It's fascinating how the trump cultists can't see the inconsistency in their own "arguments." They blame Obama for detention centers and separating families--stating what's true: his administration quietly deported a record number of illegal *economic* immigrants--but at the same time they declare that Obama did nothing to keep us safe from this "invasion," and immigration policy was a disaster until their leader took office. How do they not get whiplash with such sudden contortions?
2
In a 2014 article, the NYT wrote about the 68,000 unaccompanied minors who entered our country.* A majority of them went to New York, California, Florida and Texas, where immigrants have "traditionally settled." Not one shrill voice or shout of outrage was heard blaming the then-president. Now one kid walks away (as he was allowed to do back then) and it warrants a NYT headline.
********************
*"Children at the Border", https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/15/us/questions-about-the-bo...
9
I'm trying to understand this: you can detain them, segregate them, put them in cages, all against their will, but you can't stop them from walking away afterward. Then why not just let them walk away at the initial point of contact.
5
Why detain them at all? This is essentially what those complaining the loudest about every step of enforcement are advocating. One cannot blame Trump for trying to make sense of these ridiculously contradictory policies.
3
Trump CHANGED the policy. Before he took action children were not being separated from their families. Why is that so hard to understand?
Our law states that people can come here and seek asylum. Say what you want about whether their claims are legitimate, you don’t know. Most reasonable, compassionate people would rather err on the side of caution and let them plead their case.
Immigration is nowhere near the problem Trump has made it out to be. It is demagoguery pure and simple.
2
Because, John Edwards, while you're fixating on that specific decision, we are looking at what happens right after it and before it. Hyper focusing to make a point about Trump just ignores the bigger problem, our existing laws do not prevent illegal immigration.
The Trump administration's refusals to allow observations, at least until they have had a little time to clean things up, sure suggests a coverup of something. Something far worse than an escapee. In fact, Trump's sudden and surprising reversal of the child separation policy suggests to me that there is some pressure far greater than protests from citizens and legislators at work here.
1
I live in Austin, I can say for a fact that no Amber Alert or missing child alert has been activated in the state of Texas to find this boy. WHERE IS MEYBELIN? She is 6 years old, her father has already been deported back to El Salvador without her and apparently no one is working round the clock to find her. Are we child traffickers now, stealing little girls from their fathers and then refusing to give them back? Do we have any humanity left? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/24/all-i-hear-is-my-daughte...
5
People are makinh millions because of these false claims of “border security”. Huge detention centers, cages, styrofoam meals, packed like sardines, marched from pillar to post. Hard to imagine but they would be better off if they were Syrian refuges in Jordan orTuekey. Families are together, children play outside, the UN Nd the host country tries to monitor their safety. These children are in chains - Trump, Sessions, Miller, and Co. claim refugees are criminals - they are so wrong but their strung out supporters believe every lie from Trump’s sucker- like mouth. He is a fountain of hate and vindictiveness- a blot on humanity.
3
I have never seen such a botched system in my long life. My caregiver and I could have done better even if we were drunk.
5
Have the children who walked away been found?
Is the NYT suggesting that the fences in the pictures last week showing kids locked up are not high enough and should be higher to prevent any escapes?
6
Who is responsible for their safety? The leaders we elected into office in 2014 and 2016. For the safety of children and our own government, we must vote them out.
3
This is the Trump Mess. He did this. He's responsible for whatever happens to each and every one of these kids and families who've been taken into 'custody.'
7
Obama deported over 2 million illegal immigrants and families were separated. Hence, the large amount already detained before Trump even took office.
3
DJT, losing again.
What a complete mess this President has made of his new Zero Tolerance policy, caging and tormenting immigrant children.
Time to dump the Trump's Immigration Senior Adviser, Stephen Miller.
Miller was woefully wrong on the Muslim ban and now he has Trump entangled in an immigration policy disaster the likes of which Trump has never seen. Maybe Ann Coulter has some advice.
4
This is a crime on so many levels that it is difficult to know where to begin. But anyone with any common sense would know that housing 1400 people...of any age...under one roof is unforgivable. Do the people who take on these responsibilities have no conscience?
While I truly hate to say this, the treatment of these people...regardless of age...is a crime against humanity. I suspect that there are more rules governing the treatment of animals in zoos in this country than there are for these people. And, let no one forget that today our president said that "his people" liked the separation of families.
And we wonder why internal hostilities in this country are reaching a boiling point???
3
The lede reads "The operator of the Texas shelter said it was not allowed to restrain children if they want to leave, raising questions about who is responsible for their safety."
This kid came here on his own, he was not involuntarily separated from anyone. He made a choice, and now he is responsible for his own safety, or lack thereof. Why do you not mention this obvious answer to your own question?
10
By this logic if an adolescent of 15 decides to leave his family, he made his own choice, is responsible for himself and no questions should be raised about his care.
1
No, we as a country are responsible for the safety of our citizens, including our kids who have run away from home. We are not responsible for the safety of non-citizens who knowingly break the law (by leaving Casa Padre) in our country.
What ever happened to the fathers of these displaced children?? I guess the children were just left behind when the Fathers reached the American border....is there some other explanation? Care and welfare of "displaced children" are not the responsibility of the American Government nor of any other.......
7
I certainly hope that the missing 15 year old is with relatives and that he knew exactly what he was doing when he walked out of the so called "large shelter".
If this child saw a chance escape our dysfunctional immigration system and enter the interior of the United States either with help or alone, more power to him and god's speed. I can only salute him for his courage and wish him success and safety.
After all he is leaving a type of concentration camp where his fate is at least as uncertain as being on his own or with family and friends in the interior.
Shame on all of us who are US citizens for tolerating this intolerable immigration situation. We need to drive the politicians who bear responsibly for this tragic debacle from office at the earliest opportunity.
6
"the Office of Refugee Resettlement' - now that's a euphemism if ever there was one!!
5
What is taking Mr Mueller so long?
7
The comments section is so weird: the people who hate illegal immigration have not one concern about this 15 year old escaping to become another illegal immigrant on the loose in our country. If the border with Mexico is porous, what do you call moving the immigrants in land, and then letting them wander off to try their luck at escaping detection? Even if you're one of those people who wouldn't lift a finger to help an illegal immigrant, the incompetence gives us more illegal immigrants.
The people who would spend $25 Billion to create a wall on the border, and millions to build cages inside facilities, find themselves defending the lack of a temporary chain link fence around the facility. How weird is that?
I didn't expect them to care about the cages, or the separations, or what happens to 15 year olds, but I did expect the consistency of criticizing a detention center as having a porous border.
4
Having spent most of my career working with children, it has always been our relationship with the kids, that was essential in helping them see the danger in eloping. It is obvious to me that the staff in charge of these kids does not understand how to care for them. Its simple, just show some concern and help them feel safe in a strange and foreign place
1
This is Trump's America--a country that has stooped to the disgraceful and immoral low of interning children, and then claiming not to be fully responsible for them. The children are actually responsible for themselves! There is no sense, structure or care for others in the country Trump envisions, and yet 45% of Americans blindly follow this maniac because they resent or hate people of color so much. So much that they are willing to break their own coutnry to pieces.
9
To those commentators here claiming that these facilities are no different from the Hitler's programs:
Yes, because it's a well-known fact that Adolf Hitler build camps for those trying to illegally immigrate to Nazi occupied Europe, and that those camps provided 3 meals per day, playgrounds and healthcare and also allowed anyone to leave at their will. Oh, wait...
18
The Left: "Trump is imprisoning children. That's basically Nazi-like practice."
[Goes ahead with abusing and threatening Melania and her children.]
