This is the most cruel, corrupt admin in American history
31
It is so stunning to me to have a president who has so little humanity about him. A selfish, malignant narcissist has no business being president of our country. I can not wait until he no longer occupies the office of president of the United States. He is an abomination.
23
So "...rings true" is a new journalism standard? Where is the proof?
14
Do you ever plan on reporting about the caravans and who is organizing them?
20
crimes against humanity
10
Kristof must be a contortionist to claim that the family separation policy is what is driving more Central Americans to our southern border. What drives them is the knowledge that one political party is open-borders friendly and the american refugee rules are a joke that are easily abused.
And when, when do the Kristof's of the world take responsibility for all the rapes, murders and assaults these immigrants sustain on their trips north? At what point do the "please come north" invitations from progressives become a devil's bargain for these folks?
17
If his daughter is 'an Angel from God' and this 'father' had not brought her into his impoverished world would God have sent her to someone with a job instead? He uses her to break our laws and gain an advantage over those waiting in line and wants to be rewarded for that? Send them both back today.
18
Where's Melania and her Be Best anti-bullying campaign when and where it is most needed.
The irony of all of this is so agonizingly bizarre. American citizens saying it's okay to separate families because they didn't come to a port of entry as if that is justification for an inhumane and stupid policy.
Things are bad in Guatemala and deranged in the U.S.
9
It's time for some of this commentary to end.. The two children who died -- sad but possibly not possible to save them -- it happens. The detention centers -- can we stop with the PC nonsense and call them overly cold .. or something. The US has never been the most welcoming of countries for immigrants -- cf. the treatment of the Jewish refugees pre WWII -- and quotas were not met!!
Improve SECURITY? (Get rid of drug cartels.... and yes, why so many American addicts?).. Improve ECONOMIC conditions so people will have decent lives. Stop wasting 214 billion in FOOD annually -- don't produce so much that is NOT eaten... (costs can go down -- food possibly sent to places where people have little??)
Help people settle and build their own communities.
All this nonsense about better jobs, education, blah blah blah -- jobs Amuricans won't do -- IMO MUST do. Long summer vacations had to do with kids bringing in the wheat.
(Why is bread so expensive?)
And this is ILLEGAL immigration.. It's not going thru usual channels. (Most countries are not so inclined to take in foreign nationals!!) Yes, let's not separate parents and children and let's start educating all those children in the tent cities- 2,000 -4,000.
10
Is Mexico a terrible place to seek asylum? Why do they have to come to America.
Secondly, if my family was threatened, I would prefer access to guns to defend myself rather than running away.
I stood in a very long queue to come legally to America, such border crossing is a slap on the face of legal immigrants.
15
If only Trump would think of spending billions on topping gang violence in Guatemala and elsewhere in Mexico and Central America - there would be no need for a useless stupid wall nor a humanitarian crisis. It would really help us in the long run if the drug flow into our country is stopped and really save our kids from it's menace.
5
Think of a problem in our country. It could be the thousands of kidnapped children at the border. It might be lack of affordable housing or prescription drug price-gouging. Or under-funded schools. Or my18 year old Black son at grave risk of death by police shooting any time he leaves our home.
Do these tragic problems arise spontaneously?
No. These problems occur because our lawmakers, yes, even Democrats, have been elected, bought and bribed by the richest tenth of a percent. The oligarchs of our country know what they want (Everything!) and they buy the legislators who then pass their laws.
Can anything be done when our system exists to protect the landed from the landless? Protests? Marches? Letters to the editor? Good luck!
Our nation's oligarchs must open their eyes to the fact that their guards and their guns, their ICE, and their ace-in-the-hole, Justice Kavanaugh, are no match for a hundred million woke Americans.
As the legendary Jim McSheehy said "One pitchfork is a farm implement, but a hundred million pitchforks are quite a different matter."
2
If in the 1800s and 1900s, Ellis Island could process millions of humans seeking residency in the United Staes of America, then why can't we process people on the border now, without terrorizing them ?
11
It's time for Kirstjen Nielsen to resign. She has lied to Congress and the American public about this policy.
7
We're not speaking about petty theft but what is comparable to war crimes. I would never want to go to Guatemala for research or otherwise.
Legal Ethic and Human Dignity by, David Luban is a recommended read with a critical eye. It just makes little sense that education funding cuts took place during eight years of the Obama Administration--we have to tighten our belt straps. A family of four was living below poverty level for a public education?
2
After Obama issued DACA, in 2014 and 2015, tens of thousands of unaccompanied children came streaming across the border every month. . Obama's homeland Sec Jeh Johnson is on video begging parents of these nations to stop sending their kids alone on such a harrowing journey, because DACA doesnt apply to them. Didnt matter, they kept coming because they though Obama would let them stay. It was declared a humanitarian crisis. CNN reported extensively on this. Mainly because we just didnt have the capability of housing so many children, and our detention centers were bursting at the seams. Go ahead and google it, there are multiple stories online.
Im curious, where do you folks think Obama kept all these kids? Tens of thousands every month? Obama didnt allow them to just cross unfettered into the country. He didnt put them all up in Hiltons. They were detained, in the same places they are detained now. Since these kids werent deported, word has gotten out, and now the parents are coming too, once again overwhelming our detention facilities. So what would you all have us do? Id love to know what your answer is? Just allow all of them into the country? Throw the kids in jail with their parents? Obama didnt. He separated them too.
19
How long before this administration decides that taking children is an effective deterrent for crime within our borders?
2
The barbaric treatment of those desperately running for their lives will leave a wound that will likely never heal for them, and will forever taint what America professed to believe about its goodness.
That's all gone now. All because this pathetic man who hasn't one kind bone in his body, needs constant affirmation for his cruelty. There is no conscience, no shame.
Just this sick, symbiotic relationship between trump and his base. It's all about hatred and power. It's what sustains them both and gives them joy. How twisted is that.
3
A federal court ruled in 1997 that unaccompanied children crossing the border illegally could not be held more than 20 days before being sent to Health and Human Service child care center. In 2015, Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that accompanied children must be treated the same as unaccompanied children apprehended at the border. They cannot be held in custody with their parents, but must be released to centers operated by the Department of Health and Human Resources.
The “child separation policy” is not a Trump administration policy; it is Judge Gee’s policy. Her ruling is the reason—the only reason—migrant children are separated from their parents. The Obama administration appealed Judge Gee’s ruling without success. The Trump administration would prefer to hold migrant children in custody with their parents but must comply with Judge Gee’s order.
You can read the New York Times report on Judge Gee’ ruling at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/us/detained-immigrant-children-judge-dolly-gee-ruling.html
14
The Trump presidency will go down in history as the most vile, corrupt, and un-American in perhaps all of U.S. history. Trump, himself, is apparently totally incapable of feeling any kind of compassion for his fellow man nor remorse for his callous inhumanity. More to the point, he is all about cashing in on his presidency...And his apparent love of Russia, and dictatorial regimes across this planet of ours, is very disconcerting. Simply put, DJT is a cancer on our American soul.
5
Separating a parent from their eight month old? And this is the United States?
Shame, shame, shame.
4
How many minor illegals were sold, abandoned, kidnapped by their parents? I'm not sure open borders are the solution.
3
I do believe some of the comments are coming from people who are genuinely deluded. These people arriving at the border are not economic immigrants. They are fearing for the lives due to past interference in their countries by past US policy. Remember Ronald Regan versus the contras? Or how about US interference in San Salvador and Guatemala in the mistaken approach to halt leninist socialism which took hold in Nicaragua. It got hold in that country thanks to US policy supporting a right wing dictator. for decades Yes, the chickens are coming home to roost. Own up to past mistakes and the US needs to muster the strength to make it right. Sadly not under the current President and his supporters. Like the anti vaxers, the arguments marshalled by them for being inhumane to these people is based on faith and using half baked ideas and facts to support that faith; with no critical thinking..
4
If they are fleeing potential murder, why aren't they happy to stop in Mexico rather than traveling another 2,000 miles to get to the US?
3
I keep praying that there WILL be a future, from which we can mourn what will with no ambiguity be seen as crimes against humanity. A clanging gong with his humanity so deeply buried that only God can see it, has abused power to turn the USA into a rouge, anathema state.
Where to begin?
Votes.
3
A real president running a real administration would research this border emergency and work with the interational community, particularly Mexico and Guatemala, to accurately assess the problem and develop solutions. Trump is far too ignorant and lazy to do this.
5
Obama also did it, but we progressives bit our tongue and didn't criticize him
4
According to the 30 May 2018 WSJ report, Jerry Jones gave a sworn deposition that Trump told him to tell NFL owners: "Tell everybody, you can't win this one. This one lifts me."
And so too, The Wall.
The trope "beautiful wall" is for the edification of liberals by the hand of Donald Trump. Cementing Republicans' self-belief as that "powerful" bulwark is really what Larry Kudlow, Fox News/White House is talking about -- as he announced the next $8.6B prize "fight" with Congress: “I would just say that the whole issue of the wall and border security is of paramount importance. We have a crisis down there.”
Translation: Republicans face crisis and greatness is secured by Wall and by Wall alone.
Mr. Kristoff, thank you, for exposing the crushing reality. Our nation's capacity to treat asylum seekers and the impoverished with compassion is "of paramount importance", Mr. Kudlow.
America will continue to reject a wall as our measure.
4
@Able Nommer. Wrong. America wants a wall.
3
Wide swaths of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are arid. It is difficult to raise crops there even in normal times. Occasionally, this dry corridor becomes even drier than usual (and climate change exacerbates the problem). None-the-less, the cultures in these countries encourage couples to have many children. The result is that there are too many mouths to feed.
The below comments are from an interview conducted made by Ray Suarez on the 3/8/11 PBS Newshour segment titled "In Guatemala, Family Planning Clashes with Religion, Tradition”.
"Here, populations are overwhelmingly Mayan and overwhelmingly religious. Women typically have eight, nine, 10 children.”
"Years ago, more children meant more hands to work the land. But generation after generation, farms are divided into smaller and smaller plots. There's less food to harvest. And with big families comes more mouths to feed. Nearly half the population of Guatemala suffers from chronic malnutrition.”
"We will have a great majority of the population with diminished mental capacities.”
"Stories about the dangers of birth control are often linked to religion, where family-planning methods such as monthly pills, tubal ligation, and IUDs have long been against church teachings.”
I would suggest that churches change their stance against artificial means of birth control.
We could offer these countries temporary food aid and make artificial means of birth control cheaply available.
1
Trump ordered the withdrawal of all US support for international family planning education as one of his first acts in office.
2
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), Article 9: States Parties shall ensure that a child shall not be separated from his or her parents against their will, except when competent authorities subject to judicial review determine ... that such separation is in the best interests of the child.
It's fortunate that America is not a party to this convention, unlike every other member of the UN.
"America is a shining city upon a hill whose beacon light guides freedom-loving people everywhere" no more.
