The US had better take down the Statue of Liberty since it is now a big lie for all to see.
8
"they may be kept apart for weeks or even months. "
Is it typically a few weeks, or is it typically a few months? I think a few weeks away from your parents is not a big deal, and happens to most kids at some point or other, for various reasons. A few months could be quite traumatic.
2
There is something very wrong when a country no longer sees fit to practice compassion or empathy when human beings are in need.This does not mean that laws do not apply but it does mean that they are applied with decency and respect for human life. The US is losing its sense of pride and it’s humanity. This has long term negative effects.
4
In a study called "The Bucharest Early Intervention Project" one of the research papers produced describes the inevitable results of separating young children from their parents. We are doing this each day in plain sight. But how does it affect the children? "The Science of Neglect:The Persistent Absence of Responsive Care Disrupts the Developing Brain" states that this form of child abuse has far reaching consequences that the government has not studied. This policy of separating young children from their parents for long periods of time can lead to " cognitive delays, stunted physical growth and an increased risk for physical disorders."
Of course, this also can impact a child's future with PTSD's, addictions, criminality and attempts at suicide. It is easy to look these facts up and see the harm we are doing to our children. They all are our children. But I am having a tough time not being reminded of the physical and emotional abuse of children in Nazi concentration camps. Children were used for medical experiments by doctors such as Joseph Mengele. We are altering the brains and bodies of immigrant children, too. This goes beyond the emotional trauma. Their physical growth and ability to learn as they get older is being compromised. Their brains will be under developed. What we are allowing this administration to do is abhorrent. We now have our own Hitler, Mengele and Eva Braun. They are Trump, Kelly and Secretary Kirstjen Neilsen.
This inhumanity is ours.
4
These recent actions by the Trump administration and ICE really are the essence of evil. How can the folks charged with carrying out these orders even do it, how can the watch these poor children being separated from their parents and feel good about it? Who in their right mind thinks this policy moves our country forward in any meaningful way, or that somehow this will be the solution to what they see as an immigration problem?
I'd like to suggest some soul searching and introspection on the part of all people who feel these tactics are justified in any sense of the term. We are no longer the "shining light on a hill" the respite for the tired masses - that is for sure!
6
I do, they (we) are providing a humane option by placing them in our - overloaded and overburdened foster care system in order to give them some semblance of a home until the mess their own parents created by blatantly trying to challenge and overstep our system of immigration can be resolved!!!!!!!!! We are far to kind!
Their own parents and their children need to be shipped home! They - the folks that are trying circumvent legal immigration, should use some of their creative talent to make their country a better place!!! Americans turned away English rule, kicked out the French and are attempting to rid ourselves of Russian meddling.
Use your empathy for these people by helping the countries they are from. We are overwhelming our own welfare support systems by allowing everyone who makes it here illegally to stay- and using their own children as a bargaining tool is reprehensible!! On their part! I am a democrat and am sick of hearing how any form of illegal immigration is justified! Stay home and make your own country a safe place to live. It may take some sacrifice on your part just like it has in our families!!
3
How to Turn Children Into Criminals? Bring them here illegally. NOW THEY ARE CRIMINALS.
8
The problem is that when the kids become criminals, it will just prove that illegal immigrants are criminals.
4
What's stupid is bringing your child to a border where you KNOW this is going to happen.
It's the height of selfishness to sacrifice your child to so you can seek the country of your CHOICE not the first safe one.
There is a difference and Mexico should be their first option.
9
When progressives start losing public opinion, as they have on immigration, they start trotting out the children. Interestingly, we heard not a peep when tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors flooded our borders. Talk about separating families!
3
Cruel AND stupid? In what way is that a problem for our current presidency?
6
Solution: Don’t come here illegally. Wait in line like legal immigrants do. NYT, please stop with these sob stories that are supposed to make American tax payers feel sorry for people who invade our country and are a financial burden.
The majority of Americans want illegal immigration stopped.
10
Evidence shows illegal immigrants are a net gain for the economy. Try to grow a heart, it will help you live a longer happier life.
3
"The majority of Americans want illegal immigration stopped." Hence the charges of "evil" and "cruelty" and the trotting out of children, sure signs the argument is over. They are now talking to themselves. The rest want the border closed.
