Funny we did not see images of crying children when Obama created them or when Bill Clinton did. All those kids had to be separated as well, and sooner under Clinton--five days. By the time of Obama it was 20.
I have yet to read any workable suggestion that would prevent tears. That's because while Trump is doing his best, the Progressives do not wish to limit illegal immigration. If they did they would fund the barrier. Hard to tell how many posting here understand that the Left wants no limits on illegal entry and as far as they are concerned everyone should be granted amnesty becasue that is waht their policy results in any way. I am assuming that every post calling Trump's policies evil are simply anti-Trump and pro open borders.
6
"Neither Donald Trump nor his enabling Republican allies care what happens to the children separated from their parents. They do not regard them as human beings and they treat them accordingly." That is pretty unfair. Suppose I said that neither Nancy Pelosi or any of her enabling Deocrats care what happens to our own children? Suppose I said they didn't care when unemployment for parents--especially black, hispanic and female parents--was twice what it is today and they didn't care. Or if I said that the billions we have spent this year on other nation's families could have been spent in any number of ways here at home? Every dollar going to another nation's child is one that could be taking care of our own. These nations have very wealthu families that don't have to take care of their own people so long as the American middle class taxpayer, struggling with bills for his own kids' college, will pay to house, feed and clothe and educate and medicate and vaccinate them. They are not only from Middle America and Mexico; they come across that border from all over the world. The Democrats suffered no consequences for decades while they kept the poor poor, not doing what was needed to lower e corporate taxes to create jobs--not limiting illegal workers in order to drive up wages as we see happening now? Here is a question I know you will not answer; no bleeding heart ever does: how much are you prepared to have our country spend on this; is there no limit to numbers?
5
this is also a fraud. after the child is obducted, a billionaire is given $1000 a day to "care for the child". the money is an incentive to keep the children seperated for ever. and the money is compounded by our growing deficits. everyone looses except for the billionairs.
3
instead of giving a billionaire $1000 a day to care for each obducted child, give the parents the same $300,000 a year to care for each of their own children?
2
Wouldn't some of our military budget be better spent on economically helping to relieve some of the extreme poverty in those Central American nations?
4
How quickly those who hold an anti-immigrant position forget that people have a right to come here to seek asylum. Instead of putting all this money into detentions and deportation, why not invest those funds in hiring more people to process asylum applications at the legal crossings, then allowing the family to enter the US to await their case being heard in court? It's what we did before and it was far less cruel. As long as people don't have a record of a violent crime, we should let them in to be processed through the system. This also means we should fill all the empty positions for judges who hear these cases. Where has our humanity gone? We are at full employment in this country. The fearmongering about the risks of immigrant to residents' safety is ridiculous and not supported by the data. We are better than this.
17
@Kelli Hoover
It is not an anti-immigrant position; there are a million immigrants a year entering legally. But constant repetition of a lie is politicallly useful isn't it?
12
Build the wall tall and deep. Change asylum laws so they have to apply for their fraudulent asylum in their country. Mandate e-verify and imprison employers who don’t use it since fines don’t seem to work. Track those who overstay their visas and deport them. End chain migration and the visa lottery. Reduce the numbers of legals immigrants.
16
Mexico has offered asylum to everyone seeking to enter the U.S. from the Mexican border. These so called asylum seekers have no legal right to claim asylum in the U.S. If they make it into the country, they and their children should be immediately escorted back into Mexico without any asylum hearing.
19
@Enough Humans
Curious, is it not, that no administration of ours has taken that position.
1
@Enough Humans
"These so called asylum seekers have no legal right to claim asylum in the U.S. If they make it into the country"
Yes, they do under both US and international law we are bound to by treaties signed by the president and ratified by the Senate. You may not like these facts, but you are just flat wrong when you say they don't have a legal right to claim asylum. The 1980 Immigration Reform Act gives them the right and the 1967 UN protocol on refugees to which the US is a signatory give them the right.
7
This policy is part of a larger strategy designed to inflict pain and suffering on immigrants. If immigrants have to endure such cruelty, the thinking goes, they will be effectively discouraged from making the long trek north.
The same thinking applies to fencing. As currently structured, border fencing channels immigrants to desolate desert or rocky terrain.
Between 1998 and 2017, some 7,216 immigrants died after crossing the border, according U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
We are not acting in a civilized or humane manner when we almost casually and callously rip children from their parents.
This will be a dark stain on the nation.
65
@Ricardo Chavira There is another way to look at it, by inspecting what happened in Europe. Germany welcomed 1 million migrants first. Then within a few years they were forced to change their policy of welcoming migrants, which however led to Africans and South Asians making perilous journeys and drowning. As of now civilized Denmark is trying to return Somali refugees to their country. The same will happen here too in a few more years. South Asians and Chinese are coming in through the southern border. With the world population destined to reach 9 - 11B, the questiion to ask is whether it makes sense to be moderately harsh now instead of completely brutal a decade later.
7
@Malone
There is one key difference between what is happening on other continents and our reality. I live just 600 miles from where my ancestors did in the mid-1700's in Chihuahua, Mexico.
I am more than 30 percent indigenous American, including Pima who setlled here in Arizona and the mountains of Chihuahua.
The U.S. abuts Latin America, home to more than 700 million people, most of them poor.
American efforts to stem the human tide streaming north are doomed to fail, just as they always have.
Georgraphic proximity, the sheer mass of humanity and economic need trump all else.
2
It is difficult to articulate the deep anger these stories of children separation provoke in me, the feeling is swift and strong. The fact that Trump continues to separate families is unconscionable. Many of these children will never heal from the damage our nation has caused them, thanks to our leaders' callous disregard for their plight. Trump's family separation program will cement him in history as our worst president.
78
@John Have you read the cases?
Separation was litigated on behalf of alien migrant minors by the ACLU for heaven's sakes because they were being abused in adult facilities. That was the law since 1996 when Bill Clinton's administration agreed to settle with child-protection litigants against his government. For a good history of the laws from 1996 through 2016 one can read Flores v Lynch.
The strategy has been to overwhelm the system with so many families that the US cannot afford to keep building shelters for minors that meet the new expensive standards demanded by litigants "for minors." The reality is that when the system cannot house them according to law it must release them into the country to await amnesty hearings. Since in the past over 700,000 never bothered to show up, this strategy of raising the cost of housing minors while awaiting hearings while increasing the numbers of alien migrant families has forced the government to release them while in the US. They will not show for hearings; in effect, they will have beaten "the system."