2
My daughter lives on the AZ border and goes across every three weeks. It takes 2 1/2 hours to cross back even with a US pass which she has purchased. The data provided by the white house and homeland security this week alleged 86,000 have crossed in the last month. One has to ask where they get the data when at major border crossings only a few migrants per day are processed. These slow-down policies of having 20 border patrol agents standing around and only one line open are ruining the S AZ economy. Congress must do the job.
2
@llaird. One has to ask why you think the data are incorrect.
Why iceboxes? Where is the human compassion and empathy? So cruel. This crises has to end.
2
An NYT columnist (Arthur Burns?) recently wrote of the pervasive and corrosive contempt engendered by those we consider our political opponents, and how this precludes discussion or resolution of problems. The wonder of stories like this is that there is more than one side. And that -any- side will proclaim its American values to support such policies.
We're no longer in Kansas.
2
Regardless of how you feel about migrants at our border, you must agree that this is being handled badly. There has to be a better way of dealing with folks who simply need to escape conditions none of use can fathom.
What we are doing by being this cruel is building a generation of now youngsters who will grow up hating us and using this cruelty as an excuse for terrorism and mayhem.
The border situation has been handled by a bunch of armatures. There are better, smarter ways!
2
@Sandra. Name one.
2
It seems that the best and the brightest are the ones who want to come here. The ones who value peace, who are targeted by the violent gangs because they won't give in. The ones who value education and want a bright future for their children. The ones who are willing to work long hours at difficult jobs instead of joining gangs. We enrich our own country when we let them in.
3
Where is the discussion about trying to fix the violence from which these people are fleeing. Putting people in cages and separating them is not going to stop people from trying to cross the border toward safety. They are fleeing something. What irks me most is how myopic, uncreative and rigid the policy is. Last time I checked we are not just American citizens, but humans who also share the planet with a lot of other people. This policy should be renamed the "Burying Our Head in the Sand" approach.
2
@stp Last time I checked we had laws.
1
34 years old. Wendy @ 15. 5 younger children at home...
4
The rest of the civilized world should place sanctions on the US for this violation of international human rights laws. Were this happening in Europe, Trump and his admistratiin could be tried by the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Since that is not an option, perhaps sanctions would have an impact because Trump doesn’t care how many people he hurts or how many children are severely emotionally damaged by his actions, and his supporters have adopted his attitude of “Let them die. i don’t care.”
2
Climate change will take its deepest bite by forcing migration.
2
Cain to God "Am I my brother's keeper?" Genesis 4:9
Yes? Help them.
The best solution? Make it safe for them to go home and they will.
No? Put up a fence and treat the trespassers like invaders.
And then explain how that fits into our theology.
2
Not our problem. Maybe Mr. Kristof, if he feels so bad, can put them up in his home AND fund their housing, food, education, medical, etc. We have plenty of Americans that need help--we don't need illegal aliens to take of as well.
10
Mental and physical torture have been hallmarks of the last two Republican Administrations. Bush with Gitmo. And now Trump with his separation and incarceration of innocent families. I hope you're proud of yourselves little men. And I pray that one day all the needless pain and suffering you have inflicted on others is returned to you a thousand fold.
Both Bush and Trump are guilty of crimes against humanity. And both belong in jail for it.
2
Bless the good people working hard to help migrants so cruelly treated by our government.
2
To hear my Christian neighbors in central Virginia tell it, the migrants deserve what they get for flouting our law. I like to see testimonials like this report, to explain what the enemy of our law deserves. The President never brings this up.
2
1) The hard-heartedness of many of the commenters here, is extremely sad: one refuses to believe that Clemente is fleeing from violence and suggests that all he wants is more money in his pocket. Another trots the worn out excuse "Charity begins at home - help our own first before worrying about others". Another suggests smugly that anyone should be allowed to apply for asylum so long as they have armloads of cash to pay for their screening and lodging and security and such. It seems that a very large chunk of the USA population simply refuses to check for themselves to see what's REALLY going on - its a very well documented fact that several central American countries are literal death traps, and those who want to escape the most, are very poor, and extremely desperate: family members have been killed, and the violence they are running from is VERY real. They can't afford to pay for everything at the border, but they risk the lives and safety of both themselves and their families if they stay put and just try to survive. YES, accepting refugees and asylum-seekers costs money, and yes, there is great need in the US, for assistance of various kinds... but seriously: the USA is STILL the wealthiest country on the entire planet by a long shot: it can well afford to help both those within its own borders and those who seek refuge there, running from conditions we can scarcely IMAGINE. The resources are there, but it seems not the will to use them to actually help people.
4
Amazing how many bleeding hearts on immigration work in the public and private sector jobs that require US citizenship? Brave souls who welcome a fresh supply of cheap labor to cook their food, build their houses, tend to their lawns, repair their cars, etc.
4
According to the migrant, "A gang in Guatemala murdered his cousin, and last year gangsters stabbed Clemente’s father and sent warnings to Clemente: “It’s now your turn.”'
In a 4/12/18 article on the Wilson Center’s blog New Security Beat titled "Beyond Violence: Drought and Migration in Central America’s Northern Triangle", a researcher at the University of Colorado noticed that in 2016, most of the unaccompanied minors were from Guatemala. She said the violence in Guatemala is concentrated in 2 areas, but only 20% of Guatemalan migrants were from these 2 areas. The rest came from areas where the homicide rate is comparable with the U.S.
The researcher wrote,"Guatemala has some of the highest rates of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition in all of Latin America, which are now further intensified by climate events.”
Guatemalan villagers have many children, are poor, and are hungry.
Coyotes blanket Guatemalan villages with the message that they can get into the U.S. by taking a child and requesting asylum. Our country does not offer asylum for economic reasons so the coyotes instruct their migrants to fabricate stories about their need to flee gangs or domestic abuse.
We cannot absorb every poor Guatemalan, but we could offer their country food aid. And, we could ask churches to start allowing the use of artificial means of birth control.
17
The article condemns border patrol for splitting up the family but glosses over the fact that this 35 year old man had 5 children and left his wife to care for the other 4 alone. Didn’t he split up the family first.
Border patrol had no choice-Not knowing whether he was indeed her father would mean they would have to be separated.
15
@SRG, very neat and clean, but not even close to reality. In fact, your position ishypocritical, if you simply stopped to, you know, put yourself in another's shoes. You talk as if the father's agonizing choice in the face of gang violence was casual. Then you feel sorry for border patrol, who 'had no choice'. When you talk about people victimized by MS13 in America, you blame the gangs, but here you dismiss this family's suffering as a simple set of choices. If he showed up at the entry with all his family, you'd scream about that too!! May you never be forced to knock at an American's door for mercy, SRG.
1
Thank you, Mr. Kristof, for keeping this story on our radar.
If only TV cable and network news outlets spent a fraction of their time exposing what continues to go on here, rather than the hours of Monday morning quarterbacking on the Cohen testimony or Trump's latest tweets.
And if only one day the Trump could be arrested and tried before the International Criminal Court like the third-world dictator he aspires to be.
In the meantime, the press needs to keep shining a light on these injustices.
6
Did you watch Nielsen's testimony this last week? Democrats spent the whole time accusing her of hating on children. She spend the whole time reminding them that the laws on the books are her world. Somebody comes across the border illegally, with a child (not always theirs) in tow, the adult and child are separated. She was compelled to remind these so-called legislators that when anyone in the US commits a jailable offense, their children aren't sent to jail with them.
But can't have something so breathtakingly rational get in the way of a good virtue signaling session.
Nicholas, you should be pounding congress, not the people tasked with enforcing our laws, for the disaster at the border. And you could do a lot more to pound the leaders of Mexico and Central American countries for the humanitarian disasters that never seem to get resolved. Your approach is a signal to them to send all their problems to the US.
17
@smacc1. I think that you are far on understanding what's going on those countries for most than 25 years. Not the first time, but EEUU was funding contras en Nicaragua, helped to create he civil war in El Salvador. ... Guatemala, Honduras. Nov 25 2018, was the anniversary of the electoral fraud in Honduras backed by our government, and the violence from this situation has escalated levels never seen, and that's when the Caravans started. Our foreign policies (economical and political) are at the root of this huge displacements. I fear that this government is incapable to see, to hear, to understand because it's in denial, even of our own internal problems
@smacc1, the option of family separation have been on the books for years, but no president thought it was moral. Now here you are defending it. "Just because you CAN doesn't mean you SHOULD".
2
Nicholas, Thank you for this well written and moving piece. Your writing is always full of empathy for others. As we can see from the many judgmental comments here, the USofA has yet countless miles to go to strengthen compassion and education in our country.
9
Welcome these immigrants who are fleeing ceaseless hardship and oppression and risking everything for a better life in America. Embrace them, give them green cards, give them jobs and let them begin their journeys, like all of us have, towards a fulfilling life in these United States.
10
Family values, Republican style. Though let's focus for a minute on the fact that even the saintly Obama used ice boxes. When it comes to immigrants, America lost its moral compass a long time ago.
6
Hopefully this will cause folks to stop bringing their kids here illegally with them. Blame the parent, not Trump.
14
@James
Did you read the article? Blame the parents? If you feared for the life of your child, after adult members of your family have been brutally attacked, and you have been directly threatened with further retaliation, what would you do?
In any case your argument seems to be that, as the parents brought their kids here (on a side note, based on the information in this article, completely legally, as they sought immigration officers to ask for asylum), we have the right to abuse those children and no responsibility whatsoever of their well being while they are under our custody. The parent was sick, the normal thing to do is taking active measures to reunite him with her daughter as soon as he is out of the hospital, or at least to inform him of the whereabouts of her daughter and how to get in contact with her. Full stop.
3
The countries to our south have it in their power to end the terror that these families are fleeing from. They can enforce their laws. At the least, they should stop blaming America for their own lack of resolve.
13
This guys story illustrates exactly we need to barrier off the rest of the border, and exactly why there is an emergency on the border. Nobody who applies for asylum the legal way gets arrested and detained - NOBODY. This guy " waded across the Rio Grande", then applied for asylum AFTER he was arrested. Thats like offering to pay for the stuff you stole after you're arrested, in the hopes of being let go. Sorry, doesnt work that way. And that is exactly what is happening at the border. Its different now. Foreigners are dragging their kids with them. Since we dont deport kids, and we sure dont deport their parents, they are detained for 20 days, then let go into the country. Most of the foreigners arrested at the border now are not deported. They are released onto US soil. Our detention facilities are so overwhelmed, this guy was stuck in a cold box. The Times did an article just 2 days ago describing everything I just said here. As for him being separated from his child - well what should the answer be? Throw the kids in jail with their parents? allow anyone with a kid across the border? In this guys case, he was sick. What was border patrol supposed to do? Keep his kid in the hospital room? These people are making the trip because they believe they can make it. Once we wall off the border, this will stop, and foreigners will apply for asylum in their home country, or in Mexico. Yes, there is an emergency on the border. Wake up.
19
@Sports Medicine
From the article: "...turned themselves in to Border Patrol officers, requesting asylum"
Which means that they requested asylum 100% legally, and not "applied for asylum AFTER he was arrested." Which in turn means that your whole argument is baseless.
