'These concerns stem largely from an incident in 2014 in which eight children were released to labor traffickers who forced them to work on a poultry farm in Ohio.'
As usual, a local paper does a better job of reporting the facts accurately and dispassionately than does the illustrious paper of record.
'The trafficking conspiracy began in 2012 when [the] Ramirez and others brought the workers as young as 14 to the United States under the false premise that they would attend school, prosecutors said.
Eight of the victims were under the age of 18. Two were adults.
The minors were brought to a trailer park in Marion, and were forced to live in broken-down trailers.
They worked 12-hour days on farms in Croton, Mount Victory, Goshen and LaRue for companies that were contracted through Trillium Farms, according to the indictment. The minors cleaned chicken coops, loaded and unloaded crates of chickens, de-beaked chickens and vaccinated chickens.
The defendants threatened workers and their families and withheld money they earned to force them to work, the indictment says.'
https://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2017/12/fourth_person_charged_...
4
As a parent this article breaks my heart. As a NYT subscriber and daily reader of the comments sections I'm stunned that any "Trump is Bad" article gets thousands of 'clicks' but something as truly cruel as this gets nothing more than a 'ho hum' vote from readers.
Perhaps 'Be Best' from the latest Mrs. Trump, and cute photos of Ivanka and her kid(s), actually works.
2
The real cruelty is committed by the folk attempting to use these children as chits in attempts to illegally enter the US, and our "progressive" politicians using them as political props.
6
the immigration/refugee system is being gamed to the detriment of our own jobless millions of working age. unless reasonably controlled we'll have a permanent 2 tier society.
5
This is a fine explanation of a tragic situation. It should be front and center in Times, replacing Mr. Trump's potential pardons. To me, that article is just one of the continual pieces in all the news outlets, responding to the "OMG, what has he done now?" type of question.
Harming children to get adults to come forward, thus risking deportation, is an inhumane tactic that could only come from a mind that sees immigrants as less-than-human.
Beware, America: we’ve seen this before, in Germany during WW2. The architects of that plan killed millions and were stopped only through force of arms. Those architects then (rightly) died by hanging at Nuremberg for their crimes.
3
Were the children of concern to any members of the agencies participating in this charade, none of these practices would occur. If a child left their native country after being hiding to avoid death, then 'human services' put the child in similar conditions, as noted, we are just adding to the trauma that the agencies are to treat.
The word for this is 'iatrogenesis' - a great word that can be applied to crime causing corrections agencies, trauma causing refugee agencies, and disease causing hospitals among others. An agency that is set up to assist or cure something, but ends up with the reverse effect. How can anyone at the Administration on Children and Families or Homeland Security live with these inconsistencies?
So sad and unnecessary.
4
A difference of perspective between friends, where one says it's awful about these children, but let's not talk about politics, followed by they should be registered and monitored by the Government. A humanitarian task force should be in charge of this.
Referring to this opinion by Donna Lieberman and Paige Austin, specifically, "That’s because O.R.R. will share their information with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which can use it to detain and deport them. As a result, more children will languish in immigration custody because their relatives in the United States will fear that stepping forward to help will result in their own deportation".
In Germany at the onset of WWII, Jewish civilians were asked to show up to register, and the law-abiding among them proceeded to do this, making it easy in time to be rounded up and ready for deportation.
Whether the Great Panhandler, sitting on the National Park bench, understands how this works as part of his program to 'Take Back America', I would not want to chance it, not with this government and its buddies.
5
Stop asking, "Is this who we are?" It is. Millions of Americans, your neighbors, your workmates, your family condone this, embrace this and whole-heartedly believe this is the correct course of action. It is even praised on the pulpit. Remember the names and faces.