3
This administration has admitted to using children as pawns to deter illegal immigration. Why is this OK? How is this OK?
7
"Making America great again" consists of maintaining white privilege and dehumanizing nonwhite people. This is what Trump got elected to do and he's carrying it out. Extremely sad.
9
These immigrants can easily get their children back - just waive their asylum claim or immigration hearing and the kids will be returned immediately, then the whole family gets a free trip back to their home country.
9
Your assertions are reasonable and obey the 'golden rule'. Now go tel it to a despotic narcissist, sorely bereft of feelings towards others, an expert liar that knows that his triad of 'fear, hate and division' is what keeps him in power, however undeserved. The trampling of human rights has arrives in the U.S., thus far immune to justice, a swift reversal of the cruel separation, the tearing up, of families seeking asylum. This is insane!
2
Please understand that this administration is incapable of considering complexity in any form. Science, reason and studies are useless against this extraordinary army of mouth breathers.
2
If we care so much about these children, why don’t we stop encouraging the parents to cross the border and break our laws?
7
Separating children from their parents is Terrorism! Horrifying, gut wrenching and Unamerican. And the GOP is silent. VOTE them out!
3
I emigrated to the US.
If I was told that the US separates family members, I would have chosen a "better" country.
Sheridan and Nelson has a moral duty to advise today's migrants to avoid coming to the US.
Otherwise, where is their humanity/compassion etc ...?
6
I blame the Anti Christ Stephen Miller for these draconian measures. Read his history: He has been a very disturbed young man from a very early age. That he has achieved access to the highest levels of power is frightening.
3
It is all done to impress his followers. They want to keep the brownies out and to treat them as poorly as possible. If instead his followers wanted him to give each immigrant a Volkswagen, they would all be driving around in German cars. The morality, the future and good of the country are all irrelevant.
1
We don't treat our own children in need of foster care any better. In fact we allow situations that can be remedied to continue to the point where children are physically and emotionally wrecked and sometimes killed or kill themselves or become criminals. Then we blame the children and the parents for things that could have been prevented with money spent in the right places and right ways.
For a country that claims to value its youngest citizens we do an awful lot of things that seriously damage them and cannot be easily undone. Why should the way we treat illegal immigrant children be any nicer? The ironic part of all of this is that a great many of these people would not be here if their home countries were safer, offered them more economic opportunities, and were less corrupt. Worse still is that most of these families want and will work for a better life for themselves and the children they bring. They would be fine American citizens.
3
The intro to this article states: "Splitting up migrant families is cruel. It’s also really stupid."
No, what is really stupid is the fact that we still have laws that say a person born on U.S. soil to an illegal immigrant becomes an automatic U.S. citizen.
All sorts of bleeding heart stories can be made about illegal immigrants, but the fact is that our lax immigration policies have given us 11 million+ ILLEGAL immigrants in this country.
I despise Trump, but agree with him on the fact that we need to deal effectively with the problem of illegal immigration before it becomes even more uncontrollable and more detrimental to our society than it is now.
10
Jeff Sessons argues that if the parents didn't come here illegally with their children, their children wouldn't be separated from them. By that reasoning it would be O.K. to beat and torture people arrested, since if they didn't commit crimes they wouldn't be beaten and tortured.
4
Is the Trump administration going to fund a public works project to chisel "America: the land of opportunity" from every public building and monument in the United States?
3
Can anyone truly say with certainty if almost 1500 missing children are not being exploited? How do we plan to reunite these families if we cannot find these children? Immigration may be a problem that needs a thoughtful solution but punishing and hurting those who are most vulnerable is the cruelest path any nation could take while still having the audacity to call itself civilized. It is disheartening to hear voices in the greatest country in the world accept torturing and hurting the youngest and most innocent amongst us as a possible way to achieve their agenda. I’m not feeling so great after all.
1
Maybe Dr. Sheridan & Dr. Nelson can tell us how American taxpayers are going to afford to pay for the education, health care & other welfare benefits for these illegal immigrant children??
The US currently runs a very large budget deficit and State fiscal outlooks are horrible, but Liberals think it is ok to have open borders.
Present a realistic way to pay for the illegal immigrants !!
8
Tax capital gains at same rates as all other earnings.
