone jumping to conclusions or beginning to swallow any theory that the kids must not belong to the parents if they reacted with rejection, I suggest going to youtube or wikipedia and learning about "the strange situation." This is a procedure introduced in 1965 to assess attachment styles and level of secure attachment in children. What is happening with these children is predictable - it is well established scientifically. They have been kept from their parents long enough to have their attachment broken. In other words, the United States of America has inflicted trauma on these children that without treatment, will last the rest of their lives and negatively affect all of their relationships.
America has become a monster.
590
When my son was one year old, I had to go to a 13 day symposium. When I returned my son didn't recognize me for a few minutes. It was heartbreaking. I can't imagine what these parents are going through.
4
When my daughters were two and three, i had surgery. They didn't recognize me ten days later. They were with their father, in their own home, etc. That is how traumatic it is to separate parents from children. This is outrageous and shameful
3
Children who are separated from caregivers at a tender age can develop attachment disorder and PTSD. One symptom is that they appear friendly and loving, but will go to anyone, especially if they are offered something. They can fail to bond throughout life. This means difficult relationships with family, friends, and employment colleagues, and future spouses.
There is a large research literature on this for children who have been in and out of orphanages or foster care. Apparently, no one in our government or HHS or the WH read about this before they developed this stupidly heinous policy.
216
They don't care.
1
The bleeding hearts would rather not have this problem either, but are unwilling to abrogate our basic humanity for twenty pieces of silver, or electoral votes. The fixes to this are expensive and complex, but the U.S. has the chops to implement them if there's an interest. Fewer vets would be homeless and families broken if we had a moral compass as a country and followed our better angels, but turns out it doesn't work to treat one group like vermin and the rest like gold. It only works when you recognize the humanity of all and use your gifts to make things better for others. We're at full employment, and those old white people screaming along with Fox News are going to need a home health aid and some yard work done. Don't fret.
1
They (HHS, WH) do know, but they do not care.
1
When America has about eleven million illegal immigrants it is a problem long overdue for action. But the way in which Trump has tackled the problem is unforgivable.
157
Maybe so but when reagan pardoned the millions of illegals in the 80's the GOP whom has controlled Congress since 1980 regardless of whether or not they had a majority did not act to create a rational immigration plan. They eventually came up with the system I can't even think of the name for but basically they left it to employers to check or have people fill out forms.
They don't want to fix the problem because exploiting illegal labor is still very very lucrative especially once they figured out that you needn't incur the expense of taking care of a slave when you could work a "free" man just as hard then steal his wages. After all the crime this nation was built on and is still the largest crime committed here to this day, "Wage Theft" is still a very lucrative way to make money.
4
I was on a debate in college many years ago, in the late 1970's- early 1980-s. We debated the Illegal Immigration problem as it existed then, and at that time our working number for illegal immigrants in the US was around 12 million. It does not change.
2
these are the entirely expected results of a forced separation. Children adapt to survive as best as they can , even though these adaptations often prove to have long lasting effects on relationship building and future mental health. Whether the powers that be asked what would happen to these children or didn't, it is clear that there was never any concern for these children, as being brown and from outside the US made them "less than" other children. Shame on us for electing a group with such total disregard for fellow human beings. and spare me "they were breaking the law" stuff; imagine your child being taken from you at a young age because you were speeding in your car, or made a mistake on your taxes.
247
My country did this, created a situation where babies don't recognize their mothers. I am heartbroken that people who came here asking for mercy and asylum instead had their children taken from them. For a misdemeanor. Refugees, migrants, displaced people fleeing civil unrest, violence, and war--all situations the U.S. helped create in Central America and the Middle East. The U.S. helped create these problems and Trump wants NATO nations to pay more? They already are by accepting the refugees created by U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. The U.S. should be paying them for helping to solve a problem we created.
246
Amen to that, dlb!
1
I do believe the children should NOT be separated from their parents.
Read that again.
The silver here, is the children were obviously very well taken care of if they bonded so deeply. At three years old too. One to even 18 months I understand more, but three years old they have far more memories according to multiple studies, of those they've bonded with.
I hate this seperation happened. I'm glad the interim caregivers took such loving care.
Yes, I agree with the point of this story that these adults are placing their children at risk by their illegal and unlawful actions.
As for the bleeding hearts who want to take care of everybody who wants to come here.
We can't. We can't afford it. There are likely millions who want to come here. What gives the illegals the right to jump the line?
What about our own homeless children. Does anyone care about them?
Homeless vets, broke families.
This is all a political event to gin up support for the anti trump bunch.
85
Thank you. 2.5 million homeless children in the USA. I hope Dean Baquet reads your comment to his reporters and staff.
The government is using DNA tests to determine parentage. It's not a give-away -- yet. You never know what will happen next with this shameful administration.
2
Requesting asylum is NOT illegal!!!!!!! and Yes, we can afford it.
The United States of America is not overly populated. We actually need people to fill many of the low-skilled jobs that most of us who were born here do not want.
I'm a mom. This would kill me.
People who freak about 'parents breaking the law' - need to check their history. The Trump folk are changing the law and arresting these people on a technicality.
Yes, we need secure borders. Of course we can't take everyone. But we can take SOME - that's wha the asylum process is about.
We don't have to be cruel.
162
Leaving your child to go somewhere isn't the same as having the child taken from your arms by a stranger in a strange land and without even being allowed to say goodbye.
2
Sorry, my reply was to another commenter :-).
(NY Times, this happened to me twice in 2 days-is there a glitch on your website?)
Enough with the strawmen. We're not asking for open borders. We're asking children be kept with their parents during processing. Or deported together. Or at minimum, allowed to speak before being separated. And at minimum, the government plan for efficient reunification when the time for separation is over. NONE of that is crazy to ask or involves open borders.
130
This comment should be a NYT pick.
5
"Allowed to speak before separated" is absolutely not enough.
If this were being done to American children, by Mexican or Canadian authorities, in the name of their "strong borders," we would be at war with them.
It is simply unconscionable, an egregious crime against humanity, to punish people for seeking asylum in your country by abducting their children & inflicting such extreme anguish on all parties concerned.
The fact that with all our existing technology the US government either pretends not to be able to keep track of children, or deliberately refuses to maintain basic records, compounds the guilt of every American. Myself included.
Why are we not holding our employees accountable? Why are none of them afraid of losing their jobs?
How can they face their own families when they go home?
There were protests on June 30: well done, all who helped. But since then? We should be bombarding the White House, Mar-A-Lago, the First Lady's office, the Kushners with letters, parcels, telephone calls and physical items to process. We should be making them much more uncomfortable than they are. The idea that "some children have been lost" is obviously a lie.
Have some foreign children been trafficked by corrupt officials, middlemen, contractors or "service providers"? Why don't we know all the facts? What & Who keeps the facts hidden?
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