3
@Luis
From the article - " then waded across the Rio Grande and turned themselves in to Border Patrol officers, requesting asylum"
Looks like you conveniently left out the "waded across the Rio Grande" part. That means he crossed the border illegally.
I mean seriously, did you know the Rio Grande is at the border?
Yeah, he applied AFTER he was arrested. Precisely the problem.
You dont illegally cross the border, then ask for asylum. Its why he was detained.
2
@Sports Medicine Because if you read the news before, the port entry was closed, after BP gassed them
1
CAOS, CRISIS, LOST CREDIBILITY, those words can be used to reflect the problem in the border. Refugees and asylum seekers don't have to die on the coast, but at the desert, at freezing cages, deported to their countries, like in this report. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/13/nelson-espinal-death-deported-migrant-caravan-us-border-honduras
True, this crisis come from long time ago, and was being supported by Democrats, but grassroots movement are redefining the approach at immigration: https://jhimmigrantsolidarity.org/an-open-letter-to-democrats/
..."the Trump administration has quietly continued to pry children from their parents’ arms at the border. It doesn’t happen as often, but it does continue."
"...continued......continue..." from when, under whose aegis? where were you when some of us, democrats, protested this stuff, inherently cruel to children, as failed u.s. immigration policy (let slide by the same kind of complacency that got trump elected).
In a decent, civilized Society, people are put into Prison for Kidnapping. THIS is “ legalized “ kidnapping, with the clearly foreseeable consequences occurring. This from the Party Of Family Values. Sure, the Manson Family. Or, any two-bit Mafia Family, as it’s all about the hate AND the Money. There is a humongous amount of money being “ spent “. Just who’s getting it, where does it go, and for what? I’d like to know. Follow the Money, and the “ fees and commissions “.
5
“They cry with me, I cry with them.”
And we cry too.
Please vote blue. Remove our national emergency from the presidency.
10
i do wish the commentariat would stop referring to this as 'family separations' ... these children are being kidnapped by the government of the united states.
full stop.
12
"A gang in Guatemala murdered his cousin, and last year gangsters stabbed Clemente’s father and sent warnings to Clemente: “It’s now your turn.”
Perhaps we should be focusing our military operations on problems closer to home than Afghanistan.
4
@fgros
The murder rate in these countries is comparable to the rates in many of our own large cities, such as St. Louis, New Orleans, and Baltimore.
Virtually all of the migrants are coming here not to flee violence, but for economic reasons.
The 7/11/11 NYT article titled "Immigrants May Be Fed False Stories to Bolster Asylum Pleas”, relates how asylum seekers have learned to make up stories to improve their chances of gaining asylum. The below paragraphs are from the article:
"The man caught on the wiretap urged his immigrant client to fabricate a tragic past if he wanted asylum in the United States. To say that he was a victim of political repression in Albania. Or police brutality. Or even a blood feud.
Maybe you had to leave because someone threatened to kill you,” the man suggested. “Because of something that your father did to somebody else or something to do with the land. You understand? That can be a way to get asylum.”'
2
“... 272 adults were separated from a child family member in the six months after Trump supposedly ended family separation. The youngest to be separated was an 8-month-old girl taken from her mother.”
WHAT?!!
6
When I was working in Haiti some years ago, one of the women I worked with was with Mother Theresa’s order. She said something to me that was wise. She said, “God gave us enough for everyone, but he did not send the instructions on how to share it”.
9
Tearing children away from their parents is nothing new here. Think about the slave children who were ripped from their mothers' arms and sold at auction. The Native children who were taken to boarding schools and forbidden to speak their own language. Or Operation Baby Lift when, after we did our best to destroy Vietnam and then flew thousands of supposedly orphaned children to the U.S. Only not all of them were orphans.
73
@Martha Shelley .. it may be "nothing new here" but it doesn't make it any less horrific!
17
It is disturbing to read many of the comments that are callous and uncaring concerning those immigrants seeking a safer life in this country. Yet, they are illegal, that is a given. However, do we discard any compassion for fellow human beings and allow ourselves to believe these immigrants and their families are less human, as it would appear Trump would like us to believe (and it also appears that is working when one sees comments about those "dirty people, animals, with diseases" (yes, that is an excerpt from a comment in this publication not too long ago)).
Do we need immigration reform? Yes. However, to blame the previous administration for being lax is a lie perpetrated by a grifter who seeks admiration for his actions, such as they are.
However, we should be concerned, and ashamed, that we are now immune to the poor treatment of the immigrants, adult and children alike.
Perhaps we should pry off those words of welcome that is inscribed on our statue of liberty and replace it with "Enter At Your Peril".
3
@Dan
The level of callousness and rationalization is indeed astounding. The argument seems to be that, as their parents brought them here, our government is legitimized to abuse and violate the rights of the children. I don't think I've read a single person arguing that children separation and incarceration is not abuse; but just that it is the parents and not the Government materially carrying out that abuse to blame for it.
I have seem very few more striking examples of moral blindness in my life, and I grew up in a dictatorship.
2
We need you to keep reporting and enlightening us on these ugly things that happen here and in the rest of the world...thanks for your work.
8
For all his breathless hopes of a Nobel Peace Prize for his non-peace with North Korea, this is what the real Trump is: callous; heinously disregards vulnerable people fleeing violence; peddles in gratuitous cruelty. I hope the Nobel committee looks at THIS, too when they weigh President Abe's letter recommending Trump for the Peace Prize (and what leverage did he have over the Japanese prime minister to effect this?).
Rather than a sweet trip to Stockholm to get a nice medal, I expect that the day will come--and I hope soon!--when Trump and his familiars such as DHS Secretary Nielsen are hauled up before a tribunal at the Hague for crimes against humanity.
7
Every time I think about the horrors these people endured in their countries, their perilous journey to ask for asylum and the inhumane, vile manner in which they are being treated, I feel such anger and then just sadness. What the malignancy in the Oval Office is doing is criminal and many children will never be able to reunite with their parents and those that do will never forget the abuse that have endured. A great stain on what this country is supposed to be.
7
This "Ice Box" situation is inhumane and needs to end NOW.
2
1. Is it safe to have a facility that houses grown men and teenage girls?
2. Do gangs in Central America target people who have done no wrong, or do they tend to target those who have crossed them?
6
Every story like this one, and there are so many, adds to the loathing I feel for the members of this administration for their cruel, inhumane, and ill-informed policies. I keep hoping that I'll wake up one morning to find them all gone.
5
How is anyone fleeing so called gang violence in their own country able to prove the veracity of the
claim,probably not.So what happens then,they are released into the USA and never return for the
asylum hearing.Mr Kristoff will you take care of all these illegal immigrants ?
17
@Able
"they are released into the USA and never return for the
asylum hearing"
Actually, the majority of asylum seekers show up for their court hearings.
https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2018/jun/26/wolf-blitzer/majority-undocumented-immigrants-show-court-data-s/
1
@fAble
You are wrong, every month they have to report to ICE
2
" apparently the furor it provoked drew attention to the possibility of migration."
Translating from Kristof infinite compassion doublespeak: the furor encouraged further surges. When you want to blame your actions (in this case "the furor") on someone else you can say you were provoked.
And all the while folks here were saying there were no surges.
10
People like Trump and his enablers don't have any true familial bonds, so they cannot empathize. Their relatives are simply others who look vaguely like them and may be entitled to some of their money. Their souls are empty, screeching voids. The basic needs of children and the pain of separation mean nothing to them.
2
The headline that resonates from this and too many similar stories was written long ago:
"Whatsoever you have done to the least of these ..."
4
Just another example of Trump's nonstop lying. We have a so-called president who just cannot be believed in anything he says, and Republicans who continue to enable him will have to change the name of their party to Grand Old Prevaricators.
4
Knowing that their family could face separation if they try to illegally cross the border, maybe they should not even try to violate US law. This citizen is really tired of hearing about how I'm supposed to have empathy for people breaking our laws.
16
@Once From Rome
Seeking asylum in the manner described in this article is perfectly legal.
2
Trump breaks the law all the time. You must surely want him jailed, like the rest of America does.
1
I was just reading about people who Stalin deported from their homeland and were settled in a region far away. It was done on a personal whim, not for any valid reason. When you read of their immense suffering and anguish being treated like cattle and half starved and some not surviving the trip on cattle cars, it struck me that there is a monstrous mentality that can appear in any time and any place on the earth. It is the sadistic and conscienceless and brutal mentality that has no concept of the priceless value of every human being.
To my disgust and anger, the seeds of that same mentality is made overt in the gang of thugs, crooks and weirdly amoral, dead-eyed automatons that Trump attracts to himself like a magnet.
There are no words to express the depth of the dishonor these people have brought upon our nation. They need to be condemned and ousted and never show their faces in public again.
5
Clemente and Wendy are the faces of a long history of civil strife in Guatemala.
Twentieth-century Central America—Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador—is defined by civil wars that pitted US-backed military dictatorships against peasant insurgencies supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba.
Underlying this political conflict is a more fundamental ethnic divide that distinguishes the reigning Criollos—descendants of pure-blooded Spaniards—from Ladinos (mestizos) and Mayans, who bear the brunt of unequal land tenure and political representation. During the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), several thousand Mayans and Ladinos battled a combined military and paramilitary apparatus that numbered in the hundreds of thousands and morphed into criminal cartels and gangs after the war. Unsurpisingly, Mayans bore the brunt of casualties.
The US has financially supported Central American nations like Guatemala, and it is no coincidence that the Guatemalan government was the first to support the administration’s decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Hernando Cortes and Pedro de Alvarado’s conquest of Guatemalan Mayans continues today through a war of attrition conducted by criminal cartels and the current administration.
It is time that the US acknowledged its role in the fate of Guatemalans like Clemente and Wendy.
2
Why can't the United States simply follow the U.N. Convention and U.S. law on Asylum seekers?
8
@William please realize that fears of private actor criminal activity do not constitute a basis for refugee status or asylum under the Convention and federal law. Part of the problem is that while many of these folks are coming from difficult situations, they do not have colorable claims for asylum unless Congress significantly rewrites the immigration laws.
6
@William
The Obama Administration broadened the U.N. asylum law to cover those who are fleeing domestic violence or gangs. Thanks to this change, a large percentage of the world's population would now qualify for asylum in our country.
Jeff Sessions tried to restrict the reasons for which people could request asylum to what they were before Obama; he tried to restrict them to what the U.N. law requires. A judge has blocked the Trump Administration on this.
6
@William Compliance with convention and law does not help in facilitating Trump's nativist agenda.
Nick, please . . . I love you, but you are such an easy mark for these sad stories, and stories is exactly what they are. As you say yourself: "There is no way to verify parts of his story, but individuals who work with immigrants say it rings true."
Yeah. I bet they do.
Let me get this straight. He has six children and a wife, but he is afraid the gangs will target only him and his eldest daughter . . . because she's a good student.