Also the Left: "Trump is NOT holding children against their will. That's basically Nazi-like practice."
[Goes ahead with abusing and threatening Melania and her children.]
15
How is Melania being threatened and abused?? And she has only one child. Who is threatening and abusing him????
6
No one is abusing Baron. Melania is, no doubt, is being threatened and abused simply by staying with Trump. She could leave at anytime.
And what an ambiguous, idiotic statement she had on her 39 dollar coat? Is she losing it?
I can only hope that this young man has a plan and a place to go where he will be safe.
The fact that the facility says other kids have left but the town says they are unaware of that raises many issues.
The fact that a kid wants to leave the facility in the first place also raises questions. Beyond shelter and some sort of food, how are these children being treated? Are they being abused in any way, physically, sexually or emotionally? What is the government's plan for them?
For the kids removed from their parents, when will they see their parents again. Another article talked about August for one child whose mother has already left detention. She had to file 36 pages of paperwork, and adults where she is living had to file paperwork too.
Is this in the best interests of a child who is crying for his mother or is it simply a further way to punish parents through their children?
3
The teen Honduran crossed into Mexico and is reported headed back home. He chose to do that versus being in the U.S. as an illegal immigrant or even legal migrant. He was in a shelter, not a detention center. Legally, the illegal immigrant teen male could not be held against his will in the shelter. He was free to leave. Were it a detention center, he'd still be there.
Fringe left pro-illegal immigration Americans need to make up their minds: shelter illegals and they are free to roam (and leave the U.S.) or they are in detention with no independent choices.
4
Now we can begin to understand the rest of the world’s immigration problems - many of which we caused-
And look at the effective ways we deal with our own.
What a mess.
5
You mean kids can just walk away if they want to and no one will stop them? That cannot be possible. That is too absurd even for the federal government.
6
It's a shelter, not detention. So, yes, they are legally free to leave. Don't like it, then the alternative is detention - imprisonment. Democrats need to make up their mind; can't have it both ways anymore. That's already been done for 50 years and is why America has 100 million immigrants, 1/3 of Mexico and still aa massive, divisive illegal immigration crisis.
2
So now we learn that teenagers can disappear into the communities in which they are being incarcerated. Children wandering in the United States without their parents, likely speaking little or no English, easy victims and homeless. How much worse can this Trump-instigated nightmare grow?
3
I hope that teenage boy has the address and phone number of a relative or family friend in the US, as well as some money in his pocket. He just needs a bus ticket and a safe destination, and he will be much better off than in a detention center. Prayers to him.
3
Essentially, until now it's been an illegal immigration free-for-all but with a false facade of immigration enforcement. Kids have always been allowed to walk off. Illegal immigrants were required to return for hearings then allowed to disappear, never to be seen again. Kids have been used for special treatment. Claiming amnesty has been the answer to being caught entering illegally.
Jumping all over Trump for trying to close longtime mile-wide gaps in our enforcement is so misguided. When everyone can escape deportation and disobey laws, it is the same as having open borders.
15
So very strange how babies can escape. Some are in New York, others in my city of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Bethany Christian Services on Eastern Avenue. It was 81 the last I heard. MY those babies are smart.
4
Should I even bother begging my fellow Leftists to stop shooting themselves in the foot?
This kid is 15, not 10. In most states, you may legally emancipate yourself at that age. You may also have a job (though in some states you may need a guardian's permission). We don't want these kids to be detained against their will, and while it is the government's fault they are there in the first place, this incident shows that at the very least the older ones are allowed to leave.
If y'all keep crying about this instead of focusing on the real issue- how to reunite these families that have been torn apart by our government- you will lose all credibility and be very disappointed in November. Just sayin'.
10
If America was founded on Christian values, where are the Christians that Christ died for in all this, the least of his children. (and yes, I know he died for us all).
2
The U.S. was founded on secular values and political theory, pointedly NOT religious, as Jefferson and Madison intended.
3
One of the ongoing problems for kids who present themselves at the border by themselves is that they are reunited with parents they barely know, who've begun new families.
That is, parents who left them as young children, and headed off to the US to start a new life.
The young man in this story presented himself, a 15-year-old, alone at the border. I doubt he was intimidated by walking out the door.
The Times has a story in another section of a young teenager--a girl--who left her father and set off to find a mother who left her as a baby to begin a new life in the US.
There are many more complex things going on here than putting kids in migrant children's centers.
8
These "tender age facilities" if they have not yet been formally named I have an appropriate name to suggest. One that reflects the tender age of the detainees as well as the cruelness of the program.
How does "KINDER-STALAG sound to your ear?
3
This a rather convenient way of losing track of a bodies. I wonder how they'll try to explain the loss of a few babies.
"hope and prayers", the standard response from this administration. It seems appropriate to replace MAGA with "Hopes and Prayers."
There is another competing/conflicting story about this child. According to other reports, (www.nbcnews.com; www.cnn.com)he was contacted (or contacted) a man purported to be his father; while determining whether this man was actually a parent, the boy left the facility and supposedly crossed into Mexico. Said "father" allegedly was going to send him money to return to Honduras.
The Government's revelation (Saturday) that it has reunited 522 children with their parents is rather opaque. Is this a total from all children separated this year; last year or since the President and Jeff Session's zero-tolerance roll-out in April? Are we to *really* believe, DHS is flying children from every end of the nation to reunited with parents (who may have already been deported)? The public is entitled to verifiable information.
2
"The revelation that children can leave such centers on their own raised a host of questions about the shelter system: What happens to their immigration proceedings; how family members can reunite; whether they can sidestep the lengthy process of being approved for release to a parent or sponsor; and who is responsible for their safety, especially in an area like the Rio Grande Valley, one of the busiest corridors for human trafficking."
Add this to the infinite list of problems that come as a result of our country not having a secured border, laws that reward and further encourage illegal immigration and allow asylum for every reason under the sun. Is it really worth the endless headaches, money, time, and efforts needed to deal with this constant idiocy? Are there really not more important problems to address that are relevant to our own citizens and better ways to spend limited resources? One would swear by reading the NY Times and other liberal publications that immigration related issues are the most important priority this country has. It's long overdue for all them to get out of their bubble and open their eyes because it's not. Whatever has to be done through our laws and on our borders to prevent this insanity from continuing, I'm all for. Decades of the federal government not doing their job needs to end one way or another. Throw all those useless politicians out of office who're responsible for the problem and not doing anything to fix it. Enough is enough.
9
It's time for Americans to tell open border proponents like the NYT Editorial Board that they don't speak for a majority of Americans. They may have the sounding board an international paper provides, but it doesn't mean they should have any influence over policy. If they really want to effect events, let them all run for office. As it is now, no one elected them to anything.
13
Without an ID, how does anyone how old the alledged child is?
6
Footage of these so-called "summer camps" (as described by the God-awful Laura Ingraham), should be shown on TV repeatedly until the GOP withers up and dies.
Decree a reactionary policy.
Tweet in a tizzy.
Have weak-kneed politicians defend the indefensible.
Once chaos has been established, walk away bearing no responsibility.
How Trumpian. November cannot come soon enough.
3
"The officials did not respond to a question about how many children had walked away from migrant centers nationwide."
Why? Because they don't keep track well enough to know? Because it's an embarrassingly high number? Because they want to be free of public oversight in their warehousing of youth?
6
Not only will children walk away but be prepared for suicides. There have also been reports of forcing powerful psychotropic medication on the children. These dangerous meds are being used as a form of chemical restraint.
I call on the media to fully investigate the circumstances under which these children are being held. The politicians are don’t care and are useless. I have tried to speak to the media people in Bill Nelson’s and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz’s officers and it fell on ignorant and deaf ears. All the politicians, both Dems and Republicans, want are photo ops.