Institute .001% tax on sales of stocks & bonds.
Eliminate tax exemptions for all religious entities engaged in political advocacy.
Reduce military spending from… ten times (exact figures not immediately available) down to five times that of next ten nations.
Nationalize Big Pharma. Let CDC manufacture meds to be made available at much lower cost to US consumers, with nonetheless significant profits going directly to the federal budget.
Just getting warmed up, Peter, where there's a political will there's a way, ask any long and well-fattened at government troughs.
5
Those ideas worked so well in the Soviet Union, Cuba & Venezuela !!!
Brilliant thinker !!
What is your idea to keep Illinois & Chicago from chaos ???
When a Government confiscates property citizens leave or revolt??
Government confiscation of property is abhorrent no matter if it is a King, Dictator or Political Elites !
Their parents should stay home and fight for their country. Coming to the US is not an answer. Save yourself because coming here is not the answer.
8
I wonder if our foreign policy in Latin America has any bearing on the current situation. Nationalist presidents have always been opposed (see Arbenz, Allende, Roldos, Torrijos, etc.) and inept and corrupt presidents have been supported.
2
You don't have to be a professor to know that separating kids from their parents has negative consequences. I applaud the authors for their concern and statistical evidence. I'm a retired P.O. who worked at a camp for hardcore juvenile offenders near L.A. Wrote a novel about it. The authors state that young men seem to be anomic or lacking any morality about the crime they committed. The police ask them after they are arrested if they know the difference between right and wrong. As one kid said, "right is when you don't get caught. And wrong is when you do." One kid justified his holding up a Dominos pizza man for not money, but for three slices and a Pepsi. "Hey, I was hungry." Many kids do crimes after their parents separate. Many illegal kids do crimes so that they can get 3 hots and a cot at camp.
2
Pearls cast before swine.
DJT abuses have ZERO to do with any future consideration beyond playing to base in next electoral cycle.
Your views appear professional, experienced, documented, wise, prescient, compassionate, therefore beyond purview of Twitterer-in-Chief or his GOP enablers.
2
It is the parents of these children who are turning them into criminals, by taking them along as they commit the crime of illegal entry.
9
Beautiful young lives in tatters truely applies to these children.
2
It is cruel and unusual punishment and we must take action to stop it. Power corrupts and especially in the hands of those willing to be cruel. This is where we must draw the line and if any elected official doesn’t seek to stop this, we must put them on the wrong side of history.
4
The only excuse for removing children from their parents is in the case of abuse. As an abused child who is now an adult I can attest that these children will never forgive and never forget. We're creating enemies where none need exist.
Illegal immigration is a tricky subject. Up until the 60's people in our hemisphere were free to migrate here at will. Perhaps the problem isn't illegal immigrants as much as our policies that favor some ie Cubans while penalizing others.
We've taken steps as a nation that has destabilized countries and caused the violence these people are fleeing. Now we're seeing the consequences of those actions.
4
All this administration wants is to pander to the anti-immigrant obsession of Donald Trump's base that he has enflamed and exploited and is strangely trapped by.
The writers are undoubtedly correct about the negative consequences of this inhumane policy on the children torn away from their parents and on society at large.
Does anyone think that Donald Trump and the Republicans supporting him and this cruel policy care?
4
No child should be separated from his/her parents. These migrant children deserve to be with their parents and any action contrary to it is ethically and morally wrong. For decades, the American justice system has separated children from perfectly fit parents after divorce and separation. Even though research shows that children do better when their biological parents are involved in their upbringing, our courts continue to award custody based on whims instead of sound, social science and parental rights. The decisions to separate children (whether migrant or citizen) is not an uncommon practice in our country.
4
The way 45 treats his own family comes through in the way he treats other families. Multiple divorces and affairs..... not caring for his children when they were young (only later when he could benefit) great family values EH?
not too surprising
6
There is an invasion taking place. Other presidents would have invaded the countries that have harmed us. We are playing nice because Trump really is not interested in honoring his oath of office. As far the breaking up of families is concerned? It's better than the breaking apart of America. Maybe a compromise can be reached.