Do you not even blush when you read the words you've written.
Border crossings are surging because people like you and "individuals who work with immigrants" have shouted from the rooftops that anyone who shows up with a child in tow needs to be provided with airfare to wherever they want to go plus new clothes, food, medical care, a subsidized apartment and a pocketful of walking around money.
And meanwhile how many Americans slept in their cars last night?
19
America’s history, including my own, is euphemistically referred to as “checkered.” But at its best, as Lincoln beseeched with his “Better Angels of our Nature” plea, offers the chance for a Better World. THIS IS NOT IT!
1
Trump and his neo-Confederate voter base don't care.
Give 'em guns, white power, a few autographed Bibles, a big beautiful Southern border wall neo-Confederate monument and a Worldwide Wrestling Federation President smashing Democrats over their heads with chairs, and America is Great Again.
We are a land of immigrants, not heartless xenophobes.
Register and vote in record numbers in 2020.
21
This is a one-sided story not supported by actual facts. I find it extremely hard to believe that the government would abuse the father as described in this article. If this in fact is accurate, the agents responsible should have been investigated by OPR and punished. Where are those reports?
What Guatemala gang hangs out in a small village where then can earn no money from such a poor population? The story doesn't ring true.
Where are the police reports to support the claims of violence? These + many more will be questions required to be answered. Constructed narratives similar to this are being told every day to govt. officials. Holes will be punched in their stories and the majority will be required to leave or be deported.
The majority are making an extremely dangerous trek for nothing. They are being spurred on by a criminal element as well as the democratic party. Shameful!
18
This essay displays considerable innumeracy on the part of Nicholas Kristof.
If it is true that conservatives tend to deny global warming, liberals tend to make an even more egregious error---they deny the impact of population growth.
The problem is that Guatemala (for example) has a population growth rate of 2%. At this rate immigration to the US from Guatemala is overwhelmed by population growth in Guatemala. So problems with poverty in Guatemala become worse over time in spite of illegal immigration, or immigration on the basic of economic hardship.
And if we allow immigration from Guatemala, why not Bangldesh? Why not Nigeria? Why not the Congo? Why not India?
To deal with poverty in the third world an essential ingredient is providing people around the world with access to the full panoply of family planning techniques. In fact, we should have done that decades ago.
If Americans are guilty of a collective crime, it is this. By preventing people in the third world from access to birth control they have caused the problems of population growth to become ever more severe.
These include gangs in Guatemala. But also genocide in Rwanda, civil war in Syria, increased poverty among Palestinians, outright starvation in the Sudan and in Yemen, the inability of people in the Ganges basin to have access to pure water.
It is absolutely idiotic to claim to oppose global warming while denying its primary cause, which is too much population growth.
15
Where are all of the "pro life" and "pro family" campaigners? I think these good people would like you to be "pro" their lives, too.
7
@Gail The "pro-life" and "pro-family" battle cries do not extend to those who those "pro" people feel offended by.
1
If we we're reading about atrocities like this in other parts of the world there would be no question of declaring them inhumane. This country is committing far worse for traumatized adults and children that are fleeing horror. In our parallel universe Trump autographs Bibles in Alabama and the Evangelicals declare God placed him in office, a gift from God, at CPAC.
5
The good of any country, it’s people is not how much money they can stockpile for its 1%. It is not bragging around the world you are the best. In the past we have always shown our goodness by exhibiting compassion for people both in our own country and in others by helping feeding, clothing, giving healthcare and opening up our arms and welcoming them here. We only show our audacity and ignorance when we proclaim greatness, especially during this administration and government. The best amongst us are those who give wether they are prosperous or not. My own grandparents were welcomed to our country, fleeing a communist run country.
5
Americans who can not fathom how cruel it is to separate children from their parents, who are desperate for a safe life, is based on their politically rationalizing why the atrocity is acceptable.
I am estranged from several friends and relatives (all parents themselves), because I refuse to comprehend that these separations are justifiable. They are unconscionable. Period.
6
The GOP, always touting family values, has wrought this inhumane disaster. They are stridently anti-abortion, but this debacle at our southern border proves they are not pro-life.
5
This is so simple, if migrants do not attempt to enter illegally, and also do not abuse asylum laws, which are intended for persecuted minorities, then there would be no separation.
It takes both sides to cause a separation. 1. the action of the migrants themselves and 2. the response by the Feds.
Why didn't these migrants accept safe haven offered by the Mexican government?
They instead country shopped and abused asylum laws and came here instead.
It is intellectually dishonest to blame this on the Feds.
19
@Philly
Sounds to me that they have a credible claim under US Asylum laws.
Where do you decide that they "abused asylum laws"?
They haven't even been allowed to file an asylum claim yet.
As for E-verify, Donald Trump was employing undocumented workers at Mar-a-Lago. Will he be charged with breaking the law? I doubt it.
6
Guatemalan gangsters did not pursue Clemente and his eldest daughter a thousands miles across Mexico to the banks of the Rio Grande. Asylum seekers are supposed to apply for asylum in the nearest country that offers asylum. For Guatamalans, that's Mexico.
The United States is no longer obligated by U.S. or international law to accept asylum requests presented at the U.S.-Mexico or U.S.-Canada borders. And it can immediately return illegal border crossers who request asylum to Mexico. The reason is that the United States now has an agreement (Migrant Protection Protocols) with Mexico that is similar to its long-standing “third safe country” agreement with Canada.
U.S. asylum law specifically states the United States may refuse asylum requests when asylum seekers can be safely returned to countries other than the ones they fled. Mexico is now such a country. Safe third country agreements are also authorized under United Nations asylum protocols designed to prevent “asylum shopping.” Asylum seekers are supposed to seek asylum in the nearest country that offers asylum. Mexico has asylum laws similar to U.S. asylum laws.
18
@William Case
It is well and good to quote asylum laws and protocols. The reality is, that globally these laws, treaties, and protocols are simply not working. Those nations exposed to the crisis by virtue of their geographical presence are shouldering the burden. The US has been insulated from many of these issues by two oceans and a wonderful neighbor to the north. Finger pointing has gotten us nowhere.
2
@Charles
The United States accepts more than one million legal permanent immigrants each year, more than the other industrialized nations of the world combined. It also accepts thousands of refugees.
5
@William Case
Of course and that may be, but it does not change anything I said. I never proposed we need to increase that obligation, I'm saying this is a global problem. But since you brought it up. "Thousands of refugees"? We are a nation of 365 million.
3
Let's not have to rely on pulling on heartstrings to drum up support for fair and reasonable treatment of our neighbors on this planet. Let's not use the wrenching of babes from mothers' arms to make us cry for the poor who want to be wealthy enough to afford a roof over their heads and maybe one healthful meal a day.
Please, Mr. Kristof, it isn't just the plight of children. It's human beings who are suffering. It's our ignorance and hate that's the problem.
1
I cry reading most of your columns--and am so thankful that you write them. You're a major force in energizing good people to vote this administration out.
3
@Sherry Law
It was the GW Bush administration that initiated these procedures and then the Obama Administration that amplified and took them to a new level. This is truly a mess that Trump inherited from previous presidents and Congresses who refused to deal with the problem because it was politically unpalatable and kicked the can down the road. We are now at the end of the road.
3
After listening to a friend who spent January volunteering at Annunciation House in El Paso, I torn between the cruelty of separating families Vs the cruelty of forcing children to endure the excessively crowded cages and deprivation in iceboxes with their parents. At least the children are warm and given food.
In any case, we are inflicting egregious and unnecessary cruelty on vulnerable humans, including many children. In our name and with our money, our government is choosing egregious cruelty , humiliation, intentional physical and mental stress and intimidation on the most vulnerable and weak
We can argue all we want about whether these people are ‘illegal’ or ‘undocumented’, ‘migrants’ or ‘refugees’ but regardless, they are unarmed, vulnerable people who have come to us asking for help and safety, asking for kindness and refuge
And we Americans, rich as we are with plenty of unfilled jobs , uneaten food, unoccupied housing, space and opportunity, won’t even give kindness.
That says far more about our character than it does about theirs
135
@organic farmer - I take issue with the inference that they have come to us asking for help and safety, asking for kindness and refuge. They are, in my opinion, exploiting the legalities of the asylum system, and showing up, uninvited at the doorstep, barging their way in. The integrity of asylum system risks being eroded, as in the case of central american migrants less then 10 per-cent are awarded international protection.
14
@organic farmer What I want to know is why are we using “ice boxes” to torture these people. I too am sickened by the fact that we are treating desperate people with this kind of unnecessary cruelty. Where is our humanity and caring for the suffering of our fellow mankind. I am ashamed for our country.
28
@Gail Greathouse
We overcool everything BECAUSE men wear suits in the hot summer .... long pants!
More than one icebox! Also American jails....
1
To be fair how are the authorities supposed to know that this 15 year old traveling with an adult male is his daughter and not one of the numerous victims of sex trafficking? And if she is the daughter, that the parent’s are together or that she is not being taken out of the country without the mother’s permission.
The whole insanity at the border needs to be shutdown. Build the wall especially with the population explosion it will be getting worse, strict E-verify, end birthright citizenship. Charity starts at home so let’s invest in the people already here with affordable healthcare and college and a commitment to the impoverished communities already here like inner city and vets.
43
@Allright
College is NO pancea. There are loads of jobs that do not require a regular liberal arts degree.
We need to stop with the planned 2% per year inflation... because X percent of the population is on a fixed income.
We need to build affordable housing that is energy efficient. We need to get over the garbage consumer economy... and if Wall Street goes bust -- I don't care, do you??!!
2
@Allright
So if there's no birthright citizenship what makes you American? Are you ethnically American? that's how the Germans, French and Europeans do it. Is it because your parents were born here? but they're only American because they were born here as well. How would you define an American? I guess you'll come up with some continuously changing and nebulous legal framework, or maybe you just think it's "obvious" whose American. People who look like you? People who act like you?
Americans are mutts, ethnically undefined (thank god). If you're not going to acknowledge that people who are born here are American, then what will define us? How far you wanna go down that road? Do you really want to re-litigate what it means to be an American?
20
Interesting to see some of the vicious hostility that defines much of the immigration debate manifest itself right here in these comments. Trump knew who he was addressing.
6
@LibertyLover
Coincidentally, there was just a scientist on CNN who was explaining that our brains are hardwired to divide people into categories of us and them and how the aversion to them can be automatic. He also explained how these feelings can be summoned and intensified by propaganda and demagogues and tyrants to evoke the desired response. Sound familiar?
5
@LibertyLover
This would tend to explain the phenomenon of each new waves of immigrants entering into the US experienced this hostility and degradation. People forget that Poles, Jews, Irish, Italian immigrants were vilified when they were freshly arrived to integrate into our society.
And we can never forget the ship filled with Jews trying to escape the murderous Germany of the 30s only to be turned away. Our viciousness toward immigrants, even legal ones, has a long shameful history.
5
@LibertyLover We as a society have never discarded the nativism that permeated this country.