26
I want every child in the world to be safe, healthy, well-fed and educated. Do you really think that a borderless situation is realistic? Can any one country be expected to provide for its citizens and also for everyone who crosses the border illegally? Can anyone just put their kids on a bus and send them to the border and now the onus is on us to safeguard this child, to provide for its well-being and life. Go try doing that in Germany or Switzerland or Norway or any other high quality of life 1st world country and see how far you get. If there is a legitimate asylum situation I get it, but that’s a tiny fraction. It’s a catch 22. You are not releasing the children, how cruel! Oh, now you are and why did you release them so fast!? Oh, now you won’t let the parents in so you are cruelly separating immigrant families! I who once considered myself “progressive” am starting to move toward the middle because this is unsustainable. I have never accepted the proposition that anyone who crosses the border can stay. I have also never accepted the proposition that I have to feed, clothe, house and educate every illegal immigrant while I myself cannot afford health coverage and I am a tax-paying citizen of this country. We need borders, we need the rule of law. Yes we need compassionate humane policies but what’s being asked goes way beyond that. You people are asking for the economic and environmental decimation of our country. I DON’T AGREE.
26
REPLY to DEB: Respectfully, I don’t think that asylum seekers are “a tiny fraction” of who tries to immigrate to the U.S.. In 2016, out of the 311,000 immigrants apprehended at the border, 116,000 were Asylum Applicants. Sadly trump has put many restrictions on those seeking asylum that aren’t ethical, or even legal perhaps. Customs Officials misinform immigrants about the law and turn them away before they can even make their case. Others are tried in criminal court for illegal immigration and are deported before they even have a chance to seek asylum. And they are forcing these seekers to remain in custody while waiting. And now they are ripping infants out of their mothers’ arms. They are intentionally trying to make these people look like criminals so that when they abuse them and send them home, Americans won’t feel badly about it. Recently, more than half of them are from Central America, not Mexico. From Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala which have the first, fourth and fifth highest murder rates in the world. These people are running for their LIVES! But when they get here, they do NOT want to live off your taxes. They want to work. The only person who is using your taxes to support them is trump because he is forcing them into lengthy incarcerations that are paid for by the government. I sympathize with your feelings that we can’t take everyone. However we are a huge and rich country. Maybe if we could pass Immigration Reform we could help those truly in need.
3
Thank you for educating us on an agency and policies that many of us have never been aware of prior to this presidency. Please let us know how we can help.
16
These children are coming here to reunite with their parents. What this piece fails to mention is that the parents are in the country illegally to begin with. That's why they fear deportation!
This piece just assumes the reader will be outraged by the treatment of "immigrant" children with emotional arguments and other propaganda (like conflating legal and illegal immigration and omitting any mention of illegal or undocumented status).
Say what you will regarding Trump but at least he is enforcing immigration laws. We cannot just let anybody and everybody into our country. The reason we have immigration laws is to protect the resources of the nation for the exclusive benefit of her citizens and legal immigrants. The open borders policies of the Democratic party and the ACLU would mean a vast increase in inequality, a housing crisis like none other and no way to address pressing climate and sustainability problems we have today.
20
These children could have been trafficked into prostitution or slavery for all we know. If we don't know where they are, we can't say they're in a better situation.
12
Trump company don't care about the welfare of these immigrant children; they wish to use them as pawns:
to show their base how tough they're being on the trumped up immigration"threat", and
to frighten people away from attempting to seek asylum in the USA.
to so cavalierly use scared kids as pawns shows how vile and sociopathic the whole Trump regime is. they are nothing like the America most of us hold dear.
Trump is playing footsie with Kim Jong-un. it's already clear they have a lot in common.
13
Nope, he just wants to send them HOME!
4
Wait. How do we know the missing are the *lucky* ones—and not, say, "disappeared" or worse by the bigoted White House occupant?
Get a bloodhound to know the scent of your immigrant friends and neighbors—and if they go "missing", walk her by train tracks, jails, and police stations (and domestic black sites, like the frighteningly well-ignored Homan Square in Chicago). We could be onto something far, FAR more terrifying than mere family separation, or the dotard's racist rallies.