2
It is hard to comprend the massive amount of negative karma that the "president" is creating for himself. Truly astonishing. Every life you hurt, you will have to suffer the same lesson in future lives you lead. We are talking about hurting so many kids, and so many lives he has ruined, that he will have to atone for. This is what hate and evil look like embodied in a person. Lifetime after lifetime of repentance awaits him. Truly astonishing anyone would deliberately do this.
3
The US is no longer an enlightened country. We peg the age of innocence -- and our outrage at breaking that innocence -- to ethnicity and skin color and creed.
I am frankly surprised we do not defend our maltreatment of so many by appealing to phrenology. But then again, Trump does talk about physical appearances and genes a lot. It is kind of why he never talks about Tiffany; compared to Ivanka, she just does not measure up.
1
When someone in America, say, commits a bank robbery, he gets arrested. He gets convicted. He gets 10 years in a federal pen. He gets SEPARATED from his family.
We separate people from their families every day.
Why should people coming here ILLEGALLY get an immunity from this practice of separation from their families when they commit crimes?
The real child abuse here are these parents bringing their kids here in the first place.
9
Are you really equating an adult bank robber with children who have been brought to this country by their patents to escape violence, poverty, political persecution?
6
Very true. Our prisons are full of inmates who are separated from families. That is how detainment and incarceration operates for millions of American citizens. There is no viable reason to justify treating illegal immigrants better than Americans.
2
The problem I have with this article is that it misses the forest for the trees. Yes, the policy of separating children from their parents is cruel and leads to even worse outcomes. However we also cannot have open borders. "Illegal immigrants" is no longer a politically correct term, but arriving with children makes them no less illegal. The solution to the problem of separating children from parents is to develop an immigration policy that works, exactly what our dysfunctional government refuses to do, and has refused to do under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
6
Some things just should not be done. Unless the children are in danger, separating children from their parents is one.
4
How to Turn Children Into Criminals??
Easy, just have them model themselves after "Trump". As a society that "elected" it, there is no longer any moral high ground to proclaim that crime is a bad thing. In fact, we can now happily endorse it as admirable, seeing how it's paying off for our lovely crime boss. Anything goes now. Being in power is now the equivalent of "possession is 9/10 of the law". Rather for "Trump" it seems power is 10/10s of the law.
5
Trump supporter Senator Rick Santorum are on the news show (CNN on Sunday, May 27) defending the policy of separating children from their parents at the border. Santorum claimed that attempting to enter the US illegally is an immoral act. Therefore, our moral outrage over this cruel and inhumane policy is not justified since allegedly, the immorality of the border-crosser parents is the cause of the family's and children's suffering. According to Santorum, the immigrants are to blame, not the US government.
Are Americans of good will who care about immigrants as people (not animals) going to buy in to this distorted moral reasoning? There have been many cases throughout history of battles of despotic regimes against the foreign, the poor and the weak. Whose side are we on as Americans? Is it really an immoral act to come to the United States in search of a better life, fleeing violence, cruelty and oppression in another land? We need to raise our voices in defense of the innocent and most vulnerable among us. Trump's policy goes against who we are as a nation. Let's not allow our government to commit immoral acts.
1
Thanks for heads-up on Rick Santorum on CNN, 27 May. His pathetic circular logic is Ground Zero for what's passing today as Republican "conservativism".
Santorum puts faith in vetted sponsors and has no concern that 1500 have lost contact. No urgency to make contact and no reflection about Sessions stepping-up more separations - even when this systemic issue is very real.
Finally, Santorum gives up any pretense of assertive actions to find children and to prevent further missing children: "..government systems are inadequate .. lose people all of the time."
So, that's the 'conservative' mindset: Yeah, it's broken, but continue to separate (AND BE UNACCOUNTABLE!)
Policy / execution MUST immediately be addressed TO STOP the number of out-of-contact minors from rising. Responsible parties MUST shout for resources to find every one of those already missing children and do not rest until situation is turned around.
Trump's policies in this case as with all, is to benefit himself, not the children or our country. In the short term the incarceration of the children is enthusiastically approved by the Republican base, and in the long run if some of the children become criminals he can blame the Democrats for not funding his Wall.
4
Is "microaggression" a code word for resentment of so-called political correctness? Because political correctness is simply a pejorative word for being polite and not using words that some people find hurtful and excluding.