Yes, it is tragic that these criminals are separated and the healthcare we provide to them is not perfect, though better and more accessible than from their home. If they stayed home, they would not have been detained and separated.
14
@No
Correct, but they'd probably have been murdered by the gang they ran in fear from. "Not our problem" right..
4
@Alan
So the wife and the other 4 kids are safe now? The dad and one of the kids is here so everything good now? It is a LIE he is telling.
2
Please let us know if, when and how Junior and Andy are reunited.
3
It is unbelievable to me that the United States, under Trump’s regime, has now become a terrorist nation. There can be no worse terror than to have your child ripped from your arms, and be thrown into a cold room, wet, hungry, and scared, only to nearly die from pneumonia.
6
@Laura Wallin
Sorry Laura - but this problem started long before this administration was elected and will continue long after it is gone unless Congress, which has the power to fix this problem LEGALLY steps up and overhauls our broekn immigration system.
4
Here's a fact, and one that even a soft-headed liberal can understand: If you bring your kid along as an attempt to get amnesty, it won't work. It's child abuse. We will not do the "catch-n-release" that Obama used to release millions of "asylum seekers" into the USA. Nope.
Bring the kid, you will get separated.
16
@GeorgePTyrebyter
"...If you bring your kid along as an attempt to get amnesty"
What does that even mean? Who ever "got" amnesty for being accompanying a minor? Do you have any evidence at all of that having ever been a valid strategy and, particularly, of it providing the rationale for a single asylum seeker to bring their kids with them? Isn't more logical, immediate and human to consider that parents simply want to have their children with them?
I do not think you have read the article, as the example it presents is that of a minor (15 year old girl) who was threatened in her country after adult members of her family were attacked and threatened with further retaliation. No mentions of "amnesties" or of any other intent or motivation for her parent.
As for the child abuse, if you think about it, what you are saying is that, as their parents brought them to us, we, as a country, are legitimized to abuse children. Not a very defensible moral position.
8
@GeorgePTyrebyter: Too many Americans who, by the sheerest of luck, happened to be born here, think they actually deserve their good fortune and can ignore the plight of others not so blessed. There is ample literature to describe what is likely to happen to a young girl coming of age in parts of Central America--rape, prostitution, pregnancy, death--so that no lucky American need be ignorant and heartless when hearing of the fate of a parent trying to save a child's life. And isn't it easy, when you are in your warm home, well-fed and comfortable, to read about two or three instances of absolute horror and immediately jump to the "millions of asylum seekers" flooding across the border fiction? Lucky you.
7
This grandmother has no words to express my horror given the atrocities this government is using to torment people. My comments would not pass acceptable muster if I could freely use the words I want to use in describing the utter disbelief we are witnessing. Every person from this (not my) president to Kirstjen Nielsen, to ICE participants, to people profiting off of this humanitarian crisis must be prosecuted to the highest degree of the law.
A pox on every single lowlife who has in any measure, touched, fueled, abetted this human suffering. Never in my 73 years have I been as ashamed and disgusted with my country as I am now.
Thank you Mr. Kristof, for continuing to bring these stories to the forefront.
Citizenry: Vote in 2020 to rid the country of the vermin that consumes us.
13
@Joan Bunney
"Never in my 73 years have I been as ashamed and disgusted with my country as I am now."
Agree entirely! I never imagined being so thoroughly appalled my government either. This is exactly why we're at an impasse with so many of our neighbors. I avoid all the friends and family who support this monster and his polices. I don't see a positive resolution and believe this country will be fractured permanently by this presidency.
3
Sometimes these stories just make me feel like crying. I give to HIAS and have given to other groups but it does not feel enough. What’s happening to our humanity. When I look at our history, it is has many shameful events. When we look back at the way we treated Native Americans, the people of Japanese decent during WW11 and slavery we look back with shame. Why are we allowing this?
9
Sorry Clemente & Wendy. Separating families at the border was last year. Now we're fighting about Michael Cohen and Ilhan Omar.
I thought, Trump supporters, that we are a Christian country. Where is the outrage from the churches - Evangelical and Catholic?? Where is the Christian outrage??????????????
12
@Rosalind The "christianity" is practiced only when bibles are being signed by Trump.
1
@Rosalind
The Christian outrage is there with missionaries from the Southern Baprtist Convention and neighboring Catholic organizations in McAllen, Texas and other border towns handing out food, water, conducting ESOL classes and preaching the gospel of Christ to the "least of these". It just doesn't get reported on.
I have been to Guatemala El Salvador and Honduras. There is definitely real danger there to many. I have a friend who our church sponsored to escape the violence in El Salvador in the 80’s. His wife and sons were murdered by a death squad and he barely escaped with two young daughters. The family’s offense was that they were literate and were teaching others to read. Really. This same terror happens today in these countries and others around the world.
228
@DukeOrel
And it will happen here if we are not vigilant and neglect to learn how to protect ourselves. What's that quote from Eowyn in the Two Towers, "Those who don't know how to use a sword can still die upon one."
8
@DukeOrel Then apparently the people in those countries need to do something about it. Not our problem, its theirs.
5
@DukeOrel Don't let Betsy DeVos hear about death squads being used to deter people from educating themselves and others. She'll try to implement it as policy here.
9
The family separations have been handled so carelessly that records don't always show which children went where.
Some were taken away as infants who could not have learned to talk yet or even to understand who they are. Slightly older children can identify their parents by names equivalent to "Mommy" and "Daddy". If they know their own first names, they don't know their last. And where did they come from? Why, home. Our house. Before long, even their memories of that home and of the people who love them will become dim.
Those children disappeared. I wonder, have they been found again? If not, then what?
131
@Longestaffe As to kids who have "disappeared": They're a good deal for affluent right-wing "Christians" who might want to adopt a cute little brown-skinned kid.
It's been reported that some of the smaller kids who are reunited, no longer recognize their parents, whether due to long separation or to sheer trauma or both. Sadly, this is all the more legal rationale to adopt them out, in the views of many.
Yes, this is my country doing this. OMG.
9
@Longestaffe
I think we should microchip children and parents at the border... even though.... Record keeping as such is abysmal.
To protect borders is logical. What is illogical is to claim that the problem is with the immigrants or with the border patrol. The real problem lies in the question--Why are these people running from their countries?
If the answer is that the conditions in their countries are so bad they cannot stay, the next question is, Did US government policy help create those conditions?
If the US government did help create those conditions, then the discussion should be about our responsibility for this mess (as well as the immigrant problem in Europe, which our endless war in the Middle East has created).
If we are responsible in any way for this mess, that is where the articles and discussions should focus. And if we did this, we need to try and fix it instead of blaming people who are running for their lives.
159
@David Jacobson Yes we did this. I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in El Salvador, before the Civil War. Even by developing world standards, the poverty was extreme. Since the '30's, a handful of wealthy families had owned the main source of wealth in the country- the coffee plantations, ever since the military killed some 30.000 peasants accused of being communists in what is known as "la matanza". In the '70's, discontent led to government reprisals- the country was terrorized by military death squads , and there were assassinations of those suspected of being dissidents. People spoke in fear of of "la mano blanco" , or White Hand, for the white handprint left on doors as a warning to suspected dissidents. The Archbishop was assassinated while saying mass in the cathedral. A 12 year Civil War followed,75,000 died, mostly civilians. Half the country was displaced. An entire village was massacred by a battalion of the Salvadoran army at El Mozote. The war could not have continued without U.S. military aid from the Reagan administration, aid which at the height of the war amounted to $1.5 million a day. Salvadorans fled to the United States, to places like Los Angeles, where their children were introduced to gang culture. The Reagan administration responded by deporting suspected gang members back into a war-torn impoverished country. The result was sadly predictable, planting the seeds of the gangs that now terrorize the population, driving migration. Yes. Yes we did.
61
@David Jacobson
We fed millions in Africa so they could grow up to live in poverty do we owe them a place here too? America, and Americans, have done far more to help the impoverished of the world than we have done to create them but if they exist today in poverty it is somehow our fault? Not the fault of the individuals in those countries having babies as fast as they can, with no jobs or opportunities to provide for them? It is NOT our Fault. Period. We did not create the overpopulation of the world, just helped a great number of them to survive their childhoods.
23
@GregP
Maybe our government should stop making access to birth control and abortion so difficult.
I’d love to have a government that is truly free from religious influence. Separation of church and state. What a marvelous idea!
32
It's heartwarming to read your compassion for these poor people fleeing danger in their own countries and father and daughter are together again. We who sit comfortably at home could never imagine the hardship that drives these people to take on perilous journeys seeking safety. What beggars belief is why that poor man was locked in a freezing cage leading to his hospitalisation? Border Patrol have a huge problem to cope with but why in heaven's name must they inflict cruelty on the defenceless? Thank you indeed Mr. Kristoff.
139
@Alice Lodge
" Border Patrol have a huge problem to cope with but why in heaven's name must they inflict cruelty on the defenceless? "
Because we are becoming Nazi Germany. Nothing more or less.
2
I'm tired of Democrats pandering to our hearts and Republicans pandering to our fear and hatred.
Why don't we have leaders that clearly articulate a practical immigration policy that is sustainable economically, ecologically and reduces global suffering in a practical way.
You can't abide by a treaty that allows any human on the globe to apply for refugee status if you aren't willing or able to pay for the facilities to house them and the very high costs of screening them for the legitimacy of their claims.
This whole process shouldn't even be practiced in the disorganized way it is and a new treaty should be created that organizes the entire process and shares the expenses and amount of immigration between wealthy nations equitably.
I promise you that some of the heartbreaking stories you read in columns like this are fiction composed by people brought here with dreams of economic opportunity. I don't blame them, but we can't keep our doors wide open to all who want to come.
If America really wants to reduce human suffering around the world in a substantial way we should be focused on reducing population growth in countries with excessive population and inadequate opportunity and discourage cleptocracy.
Our own human population is damaging enough our environment in the U.S. Our porous and failing system does little to alleviate global suffering and is not what the citizens of this nation want, which is legal and orderly immigration.
61
@alan haigh
A rational bill was passed by both houses and then super ceded by a farcical "national Emergency. Your argument on population growth is sound and rational and its logic may easily be extended. Stronger economies in Latin America as well as global efforts to eradicate the narco syndicates will do more to stop illegal immigration than a wall.
Your central premise is to use rational ideas, not emotions. So which side of our American political system offers the more rational ideas?
One side wants to rewrite the 1965 immigration laws to virtually end migration, They have virtually ended aid for contraception and they see foreign aid as a total waste of money.
The other side recognizes the need for legal immigration and when prodded will support reasonable legislation
36
Any discussion on reducing population needs to realize promotion of arcane policies. For half a century, the Catholic hierarchy has blocked funding and access to contraception for family planning and HIV/Aids prevention, with deadly impacts for the most vulnerable globally. And let’s not forget the progress that has been made is now in jeopardy because Trump signed an executive order reversing global progress on contraception, family planning, unsustainable population growth and reproductive rights. Bless the migrants in their plight, I can only imagine the tragic lives they leave behind and the small hope of happiness on their journeys.