Those in favor of unlimited unvetted immigration rejoice; those against should understand the strategy in place today.
8
@John Do you feel the same way when American children are separated from their parents should a parent be incarcerated for a committed crime?
5
@inhk
Yes, I would feel the same but fortunately our judicial system does not lose track of the children of felons, deny them physical or telephone access to their parents, and shuffle them all around the country like misplaced luggage.
Your question is neither original or congruent with the situation at hand.
6
The inhumane treatment being inflicted on children and their parents, at the border. Is simply another atrocity that is being committed, based on fear and insecurity.
Since when has American leadership become so weak, incompetent and without values. That it is acceptable to assault innocent children and their parents, without regard.
Where are all the amber alerts and the unrelenting search for the children ? ICE
Incompetent child endangerment
Indifferent child extortion
Independant corruption enforcement
4
"Still, thousands more children who were separated before the policy officially went into effect have not been accounted for, according to the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services. The investigators cited the lack of an efficient tracking system."
This cruelty toward children MUST stop. There is simply no good excuse to remove hundreds of children from their families simply because they were brought over the border, often to ask for asylum.
4
If there were any semblance of humanity in this, they would not be shipping children hundreds, or even thousands, of miles away from where the parents are being kept. This is being run the same as any other sort of commercial operation - send the goods (they are not considered to be people) to whatever storage facility is handiest. If records are not complete, just sell the goods to the next highest bidder. It is an appalling shame to the United States and their pretense of liberty, justice or democracy.
3
Maybe some US Attorney, somewhere, could arrest the head of Homeland Security for violation of the Federal kidnapping statute which has life imprisonment as punishment. After all these are protracted separations, in violation of court orders, causing harm to children. All aggravating factors under the guidelines, all qualifying for pretrial detention. But we don’t follow any laws in the executive branch anymore?
3
There have been many comments criticizing the president as if he had ordered his bureaucracy, which his administration inherited, to lose the children as they were complying with the law handed down by the 9th Circuit.
The president pronounces. Underlings carry out. Now it happens that the bureaucracy in DC is almost entirely liberal. In many cases, they have been "losing" children to the underground railroad manned by church groups, ensuring that migrant children are not returned to parents being deported; they think they are getting a two-fer: saving US residency for the kids and blaming trump f ro losing them all a the same time.
3
For all the people here who complain that asylum seekers are breaking the law and so they deserve to have their kids taken away, please read the following. If you are interested in upholding the actual laws of our country, please read the following. If, however, you don't care about our laws, then don't bother. https://immigrationforum.org/article/fact-sheet-u-s-asylum-process/
1
@Hope Greenberg
What specifically are you referring to? Pick one point and we'll discuss.
2
If one takes one's children along when committing a crime, it is not unusual for the children to be separated from their parents. People crossing the border illegally are committing a crime. The conclusion is obvious, to me at least.
4
If I lived in one of these miserable countries, I would do everything I can to NOT bring children into such a miserable world. I cannot understand people in those countries having 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or more children. One's biological/chemical bodily needs can be achieved in numerous ways that do not result in a baby. If survival is tough, it becomes exponentially tougher when you have children to feed and care for. Add even more children, while living in such conditions, and you multiply the misery for all of you even further. I blame the church's negative role on contraception and abortion for much of this in the world. We have more than enough people already on this planet- more than the planet can handle. Have 1 child if you must. Have a 2nd child if you are financially able to handle it.
6
Mexico is complicit in aiding illegal migrants to cross Mexico to illegally enter the United States. Our new policy should be to deport all illegal immigrants to Mexico. Let Mexico give them free healthcare and educations and asylum. It doesn't matter that they are not from Mexico. Mexico is a humane country which needs hard working immigrants looking to get ahead. As an act of charity to Mexico, we should allow them to profit from the addition of these hard working, industrious, and honest people. If we did this, we might actually see Mexico start to build a wall.
7
How many millions of immigrants from Central America can we reasonably accept, knowing the burden it will place on our already stressed programs for the poor? We are overpopulated and under-educated. Someone needs to come up with a solution to stop the caravan before it begins--in the home country. No indecisive, lazy Congress will take responsibility. The Wall is not a solution. Perhaps a NY Times writer has an idea. It would be refreshing to hear a real plan of action rather than simply allowing entrance then complaining about mistreatment and separation. It isn't difficult to imagine what the US will look like in about 5 years if we don't figure it out now.
6
@Daphne Isn't the real question why the Progressive does not care?
Why do they want to allow the entire world to enter on our dime? Who is funding them and what is THEIR goal?
4
Border between the U.S. and Canada is OK. But why is the border between the U.S. and Mexico not OK?
These immigrants come to the U.S. primarily to escape problems in their native countries (Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama) which includes a stagnant economy, high levels of crime, political corruption and widespread drug use. There is a legal way to request a green card to enter the U.S., however unlawful mobs entry is not allowed. Shame and disgrace of all these central American countries and their governments who fail to feed their people, to give them medical care, good housing, and jobs. These central American countries and their governments are the ones at fault.
Sorry that your country does not love you anymore. To find true love you need to find and walk on God’s Holy road which will one day open the gate to His Kingdom in Heaven. The road you are currently walking is man made and will only bring you tears and despair, darkness and regrets.
2
How much of the "surge in families" coming North can be attributable to what may appear (to a family attempting the journey) to be confusing, conflicting, and changing signals about their chances here? Why is it that our legislators can't make clear, consistent immigration policies, such as our neighbor to the North has? The issue has been totally polarized - Trump great (in the eyes of his supporters, for keeping "them" out), Democrats bad (in the eyes of Trump supporters) for "open borders" - let "them" all in.
2
Neither Donald Trump nor his enabling Republican allies care what happens to the children separated from their parents. They do not regard them as human beings and they treat them accordingly.
Since they suffer no consequences from their ill-informed and equally prejudiced 'base' on their inhumane actions, Trump and his lackeys feel free to indulge themselves in a racially-based policy of cruelty and contempt.
As litigation on this policy works its way through our over-burdened court system, it is my profound hope that Donald Trump and his administration will eventually be held to account for their appalling abuse.
That will do nothing, however, to heal the emotional scars nor dry the tears of the children who are suffering now. We should all be ashamed of what America has come to be.
31
@Jimbo Perfectly said and I pray that Trump is taken down. He is totally inhumane and disgusting.