Anytime a person is arrested, they are separated from their kids. Do the Times and its readers seriously not know this? If someone sets out to commit an unlawful act and brings children along, this will happen! They will be separated from their kids, and maybe their spouse too, and held in detention. So, don't do it. That is the message.
8
If you had given this 30 seconds' worth of thought you'd realize that, in the case of detention of illegal immigrants, both the parents and child are detained. Separation is unnecessary to facilitate the detention. This is *unlike* someone going to jail, because in that situation, the child is not also detained. Therefore, separation is a necessity to facilitate the detention. Therefore, the situations are *not analogous.*
Better luck next time.
You are advocating separation, which is tantamount to child abuse, as a punishment/deterrent to the parents, over and beyond simply the deterrent of detention. That's abhorrent.
1
Detention for all American citizens involves separation from their families. The difference is that Americans cannot leave to avoid such detention. Immigrants are free to leave.
2
We have that down pat in Canada (research "1960s scoop" and "residential schools". There are consequences immediate and generational. All of them bad from an individual, generational and national perspective.
All avoidable.
'Why would we remove children from the care of parents who have shown their dedication to their children’s welfare ?'
'We' haven't done so, in any collective sense. I don't think we would, given a choice. Trump has done so, aided eagerly by his enablers/minions, for one reason and one only: it plays well with his support base. In other words, children are being sacrificed to boost trump's support.
And he doesn't even have the excuse of being a god, and so entitled to extract what he will, as he wills.
The plight of the Romanian orphans was heart wrenching and, as the authors found, more often than not resulted in irreversible damage altering the course of their and other's development. But what is even more concerning here, and I mean in no way to dismiss the abhorrent treatment of the Romanian children, but many of them did not have attachments to caregivers which these children do. To tear them from the arms of their attachment figures is nothing short of criminal and speaks to a policy which certainly if not illegal is abusive and retraumatizing. Perhaps Mr. Sessions should consider the magnitude of human rights violations and reprehensible acts that are occurring on his watch.
1
Traumatizing children should not be acceptable 'messaging' to dissuade asylum seekers. If you have a process for addressing asylum, then you run an effective and fair program.
Of course the program is to stop illegal crossings, but undermining the tenent to protect children is UNACCEPTABLE.
Recently, the Trump administration changed the mission statement of the US Citizenship and Immigration Service to include "honoring our values". Yet, they demonstrably tell the world, we are now separating children because FOREMOST we care about fulfilling our threat to create an environment of trauma.
This IS a crisis of values. And it is politicized to double-down on anti-immigrant sentiment. And to attempt to cast Democrats as the cause. The Republican Party will be confronted for Trump's lies. Their creation of dire situations and all unnecessary suffering of children during THEIR enactment of new processes is THEIRS to explain.
Lies and bullying to coerce acceptance of their proposed changes to immigration law will be exposed for what it is. And the damages to children for callous methods WILL BE ASSIGNED to responsible officials.
9
Another reliable indicator of the effects of childhood trauma is the ACE or Adverse Childhood Experience score. There is a strong and direct correlation between ACES and dysfunction in later life. ACES include separation from parents, death of a parent, abuse, neglect, witnessing violence, an incarcerated parent, and the like. Moreover, I have zero faith that the “foster care or whatever” that Chief of Staff Kelly cited for the children’s care will be anything but prison-like and staffed poorly so that these kids are vulnerable to rape, assault and neglect. By literally tearing these children away from their parents, the government is ensuring lasting trauma that will affect us whether these kids grow up here or in another country. It is a human rights violation. It should make us all ashamed that this is being done in our name.
5
If we aspire to be the leading nation of the free world - once an unquestioned fact - then perhaps we need to pay attention to the living conditions of the countries these migrants come from. As the still unquestioned largest economy in this hemisphere, our policies can't help but affect the economies of these countries. From meddling in their politics, to the creation of "banana republics," to setting the stage for the spawning of MS-13, our actions have an outsized effect in our neighborhood.
I am in no way suggesting we intervene in their governance. Rather that we might benefit from taking an honest look at how our actions have contributed to the poverty and violence that drive people here. Maybe we could then find ways to mitigate the despair and possibly stabilize their economic situations.
Having the influence we do I hope there are ways to positively affect the status of these places in more constructive ways than building walls and further destabilizing families. Given the right conditions most people would much rather stay in their home countries.