He keeps Hitler's books by his bed, for Pete's sake.
10
And yet the pictures of children in cages were from the Obama Administration.
16
I seem to recall that when the Nazis rounded up their alleged undesirables the first thing they did was separate the children from the adults. Now our government is doing the same thing. What have we become and how low we have sunk?
15
This is a "comments" section --but, I am just too sickened and horrified to write anything in depth. If people's beloved PETS were taken from them it would be a horrific act.....but these are people's CHILDREN. Hey., Trump government officials,, do you really not care? Really?!
18
Oh stop, stop, stop with the hysteria! How do you know Trump wants to lock up immigrant children?
10
I only look at the actions of his Administration.
This Administration has changed our policy with regard to asylum seekers. Before such people were released with their children while their asylum cases were heard. If they failed to qualify, they might then be prosecuted or deported. Under Sessions's policy, asylum seekers will be prosecuted upon arrival before their petitions are heard. Since they are being prosecuted, their children must be taken away and placed under the care of ORR.
This is a conscious policy of the Administration that takes innocent children away from their parents and put in facilities. Often the children are transported hundreds or even thousands of miles away from their parents.
I don't think Trump just wants to lock up immigrant children. I think he wants to lock up every immigrant and ship them back to their counties of origin. His supposed love for the DACA kids lasted about a nanosecond. During the campaign he spoke about the need for a "deportation force." I take him at his word. And fulfilling that pledge requires locking up immigrant children.
20
Jack Booted Storm Troopers using brute force separating crying children from their screaming mothers, putting them into vehicles and slamming doors. The mothers are then detained and no word from children., This is not Nazi Germany. This is Trump's Amerika.
26
So this is really who we are? It is a complicated evil- beyond the comprehension of many, it appears. It's one thing if this was an accident, neglect or an oversight. Still wrong, but a different kind of wrong. This, however, is a sophisticated and complicated plan. When I first heard of the 1,500 missing, I immediately envisioned "Sophie's Choice" kind of heart-wrenching dramatic scenes playing out at the border where the extracted children later disappear. Now I see it's even worse than that.
This makes me think of the current per diem rate we pay to private corporations to incarcerate an individual- adult or child- for immigration purposes. It can be as much as $168.64, maybe more. So, the federal government detained an average of 35,929 people per day in immigration detention centers during the 2017 fiscal year.
Let's do the math. First, let's cut the rate in half, just to be careful. It looks like this: $84.32 X 35,929 = $3,029,533.28. Each and every day. Wow. That comes to $1,102,750,113.92 a year. Trillions. From our tax dollars, right out of our pockets into private industry.
Okay, so now I get it. Of course they are incarcerating anyone they can get their hands on. It's business- not personal.
I don't want my money spent like this anymore.
24
Much like Obama did with that infamous photo showing children sleeping behind a chain link enclosure. Nice try attempting to put in on the current administration. The only way to curtail the flood of these families, is to actually separate the families and fast track them back home so they can be reunited. This policy will give pause to those thinking that they can stay here indefinitely by making claims, provided by ACLU sponsored lawyers in Mexico. We are not responsible for the conditions in these countries. They need to take ownership and responsibility to affect change there. They need to institute governmental changes, even if it requires a rebellion to do so, to make those changes.
15
It is the fault of their parents. Our country has a border and immigration laws that should be respected. Come here legally or don’t come at all.
28
Would you have kept your children in your home country when your children’s lives are at stake? Would you not have done everything you can to protect your children, Olivia?
For arguments sake, If I commit an economic crime, lets say I embezzle funds from my bank-dont the authorities separate me from my children by putting me in jail?
If these asylum claims are valid, why not go to the local US embassy in Mexico and apply? Oh wait-if they get rejected once inside the US, they just go underground, till the next amnesty.