10
There are many sides to this. One holds that anyone who wants to come to the US should be allowed to do so, period. This position is often supported by Emma Lazarus's poem about the tired , the poor etc. But it is not supported by our immigration policy at that time, which the poem sought to show in a better light. In fact, you could not sneak into the mainland from Ellis Island unless you were a great swimmer. You were processed, and if ill or under -funded or without sponsors here, back you went on the next boat. You were detained until then. Period.
Then we have Americans who beleive we should honor our laws regarding who she be granted amnesty, and how we should treat those applying. This group does not believe that if you do not qualify for amnesty you should be allowed to stay anyway. The problem emerged when people were invited to wait here for their hearings. Hundreds upon hundreds of thousands took that as an open invitation to sneak in and avoid ever showing up for their hearings because they would not qualify for entry under our laws.
Enter detention before the hearing. Then unaccompanied minors began arriving in large numbers and were detained in adult facilities. Then came the litigation lasting 9 years, seeking to remove the minors from adult detention for their own protection. Flores v Reno under Clinto's administration. Then came the families in great numbers and Obama could not comply with the separation law because he didn't have the facilities in place.
16
@Oxford96
And we continue to not comply with law because the law requires us to treat these children far better than we are! It is a national disgrace.
5
@John
John, I have been under the impression that under this administration every effort by Progressives has been made to make the cost too high and the numbers too great for us to be able to afford the standards the 9th circuit has imposed. The administration has built country clubs for these kids, literally, as court -required. Far better than any poor citizen child has. Yet the cost is astonomical and the Progressives gloat at their victory which is to force Trump to stop detaining nearly al aliens who wait for asylum. In other words, forget having any true border security at all. The Progressie sees this as a victory-- as if they were a foreign nation.
4
@John I don't know which law you are referring to that we do not comply with or fully understand your point.
2
This is so simple, if migrants do not attempt to enter illegally, and also do not abuse asylum laws, which are intended for persecuted minorities, then there would be no separation.
It takes both sides to cause a separation. 1. the action of the migrants themselves and 2. the response by the Feds.
It is too easy and intellectually dishonest to only blame the Feds.
71
@Philly "abuse asylum laws"??
According to international law, it is anyone's right to apply for asylum. That means they are entitled to have their case judged on the facts. If their situation does not merit asylum, the country may then deny it to them. But to arbitrarily say that some people "abuse the laws" and should not be allowed to even apply is not due process. If we are to be a country of laws, you can't apply only the laws you like.
83
@Philly
@Philly
It seems too easy and intellectually dishonest to claim that It seems too easy and intellectually dishonest for @philly to claim that "it is too easy and intellectually dishonest to ONLY (my caps) blame the feds."
I've never heard any reasonable person criticizing our border policy claim that it is ONLY the feds' fault. This is similar to the Republicans claiming that because liberals object to the treatment of aliens or don't want to waste money on an ineffectual wall that they want open borders.
It is a complicated issue, but the abuses cited in the article rationally described some of the abuses (the tip of the iceberg of the abuses). Nobody can solve this problem easily, but it is totally justified to point out the problems of a policy that is counter to most all of the rules of human rights, a stonewalling and purposeful refusal to reply to legal attempts at gaining information, reuniting families, and is downright cruel. These abuses aren't something that reuniting in a few weeks or months will solve. These children will be psychologically scarred for life.
9
@Patrik Jonsson
Application for amnesty does not require presence within our borders.
5
For most of us, stripping away family and family roles equates to stripping away humanity. We are treating migrants as less than full persons..
“Images of crying mothers and children at the border last year prompted an intense backlash across party lines, with all four living former first ladies and Melania Trump expressing horror at the policy. But despite President Trump’s June 20 executive order rescinding it, the practice was never completely suspended.” — Jordan and Dickerson
13
@Joseph F. Panzica
Of course it was not. Why should it have been? Some detentions are necessary. We don't let criminal families go free, or traffickers or smugglers or gang members.
The policy that is such a horror is not Trump's but Clinton's. It was the law and Trump was complying as did Obama despite the nonsense in this article. Obama even attempted through ICE policies to deter immigraion, but the 9thCircuit put an end to that. He had kids in "cages" because he could not house them either when so many families arrived all at once. today we have fake families coming; they bring along someone's kid, claim it as their own, and use this as the excuse to get in. These people are now released into the country without any hearing for which they do no tshow up. Does this not trouble you at all?
6
The migrants are complicit in creating this situation. ``The woman said she had given birth less than a week earlier and had been separated from her baby...... who was a United States citizen.'' Isn't there something wrong here, beyond the separation?
``After his father was deported to Guatemala, the boy's parents decided that the child should remain in the United States...'' So the boy's parents agree to be separated from him?
It is not difficult to imagine that the sheer number of asylum seekers is overwhelming the CBP. Blaming Trump alone will get us nowhere. Discouraging these parents from making the trip and closing loopholes in our asylum policy have to also go hand in hand.
9
@Malone
Blaming Trump alone will get us nowhere? Doesn't that depend 100% on where we want to get? We want to get him unseated because his agenda is not the one the Progessives prefer and 4 years is too long to wait. This kind of negative propaganda piled onto all the othre negative propaganda, combined with an intentional omission of reporting on what a great president he has been, might just get the Left somewhere: I am guessing to a socialist progressive land in which they control speech, education, statues, Israel destruction, and distribution of assets. Who'se in?
1
The mental and physical harm that this administration is inflicting on these people will be the breeding ground for future terrorist attacks on our children. This is not right. This is against all what America stands for.
4
Hundreds of thousands of people per year either cross our southern border illegally or arrive to claim asylum (over 80 percent are deemed ineligible)
We have nowhere near the facilities to accommodate this madness
Yet all the NYT does is criticise the US for not providing enough healthcare, not handling every situation correctly, slow walking asylum seekers at ports of entry, etc.
9
@Luciano
Next, the NYT will be starting a series of "outraged" articles about the cruelty of separating families when a parent goes to jail for theft and the family is separated ... or when the child is forced to attend school and must be separated from their parents.
1
Very sorry to hear this. I pity the children who have done nothing but be born.
Separating children from parents IS America at its core. As an African American/Black American this is our history, hundreds of years of rape, slavery, and torture.
Writer, it was also our policy in regard to Native American groups. We separated children from parents to send them off to schools most often run by religious orders where they were forbidden to speak their native language or practice their native religion. That policy was still prevalent as late as the 50’s and 60’s. It destroyed the natural family ties of those effected and is still felt by many of the current generation of elders.
@writer
Oh, give it a rest will ya?