8
As a special educator and a CASA, I saw the negative effect of taking children from their parents during their formative years. Most children were moved frequently from their foster and group homes before they had a chance to bond with anybody. Unfortunately, their home environments were so bad and dysfunctional, that left the court no other options. They were neglected, abused physically, emotionally, and sexually. I must say, families who were in CASA program, were trusted to a team of therapists, social workers, volunteers, drug and alcohol rehabilitation therapists, and the goal was to put the family back together again. Even with all the support and care, children were traumatized. But to take children from their parents for no reason, and place them in a strange place with strange people, without understanding the language and forget where they placed them is criminal.
23
For credentialed researchers, the authors seem to gloss over the fact that correlation is not causation when it comes to their study of orphaned and abandoned Romanian children. First, did they control for whether or not these children where more likely to have have had troubled, remorseless parents (e.g. perhaps parents with callous and unemotional traits are more likely to abandon their children in the first place). Second, perhaps the children least likely to be adopted (and hence to remain in institutional care) where those with the most emotional problems (which presumably might manifest when meeting prospective foster or adoptive parents).
Third, the author's rely heavily on blanket assumptions about all migrant parents being inherently "caring" and "loving." Yet doubtless they also subscribe to the Far Left view that we cannot possibly ask these migrants to remain in their own home countries because said countries are overrun by violent, corrupt, criminal gangs, which begs the questions, which is it? If Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are thoroughly saturated with utterly brutal, violent criminals, then it's common sense to think that an above average portion of people coming from this region may have at least tangential involvement with criminal elements, rendering them less effective parents. Alternatively, if gangs and criminals are just a small part of the population in Central America then all these are asylum claims are overblown in the first place...
20
The findings here are from a randomized control trial and thus causal inference is supported
1
Actually, their research is not just correlational. Children were randomly assigned to foster care versus orphanages, so they can make the conclusions they do in this article. See here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4550037/
1
You think that parents who flee their home countries with their children to escape violence are not effective parents, because they came from violent countries, and therefore should have their children taken from them?
1
Why would Trump and Sessions care. Neither the children or their parents will be voting in US elections.
You don't have to look at the Romanian research to learn of the consequences of childhood trauma and parental separation. In 1945 Rene Spitz, MD tracked the behavior of abandoned children in NY's foundling hospitals and reported similar results.
24
As far as Trump and Republicans who follow him are concerned, if many of these children grow up to engage in violent behaviors, so much the better. It will only support these politicians’ casting of immigrants as a criminal menace. The Right wins when it can point to some supposedly threatening group to provoke fear and hatred, whether it be communists, blacks, gay persons, Mexicans, or a future generation of dangerous illegals.
6
The American president, Donald Trump, is heavily invested in making "America great again," and fulfilling a campaign promise to that monolithic bloc of Americans who hate. It's really that simple; not very complex. This president hates the brown-skinned immigrants, especially those from below our southern borders.
His "immigration" policies, such as they are, are maliciously designed to make vulnerable children, separated from their parents, the baseline for his hideous and deviant nature. He probably concludes that his border wall has not gone up--nor is it likely to--so he compensates by bringing the hate in another way: use the children to punish the parents.
Long before America was aware of an immigration problem, we had a domestic problem: juvenile delinquency. It doesn't require mountains of research and tedious studies to learn that deviant behavior from pre-adolescents and teens--particularly boys--stems from a lack of structure and rules and consequences.
These disciplines must also be accompanied by nurturing and caring. Young people come to appreciate the sacrifices that their elders provide for them. The well-adjusted among them know that the world is a frightening place and they're not equipped to negotiate it by themselves. But that's what Trump's "policies" are designed to do: by shaming both parents and children, he marginalizes them so that their self-esteem and feelings of self-worth never mature into a positive framework, a guide for good living.
13
I am astonished at the incomprehensible cruelty of this administration. It is no wonder that Trump and his operatives do not think about the consequences of tearing traumatized children away from their parents; they never seem to think about the consequences of anything at all.
And yet, we are told that we must be understanding of Trump’s base and his operatives; listen to them, be friendly, don’t show off our expertise (if any), don’t behave as though we were morally superior, and never, ever characterize them as evil. But I have to wonder: just how much evil does a person (or an administration) have to do, before it reaches critical mass and they become evil, period?