20
We should except nothing less than taking responsibility for children whose parents cannot protect them. This description of the Trump administration distortions of ORR, effectively disabling the agency is appalling. Can't we have a total commitment to protecting children, trying to keep them with families, and protecting their health and welfare? The separations are horrible, the damage is unacceptable. We may not always succeed in protecting children, but this is a deliberate and awful policy. We should have seen it coming.
15
Thank you clearing up this situation. And thank you for your efforts to protect them here in the US.
12
A spotlight on the hypocrisy of the GOP and their so-called "family values."
23
"Family values" and "respect for our LAWS"
go hand in hand.
If you don't want your children separated from you, then don't bring them into the country ILLEGALLY!
9
Yes, they only care about unborn fetuses - after birth, they could not care less about what happens to these children. It’s a sickness that seems to permeate the so-called trump administration - whatever causes the most amount of harm to anyone outside the 1%, the GOP is all for it. Except for unborn fetuses, that is. They make me literally sick. November can’t come fast enough- VOTE!!!
15
It is not illegal to come the border and request asylum.
Simple answer: Detain all illegals until trial. No problem with "children" not showing up to court. If a family wants custody then the family needs to be responsible. Failure to appear in court with the youth is a contempt of court violation.
15
Many of the comments here are pointing the finger at the wrong person, the blame lies with the parents, or whomever brought them over, knowing that they would be separated.
Like him or not, the president has made the rules very clear as to what will happen when illegal crossings occur.
Also some comments from Canada I see, why aren't Americans out protesting in the streets if they care so much......
You just answered your own question-
19
It is not illegal to come to the US without invitation in order to seek asylum.
17
Our national policy does not have to be "rip families apart." It just doesn't.
16
These are not "illegal crossings." Many are foreigners petitioning our government for asylum under US and international law.
Take the now infamous case of the woman from the Democratic Republic of Congo. She came to America and presented herself to immigration officials at a port of entry, San Diego, just as the law requires and the recent statement from DHS Secretary Nielsen reiterated. The woman submitted her petition for asylum on behalf of herself and her daughter. An immigration official decided that she had a reasonable expectation that asylum would be granted. Nevertheless she was detained for reasons that have yet to be explained. Her child was taken away and sent to Chicago. Only after the ACLU sued on the mother's behalf was she released and reunited with her daughter.
This woman followed all our rules and yet she was detained and separated from her child for seven months. Only the intervention of a Federal judge put a stop to such inhumane treatment of people who had already been subjected to degradation of the sort you and I thankfully will never experience.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/26/us-immigration-kept-asyl...
Ms. Lieberman, you write, "What children need most of all is release to stable and loving homes while they pursue their immigration cases.". I am deeply concerned that children, the small little girls, will be subject to abuse known to exist in the U.S. foster care system. Children, in absence of parents and advocacy, are at high risk for abuse. I believe the is our Boka Haram moment. They will return, if they do return, scarred and traumatized.
10
martha, while they are pursuing their immigration cases, these people should not be allowed entry to the country. once their case has been approved, then they can enter, legally.
5
RE: Front page blurb
"Trump doesn’t want to protect immigrant children. He wants to lock them up."
Here I fixed it for ya
"Trump doesn’t want to protect ILLEGAL immigrant children. He wants to lock them up. "
Being a minor who ILLEGALLY enters the US is NOT grounds for asylum
And no - anyone ILLEGALLY in the US does not have the right to have their kid smuggled ILLEGALLY into the US, caught and then handed over to them so they can all live underground
Don't want your kid (anything from small to teenagers to those lying about their age) caught and detained?
Don't smuggle them into the US ILLEGALLY
27
This is how dangerous this president is: he wants to scar these children by institutionalizing them, treating them as inferiors, branding them as deserving only containment. It isn’t necessary to do so, he wants to inflict pain and dehumanization. This is an extension of how blacks in America are treated, the solution to every problem is incarceration.
They would never, ever do this to white immigrant children.
23
as a white person, yes I would treat white illegal immigrants exactly the same. my family came here legally and had to wait years to do so. this is not "racial". not every thing that happens is actually race related. whether you think so or not.