35
@Gripah
Absolutely spot on, US should be supporting free birth control internationally both to reduce the suffering of humanity, and the general burden on this planet. This would be both in our best interest AND the most humane thing we can do for the world!
13
What would any of us do if our own children were in danger of being murdered or targeted by violent gangs? What would we do if we heard that others were fleeing to safety? Wouldn't we want to give our children a chance at a better life? And wouldn't we stay if security at home improved instead of making a long dangerous trek?
Our government is pursuing simplistic solutions that are not only cruel, they are counterproductive. Of course it's much easier to lead chants of "Build the Wall!" and stroke fear than it is to provide support anti-gang programs that are making these countries safer.
91
@Edie Clark I would tag along with a group of people or caravan for whatever security that might afford me. Once I arrived at the U.S. border, I would cross at a port of entry with my own story of asylum, not a pre-written step by step guide on what to say to border agents.
For whatever reason, I agree that congress is and has been dropping the ball on passing comprehensive reform. It would help if one side would stop playing the race card and using the media to spread propaganda. The media used to be a trusted source to keep government honest, no matter who or what party was responsible.
4
@Edie Clark this comes at a cost of apprx 80 k per person for food clothing medical care transportation education housing translators ect... people would stay in Mexico if the taxpayers wallets were not open to them
7
@Edie Clark Well said!
3
I usually avoid reading child separation stories any more because they are too painful. And I am a hardened social worker. it seems most people don’t care or their outrage has a shelf life. The angel in this story for me is the aide worker. More about these people, please.
91
First question: Did these folks have evidence of their parent-child relationship with them when apprehended? Or even anything to show clearly that the teen was under 18? (Due to the prevalence of human traffickers and custody disputes, ICE does not generally assume that adults found with a child have legal custody of that child. It can take a while to sort out if no one has documents with them.)
Second question: Did Clemente have any sort of history with ICE or the criminal justice system that would render him ineligible to pursue papers in the United States? In those situations, family members' cases are usually severed to allow those with potential eligibility to pursue claims.
Third: If we want to change the international definition of refugee and U.S. asylum laws to render fear of crime a basis for asylum, we need to have a law doing so passed by Congress. No matter how often those who say they are fleeing gang activity and abusive relationships are described as "asylum-seekers" in the Times, private actor wrongdoing is almost never a basis for asylum under existing federal and international law.
14
This is an oversimplification of complex law. I have won asylum for many people who had a well-founded fear of persecution on account of protected grounds by private actors whom the government could not or would not control. In Central America the police often are an arm of criminal organizations such as MS 13, which was imported from the USA.
6
@Working Mama, As I see it private sector wrongdoing without the realistic possibility law enforcement intervention can and should be the basis for claiming government malfeasance and therefore a basis for an asylum claim under existing federal and international law. Put another way, if reporting serious crimes repeatedly results in no law enforcement response, the absence of government is prima face evidence of government malfeasance and therefore grounds for claiming asylum.
2
I would also add that he may have already been sick. Being chilled does not make you ill
3
"...separation of immigrant families continued ..."
No.
"...separation of illegal immigrant families continued ..."
Yes.
The solution to the problem is simple. Enter the country through a port of entry, legally.
The parents of these children are well aware of the consequences of apprehension.
Second-guessing of policy implementations aside, the responsibility for any unpleasantness lies squarely on the shoulders of the parents.
20
He came here to ask for asylum. How exactly is that illegal? He literally did what we ask ppl to do and follow the letter of the law. Asylum seekers are not illegals. That’s only in the eyes of those who are blinded by their own hatred. These people are legal asylum seeking immigrants and are definitely Not illegal immigrants. He turned himself in and requested asylum. What part of that is illegal?
7
And you prove the point about trump supporters. When the Mueller report comes out I hope you all still have the same fervor for the rule of law.
5
Read the article: “They crossed Mexico without serious incident, then waded across the Rio Grande and turned themselves in to Border Patrol officers, requesting asylum.”
So no, the immigrants were not “illegal.” And they obeyed the Byzantine rules for immigrants in every other way.
5
It is curious that images of suffering children are used over and over again to draw attention to injustices and dictatorial regimes around the world. We see children from refugee cities in Darfur to hospitals in Syria to the beaches of Greece, all heartbreaking and calling for political action. Images of migrant children detained in the USA are less prevalent, but here's a situation in our own country that we have the power to change. Photos of tents and cages full of detained people in the USA should be on the news every night until families are reunited, and treated decently and justly.
30
What fails to be mentioned in this Hallmark narrative is the very laws that separate these families are OBAMA ERA laws.
They were put in place to address specific issues not to intentionally break up families. What we do not have is a comprehensive immigration policy! Trump inherited the mess Obama left. When will the liberal left acknowledge their ultimate President fell short in delivering in many areas?
20
@George Hmm. For the last six of Obama's eight years in office both legislative chambers were GOP majority politicians.
For the first two years of Trump he had a willing and pliable GOP majority in both houses.
Given that, why did the GOP not act and enact a comprehensive immigration policy?
Trump inherited nothing other than a policy that has been in play for many years. To lay this at the feet of Obama, who deported many illegal immigrants, is, well, a wrongly placed.
11
@George
No. If that were true, we would have had children in cages under Obama and we did not. We would have criminalized being a refugee but we did not. We would have taken thousands of children from their parents and lost many of them, but we did not.
What you ignore is that the executive has discretion in implementing the law. The use of that discretion says something about the humanity of the people implementing it, and the difference between this administration ans the previous is stark.
4
@George
Nice rewrite there. The Obama policy only separated children if their parent was found to be engaged in criminal activity that could conceivably endanger the welfare of the child. It was the exception and NOT the norm.
Per Wash. Post- "the key difference here is that in April, the Justice Department rolled out a “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting all adults caught crossing the border illegally. As a result of this and the Department of Homeland Security’s decision in May to refer all illegal-crossing cases to federal prosecutors, families apprehended at the border were systematically separated. The reason is simple: Children can’t be prosecuted with their parents.
This is worlds apart from the Obama- and Bush-era policy of separating children from adults at the border only in limited circumstances, such as when officials suspected human trafficking or another kind of danger to the child, or when false claims of parentage were made."
Try some research. It just might do you a world of good.
2
These policies are harsh and cruel and will cause these children a lifetime of problems. I would like to see reporting from the towns they come from. Why do they still come? Do they know what awaits? What are they being told? What is discussed in their town?
Part of me thinks this is somewhat manufactured as a crisis for our reality President. I wouldn’t put it past him and his team to support the smugglers to increase the numbers. We need reporting from Central America.
12
The Trump organization has profited enormously (and illegally) from the labor of undocumented immigrants, and now the Trump administration claims to be "upholding the law" in its family separation anti-refugee policies. The separation of families is unconscionable, unnecessary -- and all for short-term political gain. The separation of children from parents is nothing less than a crime against humanity, and we will be held accountable.
37
@Susan I’d like to see evidence of a Trump policy that calls for family separation. I’d bet Obama didn’t have one either. Refugee’s don’t break the law to enter a country. U.S. law describes them as illegal aliens. At least Trump is willing to address the problem that the past six presidents swept under the rug with amnesty, bad policy decisions or unconstitutional executive orders.
Separated families is unconscionable, but a conscience decision was made by the parents to put their children in danger by walking a thousand miles with zero guarantee that they’ll be granted anything. We have trained people south of our border that America won’t do anything if you’ve entered the country illegally.
Now we have a president that promised to address illegal immigration and to faithfully execute the law. Oh, the horror. He’s asked congress to send him a bill, but lawmakers can’t or won’t find a way to get it done.
1
I've said it before, but I'll say it again.
We spend billions feeding the dragon, everyday,
all around the world. He's always hungry.
And these huge corporations are out-sourcing cheap labor,
in Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, sewing, assembling
widgets, whatever, somewhere, everyday...
Why can't we, or the Great Deal-Maker put together a few
simple incentive-packages to direct these firms into
Central America? Back them with loans for education,
and some U.N. or U.S. military for security, and voila!
Or help create cheap but secure retirement villas
like they have in Mexico now in Guatemala, San Salvador...
We spent billions down there forty some-odd years ago,
to keep the Communists out of their governments,
and to keep our own business interests in control.
We never really cared about giving the abundant poor a workable, livable situation, or maybe a small piece of their own land to cultivate.
If there is an emergency, we helped create it.
Or we could just spend billions more building a wall,
that will not solve this perennial problem, that will not dispel this simple human need for a secure future everywhere.
26
Your comment hit the target, a dead on bullseye in my opinion. I sometimes think the people writing comments would be far more able to manage the problems facing us than the ones we have elected to do so. Common sense and a clear vision, not much of that around these days in D.C.
2
What a wonderful father, a father of six who believes his daughter is an "Angel from God". Im touched by his love.
She does look like an angel. Many prayers to you both.
30
@Therese Stellato
who also left his wife to deal with their other five children by herself in Guatemala... like so many stories around immigration, it is deeply complex and painful.
1
@Therese Stellato
Thoughts and prayers? We've had enough useless thoughts and prayers.
1
The Trump administration seems focused on making entry into the US more or less impossible for would-be asylum seekers, even as the number of desperate families is rapidly increasing. I suppose that somewhere in the US, a concertina-wire factory is running 24 hours a day.
Is there any way that Congress could quietly persuade the President to take asylum applicants more seriously? I think Texas Republicans, among others, would join in such an effort, if sufficiently low key.
Or possibly the 2020 campaign requires "Keep Them Out!"
6
There’s no way to “quietly persuade” Trump out of incarcerating helpless refugees in his death camps. He has to be voted out, or finally forced out of office and into a penitentiary for the good of our nation. How many innocent children have died in Trump’s camps so far?
I do not understand the purpose of holding these deperate people in ice cold rooms for long periods without adequate covering. Why can’t this inhumane treatment at least be eliminated?
59
@gloria
private, for-profit detention centers (very under regulated) is part of the problem
5
Thank you, Mr. Kristof, for keeping these stories in front of us.
A few months ago, heroes rescued Thai children and their mentors from flooded cave tunnels. Helpers! We have a few thousand children in the U.S. trapped in man-made caves near our Southern border and beyond. Now the tears of the children are flooding the cold cement floors. They must be freed and those who were kidnapped by the Trump Administration’s cruel policies must be reunited with their parents.
The wall is in Trump’s heart. Who will tell him? Will Stephen Miller or Mitch McConnell tell him? Please help the children. Call your senators and representatives.
43
There must be a way for immigrants to get work visas.
There must be a way to track those visas so workers are not exploited, and both employer and employee pay relevant taxes.
Why is this so impossible?
33
@Myrasgrandotter What you ask isn't impossible; it's very possible. And in this period of full employment, it's desirable from an economic point of view.
But many politicians figured out that we'll vote for them if they tell us we have to fear a certain group of dangerous outsiders, and that they'll protect us from those outsiders. A simple lesson, pioneered by a little guy with a moustache a few decades ago in Germany. And it works. We made their leader our President.