This is not our present, and plenty of good men have died to make appropriate changes. As for American slavery, the whole world condoned slavery and 9 Islamic nations still have it. Indeed, it has been suggested that Islam held more slaves than America ever did. And their slaves were always of a different race.
2
I thought criminals were supposed to be arrested.
3
In December, a mother traveling from El Salvador with her three children was arrested and put on a bus to an immigration detention facility in Arizona while her children, ages 5, 8 and 15, were sent to foster care in New York.
The woman, Deisy Ramirez, 38, said it was nearly six weeks before she talked to her children.
We are supposed to feel sorry for this criminal? If she did not illegally invade our country she would still be with her kids.
5
They must rerember thes when all the people from Latin America ( read Florida ) goes to cast the vote their favorite GOP candidate Mr Trump
This is child abuse....perpetrated by the parents, dragging their children across multiple countries in order to break into foreign country illegally. Instead of detention, however, the parents should be immediately deported back to their home country, together with their children. The American citizenry can’t afford the financial burden of housing these people. Enough already! Deport...
8
@Shenoa
One Americda News (OAN) nightly runs the number clock on the costs. Who benefits?
1
The article contends that "all four living former first ladies and Melania Trump express(ed)horror at the policy."
Oh really? It seems to me that Melania's jacket clearly stated otherwise.
1
Beyond deplorable, this administration is despicable.
The policy of separating children from their parents was birthed by Jeff Sessions. It was devised to send a message to those parents that were fleeing violence that their children would be removed from them destined to be lost in a bureaucratic red tape. Trump was enticed by this policy. After all this was brown children we were talking about and would have great appeal to the White Nationalist that follow him on mass. It appealed to every mean bone in his body. Even when the courts give him basically a cease and desist order, he gleefully continues on.
3
A wall would eliminate this chaos
6
The cruelty and inhumanity of the Trump Administration’s anti immigrant policy continues
seemingly unabated. What else should we expect?
The policy reflects the character and demagoguery of the President himself. How long will the Republican Party and his base continue to support and to enable such loathsome actions?
It is just so deeply troubling and inconsistent with the best American ideals.
1
The human tragedy is appalling. The Trump Administration is guilty of severely damaging the Mental Health of thousands of children and parents. I am a survivor of domestic violence and although the events I experienced happened over 6 yrs ago, I still have some severe repercussions even though I have participated in DBT therapy. I hope the homeland security and ICE get sued by a organization like the ACLU.
The NYT needs to do an expose of the for profits that are making $millions off this tragedy by providing detention facilities.
@Betsy Ross
Yes, follow the money. But as for separation for over 2 decades it was the law . Without detention, we have no policy whatsover which is the Progressive goal. Is it yours? Wide open borders forever?
3
At the time of the Kennedy assassination, a cartoon depicted a crying Lincoln monument statue. Perhaps in this instance the crying statue should be Lady Liberty.
I am ashamed of my nation and its inhumanity. This policy disrespects those who fought and died for the principles for which we stood.
@Brian Barrett
One of theose principles was national security, which the wide open border sought by Progressives does not supply, and works directly against.
1
@Oxford96Nobody is looking for "wide open" borders, only border rules that respect those legally seeking asylum in accordance with established international norms.
Morally and ethically corrupt actions. What are they doing to my country?
@njn_Eagle_Scout
You wrote in the present tense. Are you actually unaware of the moral and ethical corrutpoin of the preceding administration and the IRS, DOJ, FBI, CIA, etc. Even with respect to illega; immigration, Obama sought by his policies to deter it according to the 9th Circuit in Flores v Lynch.
1
i think they should close the border till such time the congress develops a plan to deal with the economic migrants. The US government should also consider making a felony to hire undocumented workers.
6
95 percent of the NYT articles on this issue are about the 'plight' of the migrants, their mistreatment, etc.
Where is the other side?
7
It's kidnapping and a gross violation of human rights. Whatever else one may say about this situation -- regardless vof anything one may have to say about an undocumented border crossing -- prosecute everyone involved in seizing this child.
1
How can it be that the most flagrantly rule-breaking president in history is allowed to demand perfect compliance with gratuitous laws he makes up for others?
@Caroline
Would you care to document your charge by listing the rules you believe are broken? Did you mean laws?Which ones? If meant "rules" to what are you referring?
1
The current wholesale lack of compliance with the legislative and judicial federal branches by the Trump executive branch reminds me of the squalid reign of Yeltsin and the constitutional crises that went unchecked then. It is as if every humiliating failure of post-Soviet Russia is being reenacted in the US for Putin's pleasure. We are now his dancing clowns as his iron grip over the EU becomes stronger by the hour.
@Alex
Could you be specific? Compliance with which law specifically? Which Federal Branch? Help us to understand.
1
Stop allowing anyone with children. We don’t have centers at the border stocked to the gills with child psychiatrists, child therapists, pediatricians, nurses, diapers, formula, toys, books, schoolbooks for tens of thousands of babies and children coming through. Also, has anyone done a study on the effects of millions of non-English speaking children on the US educational system. English is not the first language 30% of kids in CA and the schools are suffering. Same in many nyc and Texas schools. We have to focus on the needs of our own children and failing education system.
6
So what are the rules?
Someone is convicted of a crime and gets deported is not allowed to come back into the country unless he brings along a child? I do t think so. Like a child will make a difference?
Someone else gets jailed for whatever reason and doesn't get out until bail is posted and while in jail is separated from a child - and that is ok for everyone in the US (because that happens) but not an illegal immigrant?
Why is anyone including these pathetic examples as somehow being unfair or unjust?
6
Why do none of these migrants request asylum in Mexico if they are in fear of retribution in their home country?
9
tragically many of us democrats who loathe trump, loathe child separations, & are pro DACA are also enraged by folks who think it is fine to just walk across the border — especially with 3-4 kids and another on the way. We need a rational and fair immigration policy. “give us your tired, and poor, and hungry yearning to breathe free”was emphasis on breathe free — political freedom— and before medicaid, SSI, WIC, and a panoply of social supports. I support those safety nets-for US citiizens and lawful immigrants. A marshall plan for central america, but totally open borders: no.
6
"Customs and Border Protection officials say the separations are legal under the parameters set by the court ..." OK fine, cite the case so we can read it ourselves.
If it is true that Obama only occasionally separated families, as this piece says, he was in violation of the law. Will the Progressives call him "an Emperor" for taking the law into his own hands?