8
Is this treatment of children arriving at the border with their parents not a human rights violation? If it is, are the major human rights NGO's calling it out? If they're not, why not?
7
I've been wondering for years why the governments of Mexico and of the Central American countries are not censured by the U.N. about their depraved treatment of their poor citizens.
Additionally, it's pretty obvious that the poor populations of these countries are mainly comprised of those with indigenous Native American ancestry, while the elites are of overwhelming European ancestry.
It's interesting that media outlets like the NYT are comfortable attributing "racism" to the middle and working classes of the U.S. who are dismayed by high levels of illegal immigration from said countries, while almost completely ignoring the open and entrenched racism of the elites of Mexico and Central America.
7
What are the consequences of breaking the law? Should there not be any?
8
It is an Orwellian distortion of language to term these children "immigrant children." By definition, they are aliens - whose status as immigrants has not yet bene granted. Terming them immigrants without any qualification grants them status as individuals who have moved to the US legally. Nearly all people are in favor for caring for children, and for them to be treated with care and fairness and particularly thoughtfulness and attention to their needs and vulnerabilities as children. But the Times publishing an advocacy piece that distorts language is an offense to the Times' own great cause: careful, thoughtful and truthful reporting and analysis of what is happening in the US and the world.
21
Good point. And the ACLU doesn't mind lying. Seems that a lot of these children that were "lost" were not all lost in the last 18 months--i.e. since Trump has been in office. At the worst, it seems like a bureaucratic error and the children aren't really lost. And didn't Sessions clearly spell out the law and warn parents that being separated from their children might be a consequence? As Israel warned people to NOT attempt to breach its fences? What more does the US have to do..print out warning notices? The mind set if probably...go ahead and do it. We'll get away with it. The US will back down after the lazy, lying press pump the story and pandering NGOs like the ACLU start whining about it.
8
Why aren't Americans out in force coast-to-coast protesting this tragedy? That they aren't is America's disgrace. Shame on you, America.
15
Isn’t the tragedy that their parents sent them alone?
14
It is outrageous and cruel. I am upping my donation to the ACLU. Thank goodness there are folks out there filing the lawsuits, which sadly may be the only solution.
18
I thought the “missing children” theory had been debunked by a careful reading of the facts by the NYT. The families that the children were placed with for care did not respond to the governments inquiry, for example perhaps they were not home when they called and did not return the call. Without passing a judgement on the immigration policy question, using sketchy information dilutes your point of view. You can do better.
Facts matter don’t they, even in the editorial pages.
28
This was explained in the article for those who read it.
2
Hear this for a solid presentation of the issues. There were many good reasons for not responding to govt. inquiries, notably the animus of the president and supporters at his rallies.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?446258-6/washington-journal-sarah-pierce-d...
2
Your jab about facts in the editorial pages makes no sense - did you not read this piece? It goes step by step through why the "missing children" aren't actually missing.
5
Right. Children, in THIS government hands, are definitely in danger. I hope those kids have found their extended families, or very kind strangers. This is what happens when bigoted autocrats make life choices for innocent people, who just want safety, and a better life for their families. MS13, indeed! What crapolla! Protect our migrants!
17
"Protect our migrants!"
They aren't "our" migrants. They are Latin American migrants, and their massive and unrelenting numbers are causing social and economic problems for the folks who should actually be protected from the chaos: US citizens.
12
gratuitous cruelty.
8
The genuine child abuse is being perpetrated by "parents" south of the border who are sending their kids alone to the border to fend for themselves. Any family that puts their children through that awful ordeal deserves to lose them for good.
36
Immigrants are here legally. Are we a nation of laws or not? Where are the parents? They own the consequences of their decision.
26
You said: "Immigrants are here legally." And yes, you are correct. Many of the immigrants in these articles are here LEGALLY, like the ones petitioning for asylum.