7
When the the nightmare of the his presidency is over, I want Trump, Neilsen and every person connected with imprisoning these children to be arrested and put on trial for crimes against humanity.
The Trump administration cannot be allowed to get away with this.
9
Get away with what? Enforcing the laws on the books, signed by democrats?
9
The state is responsible for administering the laws in conjunction with the Constitution and all those that are taken into ''custody'' are to be cared for and the sole responsibility of the state.
If the State, then turns around and employs a private company and/or contractors, then that responsibility of care is passed on, but ultimately still lies with the state. (which must ensure that all parties are following the laws and so on )
The state has failed once again.
4
This is further proof for many that our immigration system is broken and laughable.
8
If the smuggled kids can be housed together with their child-trafficking parents (provided that they are real parents) then they should. Or if a guardian family could be found, the kids should be sent in their care. But if the parents cannot be found (as in most cases of unaccompanied border crossings) what is the Left proposing to do?
Reading the hysterical comments on the topic, last week, would make one believe that these facilities are basically Nazi-like concentration camps (or at least similar to Japanese-American detention camps of the war period). But now, when we learn that the "prisoners" are free to leave, the Left is going out of its mind protesting against this. Even if totally open borders were implemented (abolition of all immigration laws), the Left would still complain that the government doesn't welcome the "immigrants" hard enough. They would demand that not only should everyone be allowed to stay and work in the US indefinitely, but also that they be given extra benefits. Where does this stop? If even open borders are not "liberal" enough for the Left, then where do you draw the line? This is where the Left and the irrational Democrats are losing the argument.
20
I have read NYT readers comments accusing Trump's administration of caging migrant children. It turns out they are not caged, they can walk away if they want to. I conclude there is no way to please NYT readers.
26
Free range is how I buy my eggs. What exactly is your point, dear?
Never mind that this has been the law for many years and predates Trump, as do many of the acts now considered reprehensible. The truth is that there is tremendous selective outrage over immigration. The sound that you're hearing is just animus towards Trump.
9
If it is easy for a 15 yo to leave, how easy is it to GET IN --- especially for someone with a bad intent?
6
“migrant child care center”? Doesn’t that sound nice. Call it what it is, a jail.
4
How is it a jail if they are free to leave? One feature that all jails share is a restriction of movement.
12
There have been thousands of kids like the young man in this story who present themselves at the border alone. Many of them are reunited with family, including thousands in NYC and the surrounding suburbs.
Where do you think they should be kept until family members or sponsors can be located?
3
It's a good thing that the USA has so many police agencies to avoid illegal migrants disappearing from being locked up!
US Marshalls
Border Patrol
FBI
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms
DEA
Inspector General
CIA
NEA
Armed Forces
Homeland Security
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement
And many more.....
What?
One illegal migrant escaped!!!!!!!
3
I was in Austria right after many Syrian children had entered Europe through Italy. I saw a nice childcare center where children from 7-17 lived. The staff were young, earnest Austrians who supported allowing more refugees to enter. I was impressed with the facility and the efforts that were being made to help the children/teens.
A week earlier, two teenage brothers had left the facility. After they arrived, they had stayed for 2 weeks - enough time to rest and be well fed. Then they told the staff they were going to a park to play. They never returned. Basically the staff knew they were talking to their family members in Scandanavia and they were determined to get there. So Austria was a step on their long arduous journey. They reminded me of many immigrant stories on Ellis Island. No matter how great the staff and facility are, there is no place like home. For immigrants who have lost their "homes", their new home is with any existing family in a safe location.
4
As a bureaucrat and a politician, I would throw every evildoer in jail, but then allow them to leave if they wish, so as not to violate their rights.
This is how we can satisfy all the voters!
What? Our policy is ludicrous and self-defeating? Who cares, just as long as we are re-elected!
5
A child can walk away after 'border patrol staff' try to dissuade him - then police will locate him & bring him back.
But these aren't jails.
The Trump administration has gutted the State Department (organized by Thomas Jefferson) & is destroying the Departs. of Energy, Labor, Education, HUD, EPA & more with contempt, ignorance & incompetence. Hundreds of experienced senior federal employees have been 'terminated' or resigned in disgust. The Heritage Foundation designs Trump's policies while supporting the GOP agenda to "drag the government into a bathtub & drown it."
The policies surrounding detaining this 15 yr old boy are Trump's - who described Hispanic males crossing our borders as "rapists" "infesting" this country - & promoted by segregationist Jeff Sessions & racist Steven Miller.
Look at all the evidence this administration is hostile, destructive, arrogant & hateful toward anyone not a rich white Christian American Trump supporter. Should we believe the claim detained children are treated respectfully, with dignity & concern for their well-being?
Members of Congress, social workers, attorneys & journalists have been refused entry into the detention centers to evaluate conditions & meet detained children.
But Melania Trump was allowed inside.
The Trump administration is using all the powers of the state to "break" anyone who crosses the border illegally.
Should we believe Trump claim that all is well in its detention centers for children?
3
Am I the only one thinking: "Great. If an unaccompanied 15 year old can make it this far, he's probably better off free?"
If you can just walk out, I'm surprised this isn't routine. Most Americans have the privilege of allowing our teens to be children, but that is not true in all societies. Many of those "children" being held are likely more capable of taking care of themselves than many of our high school (or even college) grads. Recall, bar mitvah, at 13, is a "coming of age" ceremony, and is hardly unique.
Good luck brave 15-year old. May you inspire the other incarcerated teens.
6
Completely agree. He is 15, not 10. He has a right to choose his own path. Please, let no one use this as an excuse to start detaining youth by force!
3
The state is responsible for administering the laws in conjunction with the Constitution and all those that are taken into ''custody'' are to be cared for and the sole responsibility of the state.
If the State, then turns around and employs a private company and/or contractors, then that responsibility of care is passed on, but ultimately still lies with the state. (which must ensure that all parties are following the laws and so on )
The state has failed once again.
6
Probably went to relatives who are also illegal
5
I'm glad the kid go away. He probably knew where he was going and has a better chance of finding his parents now. Trump's gov't is inept and cruel. Who can trust them to do anything right? The kid had good instincts.
4
People are telling me not to make the Hitler comparison. Then I tried the Mussolini comparison. Seems any dictator works from the same game book. Villifying your neighbors is a key step and that is exactly what the Trump admin is doing. Is it incorrect for me to compare what is happening in the United States right now, the brainwashing of good people, to Germany when Hitler was rising in power?
2
15-year-old kid looks around, assesses the situation, says "I'm out of here," and takes the risk of what's outside. Better than the prison he's in. Sounds like the kind of spirit and brains of entrepreneurs we worship.
4
Missing child? I’m not surprised given the lack of thought, knowledge, and preparation that goes into the Trump Administration policies and plans. Mr Trump is unqualified, inept, and of unfit character to be president and surrounds himself with similar people. And it seems like-minded people support him. It doesn’t bode well for America to have a man leading the country who is intent on ruining it at every opportunity.
1
This boy escaped; others will be taken from the shelters to be sold as prostitutes or abused as part of a pedophile ring. Wait and see.
2
Who has legal responsibility for custody of these children after they have been separated? Have those responsible been charged with endangering a child?
Are there not laws against child abduction? Is the government free to break this law.
Are any charges being filed against the organizations involved, or a we just going to complain?
1
I wonder who that "child" is. He's certainly got some real courage and willingness to take risks for a better life. The USA could use more people like that.
5
The partisan blame game has officially crossed the line into the ridiculous.
You howl with rage because kids are detained, and then howl with indignation when they're free to go?