48
@Myrasgrandotter
We have 10 to 35 million people ''out there'' supposedly pending hearings because both parties wrote the immigration laws to be an absolute joke.
First the Dems & Cesar Chavez wanted NO illegal workers but the business Republicans did.
Then the conservatives noticed all the crimes being committed and how worker pay was stuck, but the Dems were told over & over that illegal voters casting fraudulent votes were their only hope - by the Centers for American Progress, etc.
they have to show up in person to get visas. That process COULD be simplified....
3
Under international treaty and federal law, the United States is required to hear the cases of asylum seekers who present themselves at the border. Inhumane treatment of refugees seeking asylum is a violation of the spirit of these regulations. As a consequence, the United States should be taken before the United Nations for violations of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and the Trump administration should be brought before the International Court of Justice in The Hague and prosecuted for human rights abuse.
103
@Blue Moon
While I agree with everything you write it ain't gonna happen. No one dares to cross the great and powerful United States! Not even in the face of horrific inhumane treatment of refugees, including children. We are now a lawless state and no one, except ourselves, will come to our rescue. "God" save us.
5
The law also says the people fleeing need to seek asylum from the first safe country they reach. That country is not the USA
4
The money being wasted on an ineffective Wall could much more profitably be used in Central America to combat the conditions that compel people like Clemente to seek refuge in the US. So could the money for Trump's regular golfing outings and the business travels of his family using government business as a cover to have the taxpayers pay for them. Cleaning up the utter waste and fraud in military and homeland security spending would provide more than enough money to stabilize Central America to the point where the humanitarian crisis would cease to exist. The Trump administration is taking all the wrong approaches to solving the problems that it is largely responsible for.
53
It seems that the species Trumpasaurus is either born without a conscience or they have a consciousectomy soon after birth.
It would appear that the consciencectomy also remove any glands which might secrete any compassion, sympathy, or mercy.
But being a species of devolution their fate is already sealed.
The Man upstairs does from time to time make some mistakes but He always corrects them eventually.
17
The Border Patrol does not put migrants in ice boxes or holding cells intentionally kept cold. The assertion that they do is a preposterous lie. The Border Patrol processing centers are air conditioned. They seem cold to people unaccustomed to air conditioned. But most migrants spend less than 24 hours at the processing stations before being sent to detention centers.
22
@William Case
I don't know about you but I have a thermostat that I use to set the temperature. I don't keep it so cold that it causes pneumonia requiring hospitalization. Maybe Border Patrol can save a bit of money by adjusting the AC.
9
@William Case: THANK YOU. I have posted on this constantly. There is no "ice box". The illegals are not used to modern air conditioning, that's all.
One especially despicable story had a young man of 17 in custody for a mere 10 days, before being released to relatives in the US. His big complaint? The awful treatment he got in detention! what happened? "They fed us COLD ham & cheese sandwiches!"
OH the humanity!
7
@William Case
There is no excuse.
None.
Cruelty cannot be justified.
Not ever.
4
Thanks for your work. The democratic party and Congress need to work on diminishing the power of this malevolent President and this documents why. We need to all think about methods to thwart Trump's apparent dictatorial ambitions.
We need now to start planning to defeat Trump
Michael Cohen is right to worry about the end of Democracy should Trump run and dispute the 2020 election. We need methods of dealing with this.
55
@Michael Cohen
the problem is way bigger and older than Trump - Obama administration deported millions - we need bi-partisan efforts at rational reform, but right now it all breaks down into partisan oversimplification
2
The author Robert Fulghum noted that his reflections on everything he learned in kindergarten was for young people who were not behind barb wire fences or hungry or .... He concluded his recognition of the horrors suffered by some - too too many - children stating: "I do not want to talk about what you understand about this world. I want to know what you will do about it. I do not want to know what you hope. I want to know what you will work for. I do not want your sympathy for the needs of humanity. I want your muscle."
There are many angels in the American border towns. So many volunteers are aiding those seeking asylum. These people are providing their muscle and working and doing something for the undocumented.
Yes, I write to my Republican PA senator. But writing to this loyal company of senators who follow the commands of Mitch McConnell or Trump is extremely frustrating and truly seems to do so little, if not nothing. I am conflicted Mr. Kristof. I do want to know what is going on at the southern border and yet, I do not want to know. There is power in words. But, what do they speak to such a powerful and quite frankly, disgusting, heartless, political party?
80
Rev Wayne,
I too have made calls on a daily basis. I’ve written letters. Letters to McConnell are answered with blanket statements about securing our boarder. His office does not address anything I write about. Try calling him and you can’t get past a voice recording to even leave a message. I’m a constituent of his in Kentucky.
I called Chuck Shummer’s Office, told them I lived in Kentucky and they took my call anyway. A staff person spent 20 minutes in the phone with me fact checking concerns I had about migrant children separated from their parents.
I’m not giving up. I will flood McConnell’s and Rand Paul’s offices with letters until either they are out of office or I am turned to dust.
7
There is no second opinion that it’s a heartbreaking story. The child separation is unpardonable to say the least. Either the parent with the child should be sent back or both should be accepted. The only problem is that there are too many such families, who want to be immigrants of America. The million dollar question is how many such families can be accommodated and how long ?
12
@Sivaram Pochiraju
I am not sure how you can make observations on immigration and the US from your (self-identified) place thousands of miles and continents away. You may not realize it, but the US is a very big country and there is lots of space. In fact immigrants may be the only way to repopulate the dwindling small towns of the Mid-West. If you removed all the Hispanic immigrants from Iowa many farms and small businesses would fail and after that the tax base of the towns evaporates and the towns die.
1
The below is from the 3/5/19 NYT article "More Migrants Are Crossing the Border This Year. What’s Changed?”
But murder rates in the Northern Triangle countries have been declining in recent years, and economic imperatives are believed to be the most important push factor for the majority of recent arrivals.
More than 90 percent of the most recent migrants are from Guatemala, according to the newly released data. The majority hail from impoverished regions, including the Western highlands, where conflicts over land rights, environmental changes and depressed prices for crops like maize and coffee are undermining the ability of farmers to make a living.
The majority know to request asylum at the border, either at an official port of entry or when they surrender to border agents shortly after sneaking into the country from Mexico.
They know that they are unlikely to remain detained if they travel with a child and that they have a better shot at fending off deportation when they come with a child.
39
@ann I read that article and thought the reporter was maybe trying to be neutral but came off as being very anti-immigration. She did not refer to any individuals who indicated they were crossing with children to avoid deportation. My impression was she was merely speculating as to their motive. When I see the videos and photos of confused distraught parents and heartbroken scared children searching for each other, I an unable to believe the parents, at least the majority thereof, are using their children as pawns. Imputing criminal motivation upon them dehumanizes them and makes it so much easier to just close the door without consideration of the reason they've walked thousands of miles to try to make a better life.
23
@ann We are "they." We are the ones who came to this country to escape tyranny, violence, religious persecution, starvation. We are those people. And for us to forget where we come from makes us the "other." You seem to have forgotten that we are "they."
7
@Donna I've come across this a number of times in NYT articles as well as on NPR radio news - migrants aware that bringing a minor child spares them from lengthy detention and makes them harder to deport. I remember one NYT article where a migrant referred to his teenage daughter as his "passport."
8
I feel for the families going through this and wonder what can be done. There is little about it in print or media. Soon there will be debates and we will blink and there will be primaries. Perhaps instead of examples of what continues to be wrong, there could be columns with different ways we might go about changing these policies and helping people.
Soon 20 some or more people will debate each other and President Trump. Let’s not have this topic be ignored.
Tommy B. McDonell, Ph.D.
Artist, Southern Pines, NC
41
There are few acts so heinous, so treacherous, so deeply assaulting to the moral bedrock of society as the premeditated dissolution of the family organism. For that is what the Trump administration has intended from the beginning: To rip (migrant) families asunder, both for (cheap) political purposes and for (unethical) dissuasive theater.
One can partially understand why our ignorant, amoral, racist President may not comprehend this assault on our moral foundations. But it is surely the utmost heights of hypocrisy for many MAGA supporters—namely, evangelical Christians—to defend Trump’s family-separation policies when they themselves have argued for decades regarding the necessity and importance of keeping the family “whole.” Indeed, evangelicals as far back as Jerry Falwell and his Moral Majority in the 1970’s have argued as much. (Of course, it should be noted that they were defending only one type of family—a heterosexual married couple and their dependent children).
So questions naturally present themselves: Why haven’t we heard from these perennial, outspoken defenders of family regarding Trump’s cruel and morally assaulting separation policy and practice? Will we hear from them concerning Clemente and Wendy’s case, among too many others? Do their families matter in God’s eye’s? Do they matter in evangelicals’ eyes?
174
Because they sold their souls to the devil for political favors. It doesn’t get any more despicable than that.
7
Back in 1845 the potato blight offered Ireland's landlords the opportunity they had waited for. There was no famine in Ireland and Ireland's food export economy was booming. It was 120 years after Swift wrote his Modest Proposal and it came the opportunity to get rid of the bottom two million of Irish society who subsisted on potatoes, were no benefit to the Irish economy and whose hovels took up valuable farmland.
Economics has no ethics or values despite Adam Smith having been an Ethics and Values Philosopher.
There is nothing wrong with American economics. The economics are working as designed. Those Trump supporters who are so angry, frustrated and insecure would be happy, content and secure with half of what they have now if it served the system.
I wish I could believe that Trump's supporters feel the same outrage that I feel watching the cruelty inflicted on children and the children that are their parents.
I lived in red America and met nothing but moral, kind and honest people. What kind of outrage has America inflicted on so many of its people to let these outrages happen in their name?
I have listened to the American political debate for over 50 years. It makes no sense, you are the richest most powerful nation that ever was and you are fearful, angry and cruel. What in Heaven's name is wrong with you people?
215
@Montreal Moe
What in Heaven's name is wrong with Americans who cannot fathom how cruel it is to separate children from their parents who are desperate for a safe life is they try to politically rationalize why it is acceptable. I am estranged from several friends and relatives (all parents themselves), because I refuse to comprehend that these separations are justifiable. They are unconscionable. Period.
92
@Montreal Moe
Most of us are appalled and, frankly, ashamed about what is being done in "our" name. We find the actions of the DHS to be utterly reprehensible and Sessions, Nielsen, and of course Trump has much to answer for and I hope a reckoning will be soon.
For anyone, regardless of what your views are on immigration, not to be shocked and distressed by these child separations would indicate that they have left the human race.
16
@Montreal Moe
Plenty is wrong with America's investor economy. In case you haven't noticed not just steel, clothing, shoes, pencils, furnishings are all made in China. We are no longer an industrial nation IMO. Computers are nice-- made in China. I think your point is plenty is wrong with GREED. It has very little to do with Trump per se. I predict that many a Democrat whose portfolio has soared with 45 will not vote for a "socialist" Democrat -- now called -- the used to be called "Democrats" == New Deal or some such_ or even a Centrist Democrat (we used to call them middle of the road Republicans) but rather .. the Mango Maniac.