Under Flores v Reno in 1996, it was Leftist groups seeking to protect migrant children who demanded separation from adult detention facilities. This settlement happened under the Clinton Administration. It gave the administration only 72 hours, then five days, to protect those minors by getting them away from adults ASAP. In 2016 the courts revisited the issue in Flores v Lynch. That was when Obama was unable to comply with the law because the system was overwhelmed by families coming from Honduras and Nicaragua and El Salvador. He had to house them in what the press later referred to as "cages" in order to comply with the 9th circuit's insistence on separation of minors from adult facilities. Tell us the name of the latest case so we can read it for ourselves, because it is all about the court decisions.
1
The US needs to be charged by the appropriate human rights abuses governing body on the world stage. Sanctions may possibly be the order of the day until the US stops it’s human rights abuses. Or whatever appropriate action needs to be taken. This can’t go on.
1
As long as everyone refuses to see this issue in terms other than black or white the situation will grow worse on both sides. One side wants to solve the problem by allowing all immigrants in no questions asked... the other side wants to solve the problem by imprisoning anyone who steps foot across our border. We need to stop people from abusing our system, but that doesn't mean we are allowed to abuse the abusers.
We can't continue to tolerate lax borders and asylum practices, we can't continue to allow illegal immigration, pregnant women with lots of children, and economic or medical migrants.
But that doesn't mean that the solution is to turn to immoral, inhumane tactics to address these problems.
There are legal, ethical ways to address immigration problems. E-verify is one. Look to what other advanced nations do. For example, they track and deport people immediately if they overstay a visa. They don't employ illegal workers. They control their borders, they don't give benefits to non-citizens...
3
@Misplaced Modifier
So what is your conclusion on why we do not use e Verify to control immigration? It is available in every state. Has not one state dared to make it mandatory? Ever wonder why?
1
If a man or a woman flies into a US airport with a minor and no documentation they have the same choice: either turn around and go back or the child gets separated in case of human trafficking or kidnapping. How do we even know that the other parent gave consent? There have been cases of mothers, fathers, and even grandmothers taking a child without consent.
I think there should be a zero tolerance for bring kids illegally over and all should be immediately deported. The journey is treacherous, the logistics making sure there are medical facilities and appropriate housing during intake to investigate parents is impossible. Then once they are here they are an incredible burden on the education system which has falling scores in math and language and has to divert so much for English language learners. Look at California schools.
6
Blaming the asylum seekers for the situation at the border is wrong. Separating families is wrong both legally and morally. Nobody knows the plight of another human being unless they walk in their shoes. I am disheartened by many of the comments here; they don't reflect the America I know, what I was taught. I suggest reading some history books. We weren't suddenly all English speaking citizens. Closing our border will change who we are. We are a light to many who seek freedom, a safe harbor from places of persecution. Remember where we came from, that's all I ask.
I find it ironic that it’s the “family values” party that is continuing to separate families without having in place an effective tracking system to reunite them.
The Democratic Party supports open borders. Anyone who arrives on American soil should be allowed to stay indefinitely with free medical care and education for themselves and their children. Since Trump is not a dictator and has to follow the law, he is unable to stop the flow of legal and illegal immigrants into the United States. Last year, more people applied for citizenship in the United States than in any year in history. The country is full. This is an environmental issue. All immigration, regardless of race or origin, should be ended. Latin Americans fleeing Central America should be applying for asylum in Mexico. With America's population of 330 million people, why would anyone support bringing more people into the country?
5
Problems caused initially by American interference with corrupt governments. American greed is at the heart of much of the worlds problems, not all, but most.
Does anyone remember when US used to be a nation of laws, and justice--instead of a nation of bigotry, and in the case of taking parents away from children, downright evil?
Parents taken away from 200+ chidren!--and yet no one has gone to jail for this crime against humanity.
Someone's guilty of contempt of court. Put them in prison.
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@Sherry
How do you know? What did the court hold? Citation? Or propaganda?
3
Why do we believe anything this criminal administration tells us?
43
@James W. Luzzi An why do you believe everything illegal migrants tell you? When traffickers clearly tell them that they can work their asylum scam easier if they have a child with them. Any child will do. People that walk over the border with NO ID and no proof that a child is theirs should automatically be believed?
3
Close our borders already! I can't afford to pay for all of these immigrants.
Time to change our asylum laws and close loopholes.
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@NYC Dweller really? How about some data?
1
Obviously at this scandalous juncture, rules to show cause should be issued by the supervisory federal district court, to the heads of all involved agencies including the obfuscating Nielsen at D.H.S., as to why they should not be held in contempt of that court's issued orders. The dire situations for these immigrant families with children are out of control due to the negligence, malfeasance, or actual defiance by immigration officials in executing those judicial orders. Heads need to roll!
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@John Grillo
Which judicial orders? What do they say specifically?
1
@John Grillo
Have you read ANY of the court cases?
When the reporters consistently fail to cite to the cases they interpret, are you not just a tad curious to see if their interpretation is accurate? Legal cases are written in plain English. Why is the public not reading them? Because the paper writes like this: "The New York Times reviewed several cases of children who have been separated since the policy was officially ended,..." I am not paying this reporter for her interpretation of the laws. What is she hiding?
2
The United States, and its citizens, are complicit in the construction of Concentration Camps. They are called 'internment camps' or 'dentention camps', but in function and design, these places are Concentration Camps.
When this country has the courage to discuss the reality of our detention policy, we may also finnd the courage to fully discuss the implications of separating children from their families based on their ethnicity and skin color.
A few days ago the administration attempted to tell the world there was hard data on the number of "illegals" crossing the southern border. If this administration has no idea how many children have been ripped away from their families, how do we believe they have any idea on the number of people detained at the border?
Does no one else hear Anne Frank crying?
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@LaVerne Wheeler Once we get rid of Trump we can open the borders freely and offer support, healthcare and education to all Mexicans and Central Americans. Their own governments, although wealthy, won't do it.
3
@as
The people posting here are mainly well-meaning if misguided and under-informed.
But the leaders of the Progressive movements are out to fundamentally change our country, and the first step is to criticize every single aspect of Trump's presidency, twist all accomplishments into failures, and unseat him by any means possible, ensuring that the experience of being a conservative president is so unpleasant and dangerous for all associated with the presidency that no one of talent will ever run again. How are they doing?
1
Can this issue with continuing child separations also be brought to the attention of the Hague’s International Criminal Court as a human rights violation? My internet search finds that extrajudicial punishment, unjust imprisonments, kidnapping, torture, and dehumanization fall under crimes against humanity.