This makes it painfully obvious that you're only howling so loud because the president is a Republican.
12
Oh please, if they had tried to stop him there would be a Time photo claiming he was being treated like a runaway slave. Then there would be protests and later a teeny tiny article with Time recanting.
12
Months and thousands of miles wandering across crime ravaged Mexico I’m sure looks like nothing compared to one afternoon on the streets of Brownsville. For all anyone knows the kid wanted ice cream and heard the truck outside coming down the street.
1
The question to ask now,
is how many immigrant children are going to die or worse,
in a world of zero tolerance.
2
15 years old, under the best of circumstances, is a tough time. Lord knows what he left only to be called, by our President, "rapist, gang member, infestation, drug dealer, job taker, welfare taker, murderer. And of course the President enacts policy with no plan.
3
If the comments below illustrate how Democrats are going to campaign in the midterms, then Republicans will retain their majorities and Democrats will make little gains, despite Trump's approval never being above 50%.
Why? Teft took a losing position on illegal immigration. In day to day life, we all know illegals don't improve or maintain neighborhood safety, property taxes shoot up, and people (rightly or wrongly) feel the cultural fabric of America is being warped by their inability to integrate. Majority of people condone illegals and open borders. Guess what...Obama did too! And he's pretty popular and did well in elections. He understood the political reality.
Trump is turning illegal immigration into a midterm issue because he knows that's what helped him win 2016. Repeat the same strategy and he hopes Democrats will continue to lose their hold and finger on the pulse of America. If you look at GOP enthusiasm 2018, can't argue against it. Is illegal immigration really the sword Democrats want to die on? Is it worth sacrificing global warming, womens' rights, civility, trade, gun control, and economy? Just to let illegals into the country and pretend you're a social justice hero like MLK? And is it really social justice if illegals are stuck in low-wage jobs and mired in constant poverty? Democrats won't be able to naturalize enough illegals to gain new voters any time soon...
I fear for the Democrats poor strategy if other commenters believe what they say.
16
Right now we come to terms this man is a dictator attacking the judicial system while trying to create single party rule through outright lies and deceptions.
Now you wonder if these stolen kids are safely supervised.
This is a disaster of untoward proportions because some of the voters wanted an egotistical television performer with zero experience in government.
2
Foremost, why should the American public believe anything that is told to us by the Trump Administration pertaining to the stories of migrant families seeking asylum? There is a proven track record of implementing this policy out of view of the public and with no oversight process beginning in April. Only when caught, exposed, and forced to admit what was happening with the egregious aspect of the Trump Administration policy, was there admission of its existence - but clear demonstration of mass confusion and sugar-coated PR efforts to portray these facilities as Summer Camp. None of this really mattered to Trump because even when caught red-handed with a heinous policy, Trump gores to Duluth and whips up his rabid base with racist xenophobic lies and hate speech. Marginalize and bully people who lack financial and political power to defend themselves. No different than Adolf Hitler speaking to his followers about the solutions to Germany's problems in 1933-39.
Why should Americans believe ANYTHING told to us by Trump's Administration and his spokesperson (Sarah Huckabee-Sanders), and Cabinet officials? Their track record on the truth is abysmal, but more importantly, their attitude is personified by Melania's coat "I don't care. Do you?"
I'll proffer a darker aspect to this story - maybe the teenager hasn't gone missing but suffered foul play and "vanished". This would require accountability - an anathema in Trump's Administration of corruption. Trump is EVIL.
6
Maybe it's true legally they can not stop these children from leaving if they wish, but the fate of these children will be on the hands of this Administration and all involved. They were seperated from their Parents. Have we No decency anymore?
8
The young man in this story wasn't separated from his parents--he was there on his own. Read about the number of young people who present themselves at the border to be "reunited" with parents who left them behind years ago and started new families in the US. The Times has printed such stories.
2
I imagine these prisons were built deliberately to serve as
prisons for what some ghouls are pleased to call "illegal aliens."
It would make more sense to welcome women and children and fathers as young people escaping from criminals.
5
Why am I suddenly reminded of that scene in ET when all the frogs escape from the biology lab?
1
I don't know the answer, but here goes:
We are told that the children are free to leave these non-detention centers.
Are they also free not to be taken to the non-detention centers? In other words, they know they do not have to go, but go voluntarily?
8
“If children are running away, that raises questions about the care that’s being provided.” By the sounds of it, they're not running away- they're walking away. We have a pretty good idea about the care they're being given when supervision is so lax. The question becomes what else is happening that we're not being told of in the ill conceived plan that's not a plan. Just another MAGA moment for Beloved Leader and his Merry Misfits.
2
Just another example of the mess that is our immigration policy or lack thereof.
The vast majority of these children in the facility are unaccompanied youths just like this run-away, who crossed the border illegally. He will most probably blend in with the other up to 25 M illegal (according to Yale researchers) immigrants in our country.
If the US had a border wall, none of these children would be in the facility.
Or the US should implement another sort of control, such as an agreement with the Central American countries, to combat their gang violence problem so that the migrants can stay in their home countries. The US should tie US aid to such an agreement. The US is providing financial aid and getting absolutely nothing in return.
5
President Trump’s “zero tolerance policy” toward illegal border crossers is not the reason the Border Patrol separates migrant children from their parents and sends them to refugee resettlement centers like Casa Padre. In 2015 Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that the Flores v. Reno Settlement Agreement requires accompanied children be treated the same as unaccompanied children. They cannot be held in custody but must be transferred to the refugee resettlement centers along with unaccompanied children. In 2017 Judge also ruled all migrant children must be released to the refugee resettlement centers within 20 days of their arrest.
To avoid separating families prior to 20-day deadline, the Justice Department has asked Judge Gee to modify her 2017 ruling to permit DHS to detain migrant children with their parents in family residential facilities until criminal proceedings for improper entry or any removal or other immigration proceeding against their parent are completed. This is a humanitarian solution to the family separation problem that would also permit the United States to enforce its laws against illegal border crossing.
3
The adults in charge are respondible for the safety of minors even if it means holding a minor against his or her will.
4
"The operator of the Texas shelter said it was not allowed to restrain children if they want to leave,...".
Wow, if true. Then this is truly an egregious abrogation of responsibility.
Those responsible for allowing such laws must be punished.
7
If the detention centers cannot legally force to stay there, that raises the obvious question of whether they are legal at all. What exactly is a detention center that cannot legally detain people?
The level of incompetence of this administration of simply staggering. Is nobody thinking these policies through, even a little bit?
7
The summer heat in Texas is not survivable for a person without resources. Where will this teen go? The government is criminally negligent.
6
How hare-brained is this, we can take them away from their families, force them to be shuttled to a detention center but once there we can't make them stay? Another of these stupid ideas not half thought through. Like many of this administration's other policies, do or say anything to accomplish a short term goal (no matter how repugnant), but don't consider long term consequences.
What did they think would happen? Were they planning to house them until they turned 18? Then what? Just like taking them with no idea of how to reunite them. No way anyone surviving something like this would grow into a law-abiding member of society. Housed in a warehouse, deprived of family contact, they're creating the type of person they claim they're trying to keep from crossing the border. I guess it's better we create them here, ourselves.
5
A 15 year old is not seen as a minor in many rural regions of Mexico and Central America. There, it has been traditional to stop attending school after the 6th grade and go to work. (Many Central Americans drop out of school before the 6th grade.) By age 14, females start to marry and have their own children. Their cultures have a different concept of childhood than we do.
This 15 year old is an adult in the eyes of his rural community. He likely followed the route laid down by others from his community to our border. Perhaps one of his former neighbors has already found him a job on a landscaping crew to blow leaves and cut grass. If this is the case, he probably left the immigration service’s center to get the job before it is offered to someone else.