5
The Trump administration wants the experience of undocumented people who enter the U.S. to be so poor as to deter others from even considering entering the U.S. It’s deliberately cruel and nasty treatment of people just to drive them off. Of course, the people who come across are coming from even worse circumstances, so they keep coming. Anyway, immigration is not the cause of our social nor economic challenges as the right wing propagandists assert. They do not want a reasonable consideration of these problems to occur, it could lead to a more liberal view of things and reduce their political power.
7
Do you mean illegal immigrants? People who have entered the country illegally dragging their minor children with them?
What happens to a convicted felon who has children? They are taken from them and put in Child Protective Services.
Either situation is terrible and can be avoided if the parents follow one easy rule, don't break the law.
11
Send all those patriotic conservative business people who eagerly hire undocumented workers to save on labor costs and to not bother to provide a safe workplaces to prison and fine their companies into insolvency. Then there will not be any reason for people from poor countries to come here.
3
There are only 5 grounds for seeking asylum: a reasonable fear of future persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group and political opinion. Attempting to escape poverty or widespread violence in your own country doesn’t qualify you for asylum. The vast majority of immigrants trying to enter the country don’t have a cognizable claim for asylum. They know this. So, encouraged by “immigration activists,” they game the system: arrive at the border, claim asylum, request a reasonable fear interview and then never show up for the interview.
39
For anyone to be unwanted, lonely and isolated is a tragedy, a child is helpless. Where is the outrage from the Administrations Evangelical base?
Robert Jeffress, John Hagee and those who lay hands and huddle around Trump in the Oval office should be confronted by reporters on the issue of immigration and separating children from families. What is a priority....an Embassy or living, breathing humans?
Confront those in Congress.....do they sanction what is morally reprehensible? Put faces and names on those who wish to fall back on, "It's the law." Those who loaded trains of people to concentration camps followed the law of their land too.
16
This is a form of treason; the treatment of the detained children, especially when there is a parent or sponsor ready to take them, is a betrayal of everything America has come to stand for.
We, the People, are hardly recognizable if We, the People are standing idly by. The attempt to undermine humanitarian laws and statutes put us in the same class of 1930s Germany. The world watched once; is the world going to stand, hands-in-pockets, to watch the rerun?
We, the People should be ashamed and embarrassed. If we are not, we are no longer We, the People. We have seen the new enemy...and we are them.
https://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
11
Right now it is ILLEGAL to enter the country without the proper documentation. If you choose to enter without permission there are consequences.
If you choose to enter illegally with your children, the consequence it that your children will be separated from you. If you don't like that consequence, then don't enter without documentation but instead get in line like tens of millions of people before you have done!
46
you can stand on line behind Melania (remember her?) and her parents.
9
Sorry, I refuse to believe the children HHS lost track of are the lucky ones. The reality is that we do not know. This is certainly a complex issue, but it's stupid to assume children that the government has lost track of are lucky. Even if we do not agree with the laws governing how Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) are treated, there is a responsibility by our government to have some idea of where they are so that they show up to their court hearings and ensuring no one is trafficked in the future. It's great that ORR has implemented reforms in the wake of the Ohio trafficking incident, but that does not mean we should be rooting for the government to lose track of vulnerable children.
4
The intolerant right's inhumane policy is another example of their attitude re family.They are pro birth, but pro family, not so much.
7
How many jobs are still unfilled? Many! This is an incompetent administration,and who pays the price, those with no voice. Those with no vote.
This is an ego-centric administration where everyone else’s problem is turned around and tangently goes off into self-admiration of the job they’re doing. It will take years to undo the damage done to our country in such a short period of time. Even those who voted for this administration are suffering or will suffer for their foolishness, but will rarely admit to the pickle they put themselves in.
7
The article's assertion that "any adults who come forward to take in a child are now at risk of deportation" is incorrect. Adults who are U.S. citizens or legally present in the United States are not at risk of deportation.