A two prong approach of using our local and the international courts to apply more pressure. Even if the WH couldn’t care less about the Hague the extra attention can be persuasive.
The U.S.A can and should do much better.
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I think this is an excellent idea.
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@Peter You do know that separations are not designed to separate families but to protect children from abuse while detained right? Flores v Lynch 1996--Bill Clinton's policy. Where are you coming up with your references to imprisonments when in fact separation policy was designed to protect children from abuse while detained?
You do know that sex traffickers are bringing in children with adults who are not part of their families and that women and girls are raped along the way in very large numbers, right? What will be the goal of applying pressure? Endless unvetted immigrants forever? Is that your idea of desirable?
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@Maxi
Do you now? You want our laws interfered with by an international court whose interest is in getting as many immigrants legal or otherwise, into the US and Europe?
Don't you ever wonder why the House of Reps is not investigating this? Could it be because no law are being broken and the Progrssives are already conducting two witch hunts?
3
I guess the Trump administration has found another, sneakier way to separate families. If this administration wanted to stop people trying to seek asylum or cross the border illegally they would publicize it far more than they do. And then they would take some of the money they are wasting on all of this and spend it on helping the countries these people are fleeing. All this is proving is how cruel and arbitrary our policies are.
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@hen3ry
My dear writer, "they would publicize it more than they do" is the most amazing thing I have read in a newspaper in a very long time. If you confine your reading to newspapers that don't report what the President publicizes, then criticize the president for not publicizing it, you may be looking in the wrong places. They are not wasting money on this; we have laws; we are a nation of laws and they have been trying to control who enters our country. You have an issue with this?
1
@Oxford96 I meant that they would publicize it in those countries far more. Clearly they aren't or they aren't using the right language. I have an issue with our country's interference in other peoples governments just as I have an issue if the Russians interfered with our elections in 2016. Cold war or not we shouldn't have ever interfered in Central or South America. We are paying the price now.
Children are separated from their parents any time the justice system sends a parent to prison. If they didn't, there would be complaints about innocent children having to live in a prison environment.
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When people go to prison here most of the time children are taken in by family members so they have a sense of belonging, get it.
If the children of parents who go to prison here , were treated the way these kids are treated by ICE then there would be just as big an outcry or more about the why we treat children ,our future generation. Do you get it.
Just picture yourself at a very young age and someone pulls you away from your parents and puts you in a place where you don’t know any. How would you feel. Do you get it?
If you have kids how would you feel if someone grabbed them. Do you get it.
You are using a false equivalency.
If you say you are a Christian, just imagine if God comes to earth tomorrow. I don’t think he would say this is a Christian thing to do. Do you get it?
I think I have said enough.
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@Sue
And your preferred solution is........???
How about immediately ending them back to where they came from with their parents? When people came to Ellis Island and denied admission to the country, the whole family immediately went back on the same boat that brought them.
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@RM. Except the children of felons are not whisked away from their parents and taken to distant unknown places, placed in the care of total strangers and not allowed to speak to their parents for months. If that was how we treated the children of felons, yes there would be a large public outcry.
Your argument has been used over and over again and is just as disingenuous now as it was the first time it was uttered. Let's be clear about what our government is doing to these families: it is cruel and inexcusable.
36
It makes me sick that my government willfully commits child abuse.
Separating a newborn infant from her mother is the height of hypocrisy from the leader of the Republican Party who supposedly values life and family only up to the point of birth.
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@Jane K
Are you against the law your own people litigated to put in place?
“C.B.P. does not declare that a parent poses danger to a child arbitrarily or without merit,” the agency said in a statement. It said agents “will maintain family unity to the greatest extent operationally feasible,” separating children only in the presence of “a legal requirement” set out in written policy or “an articulable safety or security concern that requires separation.”
But opposition to the new separations has been growing from both outside and inside the federal government. That's opposition to the law of the land. Generally what we do in such cases is change the law.
1
Jail him, Donald J. Trump, for contempt of court. No man, or Trump, above the law. Release him after every child is returned to their family.
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@Sean Cairne And you know the law? Cite it. What does it say?
"In Congress last week, Democrats grilled Kirstjen Nielsen, the Homeland Security secretary, over the separation policy, citing research that has found that separations from parents can inflict long-term psychological harm on children." That's a laugh. The separation policy was put in place because of studies that showed that children were being abused in adult detention. Why not get educated? Here is how this began, under Bill Clinton's administration:
https://youthlaw.org/wp-content/uploads/1997/05/9th-Circuit-opinion-1.pdf
The more actual facts we know, the better it is for the country.
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No judge or court in this country is going to tell Trump what to do. There are no laws for the Trump family. But lies, bullying and narcissism are in, and the rule of Trump presides. There is no way this president is going to stop separating children from their parents. He is convinced that that is the only way to dissuade migrants from coming to our country. Like the wall, he is wrong. But as usual, he could care less. Trump is getting a lot of bad press from this action, but again Fox supports the separations and so he continues. Cruelty is a Trump specialty. Let the separations continue.
20
“A 9-year-old Guatemalan boy named Byron Xol has been shuffled among four shelters since he was dragged away from his father at the border nine months ago, while the policy was still in place.
After his father was deported to Guatemala, the boy’s parents decided that the child should remain in the United States for safety reasons. With the help of a lawyer, they designated an American family in Buda, Tex., to care for him.”
We can infer from the information provided that the mother remained behind in Guatemala, probably with other children. Thus, the family voluntarily separated when the father brought one child to the US border, expecting to be released with his son. If the situation is so unsafe but the family couldn’t afford the smugglers’ fees to get everyone to the US border, then why didn’t they use the money to get to Mexico, which has generously offered work permits and a path to residency? While northern Mexico is controlled N.Y. the cartels, southern Mexico has violent crime rates lower than many US cities and certainly much lower than Guatemala. The fact that the family decided to leave the boy in the US indicates that they feel he has a better future here and they may be hoping to join him if he can secure asylee status. Until we dramatically change our approach to dealing with Central American migrants, families will continue to be separated as some members head to the US for a better life while leaving others behind.
33
We are not talking about families being separated as in part of the family came here and part stayed home. Instead, we are talking about young children being pulled from a parent or relative and dumped in a cage. Nice try
3
Be honest: Central Americans are coming here in droves with their children to take advantage of a loophole in our immigration policy. The tines in one story says the crackdown has slowed illegal immigration, then says it is breaking records. It is indeed breaking records in the number of families, and that is indeed an emergency. The Trump Administration does need to keep track of every child and whenever possible and send the children back with the parents.