With his limited education, his job prospects are severely limited. If he remains in the U.S., he will likely be heavily dependent on wage subsidies and government services for the rest of his life.
12
You do real se that undocumented immigrants aren’t eligible for welfare, right?
The IRS wants everyone to file tax forms, including the undocumented, so it assigns anyone who asks, an Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITIN). An undocumented immigrant uses his or her ITIN to file a tax form. Most undocumented immigrants do not earn enough to pay income taxes, but many file to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit. These are modern forms of welfare for the working poor, and are available to those who do not earn enough to pay income taxes. They are not "credits" against income taxes that have been paid or are due. They are cash grants.
Congress explicitly forbade the undocumented from claiming the EITC and wrote what some say is vague language about whether they could qualify for the Child Tax Credit. The IRS said it lacked the authority to determine who was here legally, and so paid everyone.
The Inspector General for the Treasury Dep't. discovered that the IRS had paid the undocumented $4.2 billion just under the Child Credit, in the fiscal year 2010, and said it was helping to lure migrants here.
Here are 2 references on IRS payments to the undocumented under the Child Tax Credit
1. A press release from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA - 2011-52) dated 9/1/11 which said the following:
“Individuals who are not authorized to work in the United States received billions of dollars from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last year in a refundable tax credit based on earned income called the Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC), according to a new study released today.
The study, conducted by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), found that claims for this credit by these individuals have escalated sharply from $924 million in 2005 to $4.2 billion in 2010."
2. A youtube video titled "Part one: 13 Investigates IRS tax loophole” gives a full explanation of the problem.
Again, I want to emphasize that it was not necessary to pay income taxes to receive this "credit". It was a cash gift ... a modern form of welfare for the working poor.
Some commenters are placing the blame on parents whose children were brought here illegally. What would you do to keep your children safe. . .safe from threats of murder, rape, enforced gang membership? This is the horror that parents and their children fleeing Central America face.
How are these concerns less worthy than of refugees from the past, who fled their land because of famine, religious and ethnic persecution, genocide.
20
Let me get this straight. You incarcerate a child, kidnap him away from his parents, take him to a distant, unknown location, throw him in a cage, and then allow him basically to escape into imminent danger? I'm sorry; I just don't know this country anymore since Trump became president.
13
You assume he came with parents. He could have been brought here by Mexican traffickers.
4
My grandsons are 19, 16, and 14. I can't imagine the heartbreak that this child's family would experience if they knew he was on his own.
4
Federal courts have ruled that migrant children who cross the border illegally cannot be prosecuted or held in custody. This is why they are sent from Border Patrol processing centers to refugee resettlement centers like Casa Padre. (It is also why the Border Patrol separates children from their parents and sends then to refugee resettlement centers.) The refugee resettlement centers are not prisons or detention centers. The children can leave if they like. The staff tries to persuade all of them to stay until they can be transferred to parents, relatives or guardians, but they don't have to stay.
20
So it's always been this way. How, then, to explain the NYT's intense focus on it...now?
3
This flies in the face of all the rules I have known about children being in government custody. They claim no responsibility for them? They remove their parents then let them wander out? So what stops a real parent who has been released (like that woman in Hyannis, MA with a child in Chicago) going to where their child is and collecting them? Would the police suddenly appear then? Why do the authorities not help? How horrifying.
7
"LOST" a child? Have local law enforcement authorities considered that this child may have been kidnapped, molested, or even murdered? Is there proof that this child voluntarily walked away? Will the folks who run this shelter fear for their jobs (fear potential litigation) and be less willing to admit that the security and safety of the children is in jeoperdy? There are abundant treatment facilities for children in the U.S. I doubt that the laws and regulations that govern those treatment centers are being applied to the former Walmart store being used to house these kids. We now know that they "lost" a child. What other horror stories will eventually be revealed from that place? Time to send in the federal investigators.
13
These horrific, searing, and tragic immigrant accounts will dominate the Real News...up to and well beyond the midterm elections. The exponentially accumulating weight of them will inexorably sink this corrupt Administration and its Congressional collaborators and, hopefully, consign Trump Republicanism to the dumpster of history.
Justice, equality, fairness, and decency has a circuitous way of eventually asserting themselves in this nation built and sustained upon the arrival of foreign peoples to our borders. E Pluribus Unum is our country's time-honored motto, NOT Make America Great Again!
9
Yup, just let them walk out the front door.....
No money, no food, doesn't speak the language.
What do you think his options will be when he's hungry or needs something?
Unreal.
15
Twenty minutes before this article was written, these places were "jails" because the children there couldn't leave. Now they are irresponsible because they can, and their care is substandard because they want to?
The reporting on this issue has been throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Not surprising for a press that has never cared enough about refugee issues to find out how they are done.
One percent of the world's population is now forcibly displaced (UNHCR). If one percent of Americans (think, say members of the military) were as badly covered, badly cared about, and badly researched, there would be an outcry and a hail of -isms on Twitter.
They say that when a company starts up, it is run by the technologists. Then it gets run by the businessmen, and then by the lawyers, and then it is in Chapter 11.
Your coverage of this is being run by the lawyers. They do divisiveness for a living and binary adversaries in courtrooms. The complexity, the range of services, the people who work non-profits, who volunteer, who practice the compassion and empathy that your paper constantly says is missing in the world, are all lost in the whip it up and go viral coverage coming from all media in this crisis.
The American people deserve to know how refugees and asylees are treated and who helps them and when and why without all the lawyer anger and tweet ready outrage. Everybody involved deserves that much. When are you going to do your part and deliver the truth?
18
Speaking as a former law enforcement reporter, the media can deliver the truth only when someone is willing to be honest with them. Don't blame the messengers. Blame the administration that can't get its act together or its story straight.
9
Odd that you rail against lawyers and the press, but say nothing about the refusal of the companies operating the detention centers to allow inspections and answer questions.
6
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men [and women] to do nothing.
- Edmund Burke
My belief is that there are still good men and good women. Please step forward right now......
19
Funny how it's a "boy" when you need political points, but in the country he invaded from, he's expected to be a man.
12
I find interesting that you use the term "invaded". That would imply he as an armed person attempting a military invasion. Is that an apt description?
6
This is how children end up enchained in trafficking.
14
'A spokesman for Southwest Key, Jeff Eller, said on Sunday it could not legally require children to stay on the premises if they sought to leave, and that “from time to time” children had left several of its 27 shelters for immigrant children.'
Children or minors? Big difference. A child is a prepubescent, so usually no older than twelve. The definition of a minor depends on the jurisdiction and may further depend on the context.
Usually, any person who is below the age of sixteen, eighteen or twenty-one is a minor, depending on the exact legal definition for that jurisdiction.
4
Smart kid. Best of luck finding your family. Adios. Come back after we elect a Democratic majority. I'm pretty sure they won't abuse you, your mother, or our constitution. Certainly not after this. United Nations: send investigators of human rights abuses.
16
You and so many others here just assume that he came here with parents. That's quite an assumption. All of this could have been avoided had he stayed put, in his home country.
6
Margo. You're right. I hadn't thought of that. But, that does not make him a gang member, a drug mule, or a person not constitutionally entitled to seek asylum. If I had been him, I would have walked away, and come back on a better day. I hope avoids the obvious danger, on the other side.
Why wasn’t the local Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) contacted regarding this unemancipated minor demanding to leave one “guardian”, the federal government, without being transferred to another legal guardian, and, thus, potentially entering into a health and life threatening situation? From my recollection of Texas jurisprudence regarding such matters, DFCS responsibility is not based on immigration/residency/citizenship status. DFCS could have ordered the child held in the center or elsewhere until a safe disposition can be assured.