38
At one time the ORR contracted the services to unaccompanied minors, oversight of the placement, to the Catholic and the Lutheran refugee services. Those agencies checked up on the kids and they were usually place with relatives. I don't know if those agencies still have the contracts. I don't know if those agencies can keep the information about the children confidential. Sure do hope they can.
4
I think a huge issue with no one knowing where these children are, is there is no guarantee AT ALL that these children have been placed in stable, loving homes. Horror stories about foster homes are legend. The children in custody are enduring unimaginable suffering, to be sure, but right now we have no way of knowing if any of the missing children are, too.
7
" The children in custody are enduring unimaginable suffering" Makes you wonder why their parents are putting them in potentially horrific situations.... alone....
6
In reading news articles I sometimes feel like the ball in a pinball machine; read/react - ping - read/react - ping - repeat.
This article details some things that should have been in the body of other articles. Provides additional, critical information about this very significant story in the news right now.
It is frustrating not to get it all at one time. My habit has been to question everything, but still I get caught uninformed because I didn't peel back another layer.
Regardless, we are dealing with very sensitive children and parents in a very insensitive way. People should be very wary of our government. Err on the side of caution. Do not trust the idea a good outcome.
9
The ACLU is responsible for undermining families by its litigation aimed at turning a border into a non-border. Now they shed crocodile tears when, compelled by their policies, the Administration restores the border.
41
Don't confuse asylum with economic migration. The first one is people fleeing for their lives the second one is to improve the lives they have. We are bound by the UN Protocol on Refugees NOT to return legitimate cases of asylum back to where their lives are at risk. We don't have to keep them in the United States. We can partner with other nations to find safe asylum for them, however their cases need to be heard to establish if they are legitimate candidates for protection.
26
By now, I would expect such casual cruelty from the Trump administration, though this policy (of locking refugee children up) does seem unusually cold-hearted, even for them.
What I really wonder is what Trump’s base thinks about this kind of thing. The Trump administration must have adopted this cruel policy as a part of the general get-tough stance that has been so popular with the base; so they must think the base approves of this particular course of action.
Do they really? Do the voters in Trump’s base approve of tearing children away from their relatives and from stable homes and locking them up, far away, even though the children have done absolutely nothing wrong?
I’m waiting to hear the protests from the base, but so far—crickets. If I were a Trump voter, I would not want to be a silent accomplice to this evil; a Good German, so to speak.
40
Constance--You're making a foolish assumption that these people are just like you. They are not, and that's why we have tRump. Yes, of course they approve. He told them he would do these things, and they liked it. When someone reveals themselves to you, believe them. It's the only lie he hasn't told.
7
The children's parents have done something wrong. If you know the consequences of being in this country illegally , and I'm sure it is know ,then the consequences unfortunately, but legally, are to be expected. Either we have laws or we don't.
10
The blame for this cruel treatment of children is misplaced on Trump. These children's PARENTS are the one to shoulder ALL blame as it is the PARENTS who CHOOSE to put their own children in this situation.
11
George Orwell would be proud of Trump's appointees. Scott Lloyd is there to make life more miserable for these children and he seems to relish his task. Another piece of the Trumpian swamp surfaces.
23
And where is Melania Trump's in all this? What happened to her "Be Your Best" initiative? She's just as phony as Trump. It's all for show. I wish I had millions so I can build decent shelters for these children. My heart goes out to them. In the meantime, what do we do about it? Where are all the rich people who can help? More specifically, why do we allow Trump to run the country? Why can't we do something about removing Trump from the Presidency?
3
Want to make these children's lives better? Sign up to foster parent some of them.
1
This administration's policy toward immigrant children is inhumane. I hope (and will be sending money to) legal organizations are suing the president and his cabal. I would like to see the children of every member of this administration taken away and placed in detention for several years. And the parents locked up and prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
26
Scott LLoyd will not care if the kids he keeps imprisoned commit suicide, any more than he cares if they are killed by gangs back home. Donald Trump will not care if the kids he keeps imprisoned commit suicide, any more than he cares if they are killed back home. Scott Lloyd and Donald Trump: Aiding and abetting the killing of innocent children.