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Kidnapping. Most folks would probably go to Prison, for THAT.
Period.
30
Half the country is believing Fox News. Just yesterday Fox reported on the amount of kids that were recently united with their parents. Fake news is lulling our country into doing nothing. With the President cheering them on people believe the propaganda machine.
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To be clear, Trump rescinded Obama’s policy.
What ever happened to the 80+ thousand kids separated under Obama and why do you not care?
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@Ken the article said that the number under Obama was much lower and only done for protection of the child. Your "80,000" number is Fox News-fueled distortion and lie of the truth. Basing policy on a lie to justify inhumane actions is reprehensible.
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@cfarris5 Fox is not wht you make it out to be. It is an accredited news agency. You ahve NO basis for claiming it was a lie. except your own very prejudiced beliefs. That in fact is slanderous, to accuse like that.
1
Obviously those in charge have never taken the most meager child psychology course. That includes the US president, not that he would care.
20
@MIMA This is not about taking a psychology course. This is about our immigration policies and the fact that these problems have been going on for decades. First it was men, now it's parents with their children. They are running from persecution or poverty or both. Part of our foreign policies in Central and South America was interference with their governments, particularly during the Cold War. That left the region scarred and we haven't done much to help.
If we'd stayed out of their politics a good number of these people would not feel that they must leave their country to survive. We are reaping the "rewards" of our ill considered interference in these countries.
11
Of course. It’s unbelievable to me the savage approach this administration takes. I’m a nurse. “Do no harm” is our creed, yet the atrocious demeanor and policy this president and administration takes is indeed deplorable.
3
This is a horrible situation for these children and their parents - undoubtedly. And I understand why so many people respond so emotionally and without reason to the heartbreak and suffering. But the fact is that the border is overwhelmed with people illegally entering this country. These people require so many services, so much administration - no government is prepared to safely, humanely and adequately address this influx of people who are essentially breaking the law and risking their children's safety. For all the emotional content of people's horror at this situation - I've yet to see any comprehensive ideas about what should be done and how and how quickly in the real world these facilities and monitoring and tracking and assessing can be accomplished. I despise the GOP and Trump - but many of these same situations were going on with Obama - and I recall some very sharp comments from Hillary about the children - but all anyone wails about is Trump.
People aren't dealing with realities - they're just wailing with emotion. So what's to be done about it then? Maybe if they stop illegally entering the country for long enough, then the gov't could get its act together and organize better. Or should they just be released into the general population - all of them - for ever and ever? What's the solution exactly?
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@Kate Flannery - there are many potential solutions, and none involve separating children from parents. Also, you are short on facts about the situation at the border and what kind of public expense is entailed in managing asylum seeking families. The rate of people crossing the border ebbs and flows, and the number went up in February but it is far from historically high. Sure, I respond with emotion, but I've also done research, travelled to TX to volunteer. What have you done to learn and respond to this situation?
41
@Alison I read the paper daily, and I read conflicting information, seemingly whatever spin works. But the fact is, such record-breaking numbers of illegal immigrants at the border strains this government as it would any. I live in one of those states with high numbers of illegal immigrants and it is a problem. I would first pass the e-verify law across the board with tough penalites for those who violate it, and then engage in immigration reform so that people are not rewarded for bringing young and often ill children with them as passports to this country.
25
@Kate Flannery So what about providing more resources at the border and prioritizing sorting out valid claims? What about rooting out dishonest border patrol agents who lie about families to justify family separations? How about sitting down with Latin American leaders to coordinate economic policies that give economic refugees a better option at home. How about leaning on multinationals who hop around the globe seeking the cheapest laborer to make that sneaker? How about making environmental programs that prevent the degredation driving some of these families to move? How about dialing back the hysterical xenophobia being broadcast
22
Customs and Border Patrol were not appointed God.No one designated them the caretakers of children who arrive at our borders with family.Either families are eligible to ask for asylum as a group or should be turned away as a family unit.The United States does not separate families and carelessly lose children in the process..This is outrageous and must be remedied now-no more endless hearings with Kristen Nielsen!
24
If these individuals have the intellectual capacity to plan a journey thousands of miles long then they also have the ability to understand the risk to their children. I do not agree with the family separation policy but we have to stop infantilizing the mental abilities of the parents - who know what they are doing in dragging their children here. Primarily for economic reasons. Until there is some culpability attributed to the parents we will continue to have these sob stories. I would not try and enter any foreign country with my children given the unknowns. If these individuals can plan a thousands of miles trek to the United States, absent true reasons for asylum, they have to be seen as able to succeed in their countries of origin - or one more proximate in culture and distance than here.
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@Louise Than k you. It seems one reads these stories you h ave to think the people from Central America too feeble to be responsible for anything, but like you say, they plan these trips -- even raise upwards of $10K for smugglers. Anyone who can do that can find better uses of that money, such as job training.
29
@Louise. Often it is relatives working in the US who plan and fund the journeys of their kin seeking better lives. In many cases, the money is borrowed with the expectation that the migrant will repay the loan with US earnings. It is difficult even for industrious people to make a decent living in a country ruled by a corrupt government and overrun by gangs. Given the ugly history of US involvement in the region, we must tread very cautiously in attempting to improve the economies of the countries of origin of Central American migrants. We can provide opportunities for economic migrants by restructuring the H-2B temporary worker visa program. Canada’s model has generally been successful. Workers come for several months and then return home to their families with savings that stretch a long way in their native countries.
22
@Louise, I have worked with Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laotian refugees in Thailand and the US; and also with refugees from Ivory Coast in Ghana. Unless you have listened to their descriptions of life in their home countries, you cannot say that they are all merely economic migrants. And what is an economic migrant but someone from a place where there is no food because the corrupt officials steal food aid and sell it; or wars, including drug "wars" among the growers and drug middlemen, have destroyed the farmland. You cannot plant corn if people are shooting at you or you might step on a landmine. Please do not be so harsh in your condemnation of the people crossing the Rio Grande with their kids, hoping for asylum. You can't know, nor can the border patrol agents know, if they have clear reasons to seek asylum, or if they are economic migrants. Under the policies in place, they are not allowed to present themselves at a port of entry in order to claim asylum. They are just deported and their kids are taken. And if they came in from Guatemala, why are the kids sent to a detention facility in New York? None of it makes any sense, except as a form of punitive kidnapping. And why are you not annoyed by the thousands of people who fly in through the big international airports, and then overstay their tourist or student visas and drop off the ICE radar. Nobody takes their kids away. There are many more of this type of illegal entrant than people walking across Mexico.