5
How can any of these minors be released to a family member in the US, when they themselves may be illegal immigrants? If they come forward to claim a child, their identity, address, etc is now known and they have a target painted on their foreheads for deportation (because let's not kid ourselves, ICE seem to have quotas and it's easier to pick up people who have registered.)
This 15 year old was smart: walk away and get picked up by a family member. Hope he arranged things in advance, and is not picked up by ICE or (other) child traffickers first.
12
Many people (as was I) were, or are, under the impression that these detention centers sprang up because of Trump and Session's decision to separate families crossing illegally. Truth is, it seems that these centers already existed, since the children separated only account for about 10% of all "detainees". The rest are minors who crossed illegally on their own. Since these kids can seemingly just walk away, it seems these centers are not the horrible prisons they have been made out to be. Not the Raddison, to be sure, but not the super max either.
10
Just so there is NO question.........the evil I am referring to is Mr. Trump, Mr. Stephen Miller and the rest of the administration who fashion the kind of horror we are seeing at our southern border today. Unconscionable to watch, worse to have little clear response in Washington.
8
We rational, benevolent people have got to continue to intense pressure on Trump and his minions until Trump leaves the White House. There is simply too much evil under his reign.
15
Ok, but for the thousandth time...
Where are the girls and the babies?
11
My guess is that they are also in similar centers or foster homes in various states that handle kids in immigration systems. Teenage moms with babies are probably together.
1
Does this mean a 5-year-old can also walk off and leave without adult supervision? An insane policy administered by the inept.
9
It is ridiculous. I remember hearing about therapeutic foster parents who were forbidden from physically stopping their autistic, emotionally disturbed foster daughter from leaving. They were told to follow her and try to verbally persuade her to follow the rules. Eventually they took classes in restraint holds and sought permission to do more. Some foster homes are turned in to literal prisons, with video cameras everywhere and alarms on doors and windows and parents who do use the restraint holds with kids. I doubt most here would want to see those tactics used routinely. But these people are terrified of lawsuits if they do touch a kid. Ordinary, common sense parenting is often off limits with a foster kid, which is probably part of what is going on.
1
I have been wondering what would happen if one, or a large number, of the children in these facilities would try to escape. This poses a dilemma. If the response were to restrain the children forcibly, handcuff and punish them, or worse yet shoot at fleeing kids, we would also be horrified.
5
Sorry, but’s the facts are the vast majority of these kids (approximately 10,000 of the 12,000) in this one particular facility came across the border unaccompanied.
14
"Sorry, but’s the facts are the vast majority of these kids (approximately 10,000 of the 12,000) in this one particular facility came across the border unaccompanied." .....according to Trumpian statistics.
2
Oh I can just imagine how sad Trump will be when he hears this news. I picture him having an epiphany, a light bulb, dimly lit but still flickering, going off in his thick skull, And after seeing that light, I picture him calling for air time on all the networks, to announce a reversal of his misfortune thinking. I see a very contrite Trump, making an apology to the Nation and the World, for his awful behavior. What was he thinking I believe will be the next day's headline.
Oh wait, no, sorry, I am wrong here.
That was just a dream, a real dream, not a fake dream.
I know it was because in it I saw a redemptive Trump, a man looking deep within his soul to find some empathy and compassion.
In the real world in which I live, and in the four decades I have known and dealt with Trump, I have never seen that occur with the RealDonald, and I expect I never will.
Sorry about folks.
Now, please cue: Aerosmith. "Dream On".
DD
Manhattan
7
Trump cannot apologize; it would mean he felt shame or empathy or basic decency. He has none of these things.
The government is responsible..this may happen again..and I fear some child may get seriously hurt in this mess trump created.
10
Yes the governments of Ecuador, Chile, Honduras, Mexico, Dominican Republic, etc who can't or won't protect and care for their very OWN citizens.
6
Belligerence coupled with incompetence is the hallmark of this administration. A truly horrifying spectacle for the human civilization when you realize these people have their fingers on massive number of nuclear missiles.
7
This type of thing happens all across the progressive New York State all the time. When children run away from facilities here, they are reported as missing to Police and a warrant is issued for their arrest from a Family Court. The Police find them and bring them to Family Court where the Judge orders them returned to the facility. The Police turn the juveniles over to an OCFS (Office of Children and Family Services) employee. This employee is not allowed to use force to detain the juvenile (even locking the car doors is not allowed). This OCFS employee puts them in their car to transport them back to the facility and at the first red light the juvenile jumps out of the car and runs away. The OCFS employee then calls the Police and reports the child missing again. SO the whole crazy process starts all over.
19
"All the time" might be my new favorite statistical measure.
Especially as a "whataboutism."
The only time I know of that it's actually accurate, however, is when it's used to describe the frequency of Donald Trump's lying.
Because Trump truly makes stuff up ALL THE TIME.
It's also an accurate measure of when Trump can be deemed repulsive.
Too bad we let him escape from New York.
4
So, a child can be taken into custody, detained indefinitely, BUT is allowed to just leave without supervision or transferring custody to an adult ??? Now THAT is a recipe for any child to become a victim, for sexual abuse or even murder. Who's responsible when a child is harmed ??? Hello ???
This is ludicrous. Seriously.
91
Most states have similar laws on the books for dealing with minors in foster care. Not really newsworthy
2
This is the Trump administration: corrupt, cruel, lawless, but thankfully incompetent.
31
All true, but the centers existed before Trump. apparently. Just not for children separated from their families, but crossing unaccompanied.
6
Sad to say I don't trust anything anyone says now about these kids! This raises a red flag for me. How do we not know that something far worse happened to him, but we are being lied too? This may be the first of many such sotries. God help us.
33
You would find more competent people in a mental hospital than here being led by an incompetent administration. Not talking about the staff there, but the mental patients. What a disgusting and pathetic bunch of people in charge of government and in charge of anything. Disgraceful that we can even call this an "administration" The only thing they administer is buffoonery on a grand scale.
21
It's only a matter of time before a child dies.
37
and how would we know a child hasn't died.
2
Really ? Really ? So the kid just walks off to be picked up by a gang or White Slavers or die in the desert ? This is better than open borders and having access to social services ? This is what happens when the only people with plans are the Heritage Foundation and their plan is a demolition plan to strangle and overwhelm government at both the Federal and state levels. They are Terrorists.
22
Some of the Border Patrol staff may be child abusers or pornographers. Does anyone think this "kid walked away" story is valid, or is it just a thin cover-up of abuse, or worse? https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/southwest-key-hired-child-case-manager...
15
Good for him. He simply walked away from the detention center and disappeared. I'm sure he has found a good American home who will protect him from scrutiny, from all harm and provide a safe haven, love and care until he is united with his family. Because that is what real Americans do!
And it seems like all the Federal officials, enforcement officials and officials in charge of the detention centers have deliberately looked away. Everyone of them seems unhappy, reluctant, hating their jobs and their part in this cruelty of separating parents and their children. Get fired or resign? Not an option because they have families to take care of!
Now I just hope there are more teenagers disappearing. This bold 15yr. old has shown the way but will they get to hear about his grand escape? I hope so because there are many American homes who will welcome and protect them.
But unfortunately, the babies and little ones will be left behind, crying and wailing to no avail.
5
Er, it isn't a detention center, it's a shelter for kids whose parents crossed the border illegally. They are free to leave.
What part of that did you not understand?
9
It was originally a detention center for boys who crossed illegally alone (as the kid in question did). Only recently did it include kids whose parents crossed illegally.