86
No, I say confront them and call them out on it at every turn.
Don't worry, they're just getting started. Lots more cruelty to come.
2
This was Session's idea but Trump doesn't care or want to know. Ripping kids from their parents is exactly why they become disillusioned, angry and frustrated. Some join gangs. A reprehensible and racist policy.
According to our pro-life president and vice-president, these "children" are the offspring of breeding animals. Isn't the pro-life movement great? The pro-life movement is all about protecting children...except not these children.
39
The pro-life movement is all about the fetus. Once they are born they can suffer and die but that does not seem to matter to pro-life advocates.
It’s exactly this practice of separating children from their parents or responsible guardians that creates an unhealthy social atmosphere that spawns gangs like MS-13, the young men than the president calls animals. Because these children have no guidance in their formative years, they are influenced by the wrong people, befriended by other lost sheep and are prime recruits for a troubled life. The president’s aim is to destroy the family fabric of immigrants be tearing their families apart, thus discouraging their northward trek to the US. These children will face suffocating peer pressure to go astray, and with no strong family ties, they’re prime candidates for a life of crime.
The president doesn’t want the DACAs here at all. Many of these young men and women are accomplished and have prospered in America and have college degrees and have opportunities to further their education or serve in the military but this administration has made it plain that they’re unwelcome. The same also applies to young children and toddlers from Central America. If this administration turns them away, these youngsters will be the MS-13 “animals” in the coming years. And their hatred for America will be intense.
20
75% of Dreamers have never attended college, let alone graduated. Most do not speak English as their first language. Many are illiterate in BOTH English AND Spanish! And they are not "kids" -- the oldest are now 38 -- the average age is 26. And it is impossible in any way to take in every child and toddler from Central America -- that would be tens of millions of children -- without their parents? hello? -- would it really be better to separate them from their culture, language, families, nation in order for them to live in foster care or orphanages in the US?
2
Great article. It seems to me we are creating people who have a good reason to hate the United States. This time, they do not live across a big ocean.
54
"It seems to me we are creating people who have a good reason to hate the United States. This time, they do not live across a big ocean."
That's fine with me. Let them do their hating form their own country. We already have enough people who were born here who hate this country. There's no need to import them and shelter them at the same time.
2
The cruelty involved in separating children from parents in order to score political points is nauseating. Such practices don't even require thoughtful columns like this one to explain- anyone one with even a smattering of empathy, or even sympathy should understand that this is so wrong.
We need to erase Trump from power, he is an unending horror show that destroys all he touches.
35
We should not be doing this.
We need to streamline our deportation processes. We should not have to separate children from their parents. We should have efficient hearings and deport the entire family as one unit.
We need new laws. Every faux asylum claim costs tons of money. Every deportation hearing takes months.
There are entire industries in this country dedicated to making deportation of illegal aliens impossible. There are organizations that fight tooth and nail for every economic migrant. There are advocacy groups that aide and abet illegal aliens.
This planet is dying from too many people. The US cannot accept the entire world. It cannot accept every person who wants a better life. It cannot accept every person who lives in a country with a crime problem.
Those that work to import more people, illegally, into this country need to stop. They need to try to win elections on their policies. What they are doing now is cruel- to their fellow citizens and to the people who are trafficking children into this nation.
We must make it clear: no amnesty, ever. We must make it clear: come here legally or not at all. We must end birthright citizenship. We are a democracy- not the Statue of Liberty and a poem. Hold whatever personal values you have- but respect the law. Want the law changed? Put your policy on paper and get it passed by a majority.
16
Are you saying that instead of tearing apart families, America should tear apart itself? This is the issue that got Trump elected. This is the issue that Bernie bullied Hillary with. This issue will be back.
So this is how it ends -- at the hands of renegade teens.
Wait, do its bad that the court's to illegal alien children away from their father's, but it's okay that family courts do that to children who are citizens? Boys need fathers, and our family courts are blatantly sexist.
8
Only parents can raise children. Villages cannot.
7
Ah… Wrong. True anecdote - multiply by a nation - At a local community center an elderly lady stepped into a rising conflict among a group of young people. At her intrusion the kids calmed down.