4
In a democracy law enforcement agencies like Homeland Security (incl. ICE, Border Protection, etc.) can only succeed with the trust and consent of the law abiding citizen. As it becomes harder to respect or trust these agencies it will become much harder for them to recruit good people (there's already a shortage and many convictions for corruption), get public support for funding, or get public cooperation. Many of us are disgusted by these policies and this may well translate into disgust for the people working in these difficult job.
19
Bennie Thompson, the Chair of the Homeland Security Committee, should call Nielsen (DHS), McAleenan (CBP), and Vitiello (ICE) before the cameras and ask them point blank why they keep lying and breaking the law.
17
She was called before the Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday. Upon questioning, she could not explain the difference between the cages these people are being put into and a dog kennel. Several representatives discussed the distinction with her. You can see it on C SPAN. She lied or misrepresented the facts repeatedly.
15
Saw that. She was unbelievable. She doesn’t know what she is doing. She sold her soul Trump.
13
The traumatic, life-damaging, absolute cruelty of separating children from their families continues. The excuses are too thin to be believable.
The other day John Kelly said this zero tolerance policy came as a surprise to him and to other officials, blaming Jeff Sessions. He said about people crossing the border, “They’re overwhelmingly not criminals — they’re people coming up here for economic" reasons.
Kelly senses the negative history here and the stain that will be left on those who participate or tolerate mistreating children by the thousands. Japanese internment camps, Nazi's separation of children from their families, and other past misdeeds against indigenous people including forced boarding schools, attempts to persecute different religions, or racial or ethnic groups which near genocide or other historic atrocities cannot be defended.
Nielsen should resign. If she is being forced to do this against her conscience, then she should act honorably and leave. Her follow up should be testimony about where this policy came from and complete cooperation in finding lost children and reuniting them with families.
This is on Trump; it is on Republicans; and it will live in infamy. Harming children is one of the worst crimes that can be committed.
157
Harming innocent children is evil. Thanks to the Times for its thorough coverage. Its reporting will help to ensure that those responsible for this ongoing travesty will be held accountable.
6
@Barbara
Did you say that under Clinton? He's responsible. Do you say it now? Let's hear it: Bill Clinton and Janet Reno initiated the separation policy. Say it.
2
@SMB
I am sorry, but economic reasons are not reasons that gain one asylum for the simple reason that we cannot taken all the people in the world that are poorer than we as our enemies would love to see us attempt.
4
K. Nielsen's piecemeal, whatever-will-pass management of this issue is typical of every agency being managed by political appointees. Human trafficking is real. Returning children to relatives is also something within the capability of the agency. And let's not forget that all parents are not blood relatives. Blended families are not uncommon. The Administration has "lost track" of how many children, who have a high likelihood of having been trafficked because they are "lost." This is a highly reactive, arbitrary and very incompetent agency.
40
A friend was planning coming to the U.S., illegally. At the last minute he changed his mind. He couldn’t stand the idea of being away from his two kids.
Parents who come illegally, knowing they wouldn’t be able to return to their native countries for many years, if ever, are selfish and irresponsible thinking that sending money will replace parental nurturing.
And those who bring babies and todlers through the desert, are even worse. They deserve jail.
They want to come for a better life? Get in line, legally, like I did. And then they would love this country and contribute to society
69
@Common Sense Guy Most of these people DO get in line, legally: they ask for asylum, as is their legal right.
59
@Common Sense Guy what line? There is no line.
16
@Patrik Jonsson That's not the way to do it! you apply at an embassy before illegally entering.
AFTER you get an ok, with papers, THEN you enter! anything else is pure risk! because only about 10 percent of them ever get ok'd. The rest are treated like the criminals they are, who applied with FAKE asylum claims after entering illegally. AND THEY DEFINITELY KNOW THAT GAME. That is the only reason they bring someone's kid, because they know it helps their case.
1
Trump Republicans have worked hard to dehumanize and criminalize Hispanic immigrants to the point where many Americans find long term immigrant family separation camps acceptable and necessary. There is no better example of antiSemitic-like actions in present day America.
39
The Trump administration has never had a policy of separating families or migrant children from their parents. In 2015, Judge Dolly Gee off the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that accompanied children apprehended along with their parents at the border must be treated the same as unaccompanied children apprehended at the border. Migrant children cannot be held in custody with their parents, but must be released to centers operated by the Department of Health and Human Resources.
The “child separation policy” is not a Trump administration policy; it is Judge Gee’s policy. Her ruling is the reason—the only reason—migrant children are separated from their parents. The Obama administration appealed Judge Gee’s ruling without success. The Trump administration would prefer to hold migrant children in custody with their parents but must comply with Judge Gee’s order.
You can read the New York Times report on Judge Gee’ ruling at: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/26/us/detained-immigrant-children-judge-dolly-gee-ruling.html
33
@William Case - Judge Gee was ordering mothers and children released together, ruling against the Florence agreement that separated them in the first place.From your linked article: "Judge Gee concluded that if the mother was also detained, Homeland Security officials should release her with the child, as long as she did not present a flight or security risk. She gave the administration one week to devise a plan to release children and mothers “without unnecessary delay.”
15
@Jrb
The Obama administration appealed Judge Gee's ruling. The appellate court ruled she erred in requiring Homeland Security had to release parents along with their children, but agreed the children must be rereleased to Health and Human Services centers. So only the portion of her ruling require the children be related is in effect.
The Obama administration did release most parents with their children, but this triggered a tidal way of parents crossing the border illegal with their children, so the Trump administration began holding the parents in custody. It complies with Judge Gee's order to send the children to the centers.
13
@William Case,
Perhaps it might be helpful if you could explain 'The Zero-Tolerance Policy', when Sessions was on board, and whether it is a fair and just explanation for separating children from their family.
9
"Write a comment," it says at the end of this story. No comment can ever be made to sum up the horrors of this situation.
79
Trump and his Dept Of Homeland Security simply ignore the court decisions and the law. They just do whatever Stephen Miller thinks Trump voters want.
33
If the DNA doesn’t match then separation is highly prudent for smuggling and human trafficking of minors.
34
@Charlie Yes, they used to release kids to anyone picking them up claiming to be a parent or relative. it resulted in traffickers getting them. During the previous administration.
3