1
It is illegal to detain, hold, lock up, or in any way prevent a person from doing what they want to do (as long as those behaviors are not breaking the law or harming self or others). There is a reason unlawful detention is a criminal offense. If I were a lawyer, I would wonder about that. If workers at the former Walmart Center fear they would commit a criminal offense if they restrained a child who wants to walk away, aren't those working at the center already restraining those kids? This is a very murky legal situation. Either they are detaining those kids or they are not detaining those kids. Which is it?
3
I hope he stays safe.
70
So no one at the center is responsible for their custody? How can this be? Yesterday Oklahoma Senator James Lankford assured the moderator on Meet the Press that HHS knows where every kid is. Apparently not.
Also he didn't assure listeners that HHS knew which kids belong to which family members.
80
Smart kid.. good for him. Many more will probably also escape. The babies and toddlers can't.
2
If the so-called Deep State is so deep and runs everything behind the scenes, why didn't it make sure that there was some level of preparation ahead of the Session/Trump/Nielsen insanity at the borders? This is inexcusable but since brown children don't matter to then, whatever.
14
Some of the children will be "abandoned" by their parents, much as children of the ''Kindertransport" were abandoned by their parents.
The parents may view life as so without hope in their own region that they are willing to do anything to insure their child's survival, with the faintest of hopes for reuniting.
The parents may have to forgo all contact with their child, for fear that gangs will use the child to blackmail them by threatening the child's safety in the U.S.
24
“If children are running away, that raises questions about the care that’s being provided.”
Turn this question back on itself with regard to American kids who run away from home every year in America and suddenly it’s not such a pretty light. C’mon, Times, we’re getting tired of cherry-picked quotes. Any gang a kid runs into here wandering the streets has got to be ten times better than any one in El Salvador. Maybe than can be homies, in which case, instant family once again.
12
It's boys like this youngster who cross the border illegally and alone who are prime prey for abuse and a life of crime. Being recruited for gangs like MS-13 may be preferable to wandering in the borderland. If Casa Padre can't keep boys from leaving the facilities, why are they sent there in the first place?
33
With all the incendiary political rhetoric, how is a child supposed to know if he is safer in the custody of immigration authorities or human traffickers?
The rage and dysfunction coming out of Washington truly makes this a less safe world.
154
That sounds like a smart, enterprising kid. Why aren't we welcoming him to our country?
70
John Gotti was smart and enterprising, and also a criminal.
This is the first of the horrible acts and abuses that we allwill learn about these camps , after the fact ,through the brave journalists and lawsuits.
Then there's this!? where are the GIRLS ?
It's is looking more and more as of they've been kidnapped and for what reason ?
I'm ashamed to be living in a country that sanctions this , and if the Democrats don't retake the Congress after midterms , were all in for far more than even this type of behaviour, stealing children.
89
You probably don't know that cages are used so that authorities can keep an eye on the male immigrants, many of whom will attack young women immigrants.
6
Where are the girls? Being kept safely secluded from the type of people we know will find them if we don't. Young girls, illegally here, you do the math.
Thanks, Claudette, for pointing this out. We've seen multiples stories about the centers for the boys. Quite a few of these boys must have sisters, so it must be that our policies also separate siblings. And what exactly is happening to the girls?
2
If I were the kid, I'd disappear too. He is merely escaping from Trump's horrible policies.
The vast majority of those of us who have European ancestry are descendants of men and women who, like the Central Americans at our borders, came here for asylum. Those coming now need to be welcomed to join us.
120
Not necessarily asylum. Europe took the poor off the streets and sent them to the colonies. Appalachians moved into the mountains and developed trade societies which were dismantled so that they could be used as labor in the mines. The Irish, Chinese, Mexicans, Polish, etc. and but of course African Americans who were entirely disposable all served in the bottom tiers of society.Their welfare was not a concern to industrial profiteers. It is world history but Americans particularly this administration who reveres this America needs to get their head out of the sand.
4
This is the only issue I agree with that the President is pursuing and rightly so. Without borders and due process for entry we will too become a failed state. It doesn't take much to tilt a scale.
29
The president doesn't seem to agree with you on the due process front.
32
Also, this 15 year is already probably part of a gang.
6
You and a majority of Americans. This is what enforcement of laws looks like. It's also what Americans are demanding.
9
All of the problems associated with Trump’s policy of separation and detention and Obama’s policy of catch and release could be avoided if the US would cooperate with Mexico and the UN to set up refugee camps on the Mexico-Guatemala border. Though northern Mexico is controlled by cartels, southern Mexico is relatively safe with low rates of violent crime. Experienced UN and NGO personnel would evaluate claims and vet successful candidates sheltered and fed cheaply in modest yet comfortable accommodations. No hieleras, no cruel CBP officers mocking crying children. With the camps in place, the US could sign a bilateral agreement with Mexico recognizing each other as a safe country, thus allowing the US to deny asylum quickly and deport anyone who skips the camps to enter the US directly, removing an incentive for economic migrants to pay smugglers affiliated with the very cartels and gangs that make parts of Mexico and Central America so unsafe.
103
Our great dealmaker has burned that bridge.
5
How refreshing to see a comment offer practical suggestions.
4
Yours is one of very few posts that actually offer a _plan_. Good thinking!
Simply saying "zero tolerance" or "it's Obama's fault" are not plans, they're rabble-rousing slogans.
1
Who is responsible? the parents if you can find them.
If I had pinned a note on my kids and left them to get to California alone or with strangers making the journey, I would get arrested.
If I just pinned a shopping list to my kids and sent them alone to the grocery store with instructions to take care of my kids along with my list, I would have been arrested. Americans can even be arrested for letting their kids walk alone to the park.
Yet somehow these people are absolved of personal responsibility for sending these kids here alone or dragging them here. The double standards are ridiculous.
64
The vast majority of these illegal children were taken away from their parents by the US Government. It is the US government that is to blame, not the parents.
7
There is a difference between you pinning a shopping list to your child and a refugee child sent from a dictatorial regime by parents hoping for better for their child. There is a difference. Until we understand that difference, then we are hopeless.
33
How do you know the teenager was sent? By age 15, I already knew how to navigate at least four different states, two countries, and as many major cities. All this on my own. Do you really think a 15 year old is incapable of finding a bus station and buying a ticket? You clearly underestimate adolescents.
13
From what I know, this is also a standard policy in the foster care system at residential treatment. They can’t touch or restrain the kids or prevent them from leaving unless they have been trained in certain holds or have permission. It’s a liability issue and probably a flawed system. It probably also has something to do with why so many kids end up on psychiatric drugs they might not need, because the system is trying to control them that way. I hope this kid knew where he was going and to whom.
53
This entire illegal immigration debacle “zero tolerance” is just getting worse and is completely out of control. Here you have an administration that set a policy in place without having any foresight, planning, and logistics and most importantly; lacking the moral treatment of people some in the administration categorize as a plague. First the government separates the families, deports the parents without their children, corals many in caged pens like wild animals and then fails o detain them at the shelter. Then you have a President who wants to be accuser, judge and jury spreading his disdain and hate and caring less about the suffering and trauma that these people both parents and children are going through and will have to live with for the rest of their lives. If they were white skin instead of brown would the situation be different?
The U.S has itself to blame for the illegal immigration problems in the country for failing to address them for decades while exploiting the fruits of immigrant cheap labor for pennies to the dollar. Adding more insult to injury, this President may think he can fix the problem using an authoritarian approach which does not exist nor has a place in this country. Very irrational thinking on the part of the President like many of the things he does, he could be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
108
Sorry, but No, AAF.......I place blame squarely on the shoulders of the so called leaders of the countries from where these people are coming from. Direct your anger t them as they can't or refuse to take care of their own citizens. Were you this angry at the previous administration for their handling of illegal immigration? As if the influx of these people only occurred within the last 500+ days.