- How did you do that?! - asked a bystander amazed at her bravery.
- It was easy, said the elderly lady, I know their mothers.
Yeah, that's right! No need for pesky teachers, or doctors, or policemen, or firemen, or businesses that employ those kid's parents. They can grow all their own food, so no need for grocery stores. Build their own houses, generate their own power, supply their own clean water, and take care of all their own waste. We don't need no villages. Heck, we don't need no government. We don't need laws. Everyone can just be their own island, cut loose from any notions of civilization.
2
Easy solution to this problem, dear authors. Ensure no illegals cross the border, then no worries about children being separated from their parents as they enter the country.
28
Sure, let's just invent a time machine to go back and take a mulligan on 80 years of US imperialist policy in Latin America that have brought about the horrible conditions that compel these migrants to flee their home countries
2
Thank you for this article. Sadly, immigrants are treated increasingly with a total disregard not only of morality, but of the future consequences of such cruel treatment. These consequences could be catastrophic including for the children who return to their native countries: they will have learnt to hate the countries that treated them so harshly, as well as their citizens. Despair and hate are dangerous seeds.
I am glad this article exists, but for it to have a real impact it would require politicians to consider the long-term effects of their policies and the best interests of society - not theirs, nor those of the lobbies that support them. It is hard to hope when parents of American children can be deported, notwithstanding the likely costly consequences of such decisions.
5
THANKS to these authors for speaking the truth about children, and the ways having a family affects them. If the Republicans want to be real about "family values," they will listen to the values expressed here, and change their policy with regard to immigrant children. Wouldn't it be splendid if we could look again at that Statue of Liberty, and say "give me your tired, your poor,,,"
17
Findings referenced in this article have me thinking about Mr. Trump's negative behaviors.
Possibly some of Mr. Trump's behaviors proceeded his childhood experience of having been sent by his family to military school because of the way he, the child, Donald Trump, was behaving (?) ; and possibly some of Mr. Trump's negative behaviors may have resulted from being separated from his family in an institutional setting, in his case a military school (?)
Sometimes a person who has been traumatized in his or her childhood and youth is unaware that he or she keeps reenacting maladaptive negative behaviors. Here is the quote from this article: "Even more troubling was our observation that boys who remained in institutions had a lack of empathy or guilt associated with criminality. They were almost 11 times more likely to have elevated rates of callous and unemotional traits compared with boys who were placed in family care."
Maybe Mr. Trump has difficulty being empathetically and sympathetically sensitive to the needs of children? If this is a problem Mr. Trump has, he might not be able to offer direction, advice and guidance to members of his administration about how to make sure children are properly cared for so the children are not traumatized (?).
29
They will hate the US forever - no matter how well taken care of the could be. That’s the nature of trauma. The effects linger.
8
The findings reported here are an argument for substantially reducing the prison population, because imprisoning parents takes them from their children. Alternative sentences should be used for all non-violent crimes, and no victimless conduct should be criminalized.
33
I believe these findings. Why would an institution be better for a child than an intact family?
(Although I have to say that my mother-in-law and her sisters spent time in an orphanage when their mother was ill and their father was out working; this was during the Depression. My mother-in-law grew up to become a librarian; her sisters became registered nurses.)
By the same token, since that is true, that intact families are best, why do we persist in subsidizing the having of babies by single mothers whose menfolk impregnate them and move on to other impressionable girls? They never get an education, and they have too many children to take care of in any responsible way.
When you have four or five generations of same, the children produced commence preying on their neighbors beginning in their early teens. And that is among the more critical factors in the deterioration of our inner cities.
7
You imply that some government program is actively subsidizing the births of babies by single mothers. Perhaps you might want to look at which party is singlehandedly trying to disband planned parenthood, one of the few organizations that provides free information about family planning. You might also want to find out which party is trying to make highly effective long-acting contraceptives - such as IUDs and implants - difficult to obtain, if not, as in the case of IUDs, illegal. You might also want to consider which party wants to limit sex education in schools and instead propagate "abstinence only" - something that our commander in chief preaches but does not practice.
1
Many of the female parents of these children were severely beaten by their spouses. It is a real problem in central America. Soon it will be America's problem too.
7