Language helps create problems!!
.
3
It is heartbreaking to read stories like this.
Seeking Asylum is legal, it is America.
The cruelty that is depicted from our current White House is really upsetting. It is bad enough that we are subject to hatred every day in daily tweets but to think the USA is causing these already homeless immigrants more grief, psychological damage and breaking up their families is disgusting. Their family is all they have.
85
@OpieTaylor
Yes, seeking asylum is legal. Crossing the border is not.
You apply for asylum in your home country. You dont illegally cross the border, then apply.
If you were in any other country on the planet (besides Canada), would Customs allow you to board a plane, then apply for asylum once you land in the US?
Think about that.
5
There has always been a problem with how the USA defines itself. Is this country a homogeneous nation with one culture and a dominant type of citizen? Or are we like an Empire, composed of many different cultural and racial groups?
To be large and globally influencial, our country must function like an Empire. This is uncomfortable to those citizens who are frightened of people who are different.
11
@Caroline P.
We aver in our pledge to the flag that we are "one nation." Then, absurdly, later added "under god, to make matters worse." We have it in writing that we are all the same.
That's the nut of the problem.
1
Mr. Kristof, it should come as no surprise if some Americans feel that our president is 'The National Emergency' in one of the darkest chapters in contemporary times.
Trump, who does not appear responsible for his actions or quite right of mind, may not understand what it entails to be president of a democracy. His solution is to send military troops to the border, and hope that the majority of us forget these atrocities against humanity, reminiscent of William Styron's depressive and bleak anecdote of 'Sophie's Choice'.
With thoughts of the Clementes and the Cordovas in our midst, the sufferers and the saviors, it is difficult to come to terms with 'Christianity', let alone our Constitution, abused and distorted for the power and glory of some failing politicians, parading as patriots and well-meaning, ill-reasoned patriarchs.
'What were you doing for your Country during the Trump Era?'; and the answer might be 'praying while angels wept, that America had not lost its soul to proud Lucifers, pretending to be humans, long fallen from grace'.
42
"These family separations, continuing but at a lower level than before, are an element of the real “emergency” at the border — the one also involving physical and sexual abuse of immigrant children in U.S. custody and systematic deception from Washington."
Thank you Nicholas Kristof for continuing to expose this administration's cruelty and lies.
We all know immigration is complex and fraught, but creating more human misery in an attempt to keep them from heading north is hardly an answer. (Of course, the real answer is comprehensive immigration reform, that Speaker Boehner refused to bring up for vote after its passage in 2013).
The key reasons why Donald Trump is doing what he does is 1) Stephen Miller and 2) it serves his political purposes to fire up his base.
Yes, the emergency he's so cavalierly claiming to build a wasteful, ineffective "wall" is one of his own making. Instead, it's stunning the world at how quickly the US has lost its heart as well as its mind.
198
Heartbreaking. Thank you for keeping these details in people's minds.
51
One wonders about the proportion of children separated from parents who will be pressed into domestic or intentional child trafficking. Since it is so profitable it is also likely to be occurring.
44
I saw that Senator last year that tried to enter that detention facility. People with him got a bit rattled when told the police had been called. That was my first introduction into this child separation nightmare that Washington has foisted on all of us.
Last week Kirstjen Nielsen proclaimed how the kids weren’t put into cages. She got into semantics and IMHO lost. Then she proclaimed how she had had NO IDEA that separating kids from their parents would cause such trauma.
What is this country coming to that people support child separation and putting kids into cages. This whole thing causes me nightmares, as well as, I’m sure the kids and parents.
206
@Margaret her father separated her from her mother and siblings. Was that not trauma?
2
Bravo Nick! Keep the pressure on Trump for this inhumane policy until public outcry forces him to rescind it. If he has a shred of human compassion in him perhaps he will reconsider. We can only hope and pray.
34
Please speak to the practice of keeping immigrant children in the U.S. and sending their parents home. Is this happening or is it faux news? If it’s happening, that is kidnapping and worse than the already inhumane practice of family separation described in this article.
What possible rationale does the Trump administration present to defend this abhorrent policy? Stealing children is more apt a description.
40
@Ellen Stein I have read that sometimes the parents who are going to be deported ASK that their children be allowed to remain in the U.S. with other relatives. Such children are often teenagers who fled Central America because their lives were in imminent danger from the gangs. The parents may prefer that their child be alive in the U.S. rather than be killed after being sent back home.
4
Recreational cruelty is one of the core principles of the Trump administration. It doesn't have to "work" it just has to hurt the "right" people.
From family separation at the border to family destruction due to cuts in health care for the poor, from the gratuitous meanness Trump has shown to individuals near to him to the contempt he demonstrates to millions of Americans on a daily basis, it all has the same root in the inexplicable resentment that the malignant Trump has fed off of for his entire life.
Stories like this will not change Trump's or his most ardent supporter's minds. Stories like this are WHY they separated the families in the first place.
130
@LT
It is the most vulnerable people at any given time who become the "other" (Puerto Rico; California during the fires) and who Trump zeros in on as the "problem". He must keep finding "others" to target- hate and fear are the platform of the cult. He will never want to solve the immigrant crisis: they are too ideal as an "other".
7
@LT Trump's high school records have been hidden as a result of his repeated threats of legal action on HS administrators. They no doubt reveal not only his poor grades but many instances of sociopathic bullying behavior. Trump is a combination of Biff from "Back to the Future" and Scott Farkas from "A Christmas Story", to date he has not had his comeuppance and there is no humorous story line to go with his increasingly malevolence.
7
If you are wealthy enough, you buy your way into America. The ultra rich Chinese do it daily to escape from the Xi's regime. America, particularly under Trump is all about money, wealth. We don't even treat our own poor citizens as generously as we do the privileged of foreign lands. So our official national approach to the poor of the world seeking something, anything, better than the hand dealt them by fate, are what passes for mercy by the border officials who have been incentivized by Trump's and the Republican's positions to be anything but merciful.
Trump worries mightily about chain migration, of short, brown people in particular. Melania's parents are now Americans, thanks to chain migration. Now idea how tall they are, but they are definitely not brown. I'm pretty sure the latter factor is the true determinant in this situation.
Here in north Texas, particularly in the DFW metroplex, one can find restaurants devoted to the cuisines of every Central and South American country, doing a land office business, and not just with short brown people. But Trump wouldn't have any acquaintance with these places. They don't serve Big Macs or shoe-leather steaks on fine china with gold plated utensils. But these businesses do bring to America the same traits, the same grit, that Irish, the Italians and the rest of the non-Anglo world used to get their foothold here.
Would anyone be surprised if Trump ordered Lady Liberty melted down because she is an anachronism?
124
@Glen As his first honest act, that would indeed be surprising.
2
@Glen:"Here in north Texas, particularly in the DFW metroplex, one can find restaurants devoted to the cuisines of every Central and South American country, doing a land office business, and not just with short brown people."
Why would one expect anything else?
"But these businesses do bring to America the same traits, the same grit, that Irish, the Italians and the rest of the non-Anglo world used to get their foothold here."
Your usage of "rest of the non-Anglo world" would confuse a lot of those "short brown people".
"Lady Liberty melted down because she is an anachronism?"
Actually we ought to have duplicates of Lady Liberty along the southern border. The sign would say: The line forms here.
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@Glen Trump has already had Stephen Miller, who plays Smithers to Trump's Montgomery Burns, figuratively decapitate the Statue of Liberty, by proclaiming that "Give my your tired, your poor, your wretched refuse yearning to breathe free..." just a poem and not a policy or value of this country.
Trump doesn't need a wall, soon he'll be at the southern border commanding, "Release the hounds! Exxxcellent!"
''Immigration is a complicated challenge, but ripping families apart isn’t the solution... '' - Actually it is against the law (foreign and domestic) and at the first possible instance, people that are directly responsible need to be brought to justice and prosecuted. (this is of course on top of all the other crimes that are being committed by this government)
The depth of destruction this policy is having will probably not be born out until many years (a generation) later, where so many of the children will grow up to be social outcasts (with no support system) and will turn into EXACTLY what they were fleeing in the first place.
There will be only difference - they will be here.
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@FunkyIrishman Not unlike the harm done to generations of First Nations people in my country. When will we ever learn.
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Just before reading this column, I tried to explain to a Republican neighbor how Mr. Trump is harming this country. I talked about lies and other policies, but we didn't get to this issue of separating children from those who love them for inordinate amounts of time.
This is not just an issue of time and contact. It is an issue of child development. Many if not all of these children will be emotionally scarred for life. Yet the Trump administration takes little responsibility for the havoc and chaos they have caused, let alone the emotional harm to children.
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My heart went out to Clemente and his daughter, Wendy. The real crisis at the border is what you described Mr. Kristof. Our country has truly lost its moral compass, especially with the current leadership demonstrating such vitriol and discrimination towards people fleeing violence and murder. I also have to ask, what are the purposes of ICE BOXES? Why are they in use? It sounds like a form of torture and why would anyone with a conscience throw these people in ice boxes, and children? I had never heard of them until this past year and understand they were in use during Obama's time in office. Who came up with this terrible concept? I remember the old adage my mom taught me, Treat others the way you want to be treated. Our policies should reflect a humanistic approach to this problem.
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@Betsy The holding cells at the Border Patrol stations are called "hieleras" by the immigrants because, as stated, the temperature is notoriously cold. I think the cells are generally large, often holding many people. We all have seen photos in the news media — often they look like a big room. When "hielera" is translated, it comes out "icebox," which somehow creates an image of a smaller "box" specifically used like a torture chamber. Why do they maintain such low temperatures in the holding cells, especially when there are often young children and babies there? Good luck getting any governmental official to explain. Sometimes they deny that that's the case. The cold temperatures are nothing new. As you say, for sure they predated the current administration.
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@Betsy
And you, too Maria. You ARE kidding, aren't you.
They're called Ice Boxes because they're run by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). It has nothing to do with the temperature.
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Thank you for using facts to tell a compelling story; I only wish you would access the nonprofit Better-Angels.org to describe from a "red" perspective what Republican values and perspectives are that allow this shameful behavior on our governments part. Thank you for being committed to truth and humanity.
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Thank you, Nick, for continuing to cover this humanitarian crisis at the border. Very few journalists are following the personal stories of the inhumane treatment of these brave people trying to make the journey to a better, safer life. The choices they have to make are unimaginable to most American citizens. But I want to hear these stories, and to find a way to help from where I am, too. Most of the terrible situation in Central American countries is because of our meddling and warmaking there during the Reagan years. Despicable.
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@Jan Thoompson
There is no policy, of any color, that makes this alright. It’s all wrong and inhumane. What are we turning into, ? Monsters? It’s time to call a spade a spade and call the “ Red” ideas and their promoters as inhumane and unAmerican. Remember what’s written on the Statue of Liberty?
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