17
A "nervous breakdown"" might be an improvement!
"The U.S has itself to blame for the illegal immigration problems in the country for failing to address them for decades while exploiting the fruits of immigrant cheap labor for pennies to the dollar." AMEN, A.A.F.
2
“The majority were unaccompanied youth.”
This speaks volumes. The majority of children in these centers were deliberately put there by their parents in Central America, who sent them away with a human smuggler. And “majority” doesn’t mean 51%, it means something like 80%, according to DHS under both Obama and Trump.
If you see a picture of 100 children in U.S. custody, more than 80 of them are unaccompanied minors.
The fact that centers like Casa Padre are not legally allowed to stop children from running away shows exactly why we need actual detention centers where children cannot leave. Children with parents can stay with parents. Children who are alone must be detained with other children.
The key is to rapidly process and deport both illegal entrants and rejected asylum seekers. (80% of asylum requests are rejected.) They should spend no more than a week or two in detention before being returned.
Are their home countries essentially failed states with high levels of poverty, corruption, and violence? Yes. But this argues for aggressive intervention and support to make these countries better, not for unlimited admittance to the U.S.
58
Should the US have "aggressively" intervened and supported Ireland during the potato famine?
1
call me when that happens to you or your family
doub't that you can reach me by phone - sorry!
An ABC News graphic shows that five of the asylum courts have an average grant rate below 20%, and seven have an average grant rate above 80%.
Wonderful. The Trump administration decides to separate children from their parents and caregivers, and then cannot even keep the children safe. This facility, Casa Padre, has both unaccompanied minors and children forcibly separated from their parents at the border, even if they requested asylum. The horrors never end with the Trump administration, and their secretiveness about their family-separation policy is hurting families. Trump is the ultimate anti-family President.
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Anti-family? Call him as he acts: A monster
At the age of 13 in Atlanta Georgia I finally escaped a brutal foster family where I had been there since the age of 5 . I was put in the "shelter system" where I couldn't believe the conditions there either, so I walked away. This is "crime" whereas it is a "statuatory crime" because a person under the age of 18 cannot just runaway. They can be charged with truancy and the shelter reported me of course. Picked up a few weeks later living with the hippies in a downtown park, Piedmont. It's not like they are going to put an all points look out on you, but if you are found and your name is on the runaway list they will take you.
This is when you get put in a lockdown facility. Because you are a runaway and been caught now they have the right to lock you up. I was put in a Juvenile Jail for a month. I was given the bible to read. A judge is assigned to your case and they figure out what the next step is. Back in the 60's it was a reform school. Re education. Not much as changed with these laws.
Nancy Clark
Sedona AZ
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Some reader comments so ignorant of facts and implications I can scarcely believe it. In digital story copy is picture of three women and seven small children. One of three women looks seventeen and third trimester pregnant. I see this almost daily parts of Fresno walking along streets or in markets. In markets they have a voucher, don’t understand how to use it, speak zero English, a Hispanic store employee helps them buy food and diapers. There is nothing to verse about the schools they are entirely Hispanic. There are homeless throughout the parks in Fresno, in places there are large encampments. There are over 500,000 homeless in Los Angeles area. California’s Housing costs are rising contributing to homelessness because population is increasing but it is increasing only because of foreign in migration. Otherwise it’s negative. Basically California is being colonized. arbitrary federal court decision, lack of detention space, and overwhelmed courts creates a loophole being exploited by Central Americans. With husband the children might barely be supported, with only the women— likely the case—massive state subsidy required. California’s housing costs are rising contributing to homelessness because population is increasing, but increasing only because of foreign in-migration, without its negative from native out-migration. Do you think an infusion of 1-2 million people requiring very sizable state support and with these resource constraints is a good idea?
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I would be very pleased to sit down with you and have a frank conversation on what you posted, Mr. Atkinson. Doing it on the NYT forum is not the right place. Unless we start from the same point - ALL people are entitled to live their lives with dignity and without fear, and to want their children to have better lives and opportunities - our conversation will be useless.
There are solutions to the issues you pose, but they require a clear head and mindset not driven by ideology nd fear. The problems of migration begin with a deterioration of social and economic conditions in the home nation. What is happening in Central America began with CAFTA (Central America Free trade Agreement). It has been further exacerbated by income disparity and concentration of wealth at the very top of those societies. These problems were much aggrieved by political chaos and a disintegration of the judicial system. Solutions require an appreciation that nations are inter-connected; isolationist and xenophobic attitudes don't solve this. Trump's nativism that is behind your view has been seen in our nation before - this occurred in 1840-50's. "Know Nothings" as they were called.
But, but, according to this very paper and the Left think it is their right to stay here regardless. No questions asked. We are to take care of them cradle to grave and their myriad children. We have officially become a banana republic. With California leading the pack.
You forgot to mention how utterly dependent farmers in Fresno are for immigrants to pick their crops. Food prices from California, again Fresno in particular) wd be a lot more expensive if immigrants weren't used to farm.
James, it is not near as "black and white" as you make it!
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I’m sorry, but the administrators of these facilities — and by extension the federal government — MUST be held responsible for the care and welfare of these detained children. They are not livestock. They are not stockpiled commodities. They are human beings. This is the responsibility that the U.S. took on with this outrageous policy. If the feds cannot guarantee basic safety, it is time to reevaluate.
Honestly — that should all go without saying!
I hope the boy — someone’s child, let us not forget — is found soon. (And to head off the inevitable “whataboutery” argument about his age: He is 15. A minor. Not an adult. Would you be fine with it if he were YOUR 15-year-old?)
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They are clearly not detained if they are simply walking away.
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The story says the teenager was an unaccompanied minor when he arrived in the US. He wasn't separated from his family.
Would you have the teenager jailed upon coming into this country to ensure he doesn't run away?
Or turned loose at the border with an ankle bracelet?
When teenagers appear at our borders alone, the options aren't great for what the US should do with them. This facility doesn't seem a terrible option compared with the alternatives.
1
Back in the mid-80s, America had a fad of putting kids in mental institutions when they acted out... it was on Oprah, and everyone was doing it... I was one of those kids. Spent two months in a psych-ward for kids, essentially because I listened to Iron Maiden and Slayer... the point is, that brief two months, did institutionalize me. It left it's mark. I'm 45 now, and I've never fully gotten over it.
That's going to be these kids.
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Me too. My parents told me we were going to get pizza and instead tried to institutionalize me. I never got over it.
These kids are being traumatized by the same intellectually lazy and cruel people from our childhood.
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Incarceration in mental institutions for the control of young people happened not only in the mid-80s, but also in the early 1960s. Kids who were starting to dress strangely and to embrace the nonconformist Beat culture, were sent to mental institutions with the intention of "changing their minds," as it was known to their friends who asked where the missing were and why they had, for instance, stopped appearing at civil rights demonstrations.
Chet Helms was one such kid when he was a freshman at the University of Texas, Austin. Obviously, it didn't work. After the mental institution, he dropped out of school, left for San Francisco, started the Avalon Ballroom, promoted music groups, and introduced Janis Joplin and other important music stars to the world. He was known for his generous, laid-back personality, combined with his genius for promotion and organization, and was considered the father of the 1967 San Francisco Summer of Love.
Most other young victims of this practice were not so lucky and instead remained damaged for life.
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I'm so sorry you went through that. We're still being formed emotionally as teenagers and this sort of casual disregard by 'the adults in the room' leaves lasting scars.