27
The author may focus on our shared humanity and DNA-based emotional triggers, but doing so without distinguishing among illegal or legal, immigrants or refugees, and impressionable children or those older teenagers who've grown up more/faster than our own in a harsher world is less likely to persuade those with different perspectives. Perhaps policy discussions about illegal immigrants should be conducted in the same manner as the treatment of a seventeen-year-old caught breaking and entering for drug cash.
23
The immigrants are good enough to pick our crops, build our homes and take care of the elderly, among many other essential services, but to many here they aren't considered as human beings. This original sin plays out in many aspects of society, so much so that I ask myself why do we consider the Civil War over. It looks to me that the South never stopped fighting it and it's up to the Blue states to end it once and for all. It was the economic power of the North that enabled victory and millions flocked to the Union banners. The Dems better come up with programs that win without bloodshed and quick, moral outrage can be sustained for only so long and an Abraham Lincoln is nowhere in sight.
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You are confusing LEGAL immigrants with ILLEGAL immigrants.
9
The semantic difference between illegal and legal has nothing to do with the point of my comment which is: the US has a history of racism going back centuries, a war was fought over it, the war continues by other means. Policies to address it are not coming from the party currently in power, they are, in fact, making it worse. The economic engine of the country resides in Blue states, for the most part, a powerful piece of leverage against the Red states which are mostly takers, fiscally. I don't literally advocate war but if the Red states would like to secede, more power to them.
5
California and other western farmers have long depended on undocumented workers to lower wages, kill union efforts and avoid safety measures on their farms. The same is done in meat processing plants, produce processing, hotel housekeeping and many other areas of work. As long as so many jobs are offered to those without papers, people will come to fill those jobs. There is no effective enforcement of illegal hiring. Employers get around rules by hiring labor contractors, knowing that none of the workers have legal working status. The Republicans in California are not against an undocumented work force. They have been using and abusing it since the 1950s
Reading these horror stories is like reading about the diaspora of war orphans.
But what enrages me most is the unwillingness of Congress to overhaul immigration law in a thorough, just, and humane fashion instead of allowing demagogues like the president and his chief policy adviser Stephen Miller to come up with "solutions" that sound more like concentration camps than true policy.
The proper place for resolving immigration law on all levels resides with Congress, not the executive branch. The GOP avoidance of tough issues has allowed this deplorable situation of child separations and "missing" kids too afraid to come out of the shadows to flourish.
Other countries seem to have no problem setting immigration policy. Not so here, where the entire issue is a hot potato that the president is exploiting for the purposes of inciting his angry base.
Congress for God's sake, grow a spine and do your jobs.
90
You do understand don't you that a president does not make law. That is the job of the Congress and I have not seen a single proposal from the Democrats to fix it. Why aren't you talking about them, instead of just trump?
28
What 'enrages' me is the lack of enforcement of existing policies. Liberal opinionators in the vast NE have no idea the destructive effects of mass illegal border crossing on the southern border states. Far easier to sip tea and opine loftily from Chappaquiddick.
As for other countries' immigration policies, we absolutely should emulate some of them... notably those with well-controlled borders. NO policy can be enforced without control of the border. Period.
If only our "good friends" the Mexicans policed their northern border the way they do their southern, the problem would be solved!
But go ahead... continue to imagine that what we need now are more laws. That's simple, and guaranteed to be a position you can ride for the foreseeable future.
34
I do understand that a president doesn't make law...if he is NOT dealing with a subservient, flabby congress largely made up of members of a political party that has: a) no courage, and b) no discernible convictions. I would add that it's not obvious to me that our fearless leader himself really understands that he doesn't make law. His actions suggest he believes his followers elected him king, most likely in perpetuity.
May we all wake up from this nightmare, really soon.
3