family
separation
-Mobile
FREE NEWS LINKS
HOME
SEARCH
Updates & changes ongoing ....
---- Although this site is https-secure, we cannot guarantee that it or any
provided links are safe; be sure your antivirus and other security systems are
up to date.
Also see: Democrats; Family reunification; immigration;
Republicans;
Jump to:
2014; 2016; 2017;
2018; 2019;
2020;
Undated:
The Trump administration family separation
policy is an aspect of
U.S. President Donald Trump's immigration policy. The policy was presented
to the public as a "zero
tolerance" approach intended to deter illegal immigration and to encourage
tougher legislation.[1][2][3][4]
It was adopted across the whole
U.S.–Mexico border from April 2018 until June 2018,[5][6][7]
however later investigations found that the practice of family separations had
begun a year previous to the public announcement.[8]
Under the policy, federal authorities separated children from parents or
guardians with whom they had entered the US.[6][9][10]
The adults were prosecuted and held in federal jails, and the children placed
under the supervision of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.[6]
By early June 2018, it emerged that the
policy did not include measures to reunite the families that it had separated.[11][12]
Following national and international criticism,[13][14][15][16][17][18]
on June 20, 2018, President Trump signed an
executive order ending family separations at the border.[7]
However in March 2019, a government report showed that since that time 245
children had been removed from their families, in some cases without clear
documentation undertaken to track them in order to reunite them with their
parents.[19]
On July 26, 2018, the Trump administration said that 1,442 children had been
reunited with their parents while 711 remained in government shelters.[20]
However, in January 2019 the administration acknowledged that thousands of
children affected by the policy remained separated from their families, with
officials uncertain of the exact number.[21][22]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_administration_family_separation_policy
Undated: ... people
who cross into the United States through the Arizona desert or the Rio Grande
violate federal criminal law because of their failure to go through immigration
inspections. However, unless they were previously removed or deported from the
United States, they are likely subject only to petty offense charges that carry
a maximum potential penalty of six months incarceration—charges which definitely
are not felony charges.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwj0zv6TyuDbAhWTIDQIHWFfDYsQFggnMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fscholarship.law.upenn.edu%2Fcgi%2Fviewcontent.cgi%3Farticle%3D1131%26context%3Dpenn_law_review_online&usg=AOvVaw1Mu-etEhGa2KdGzTNXgWUA&httpsredir=1&article=1131&context=penn_law_review_online
[A parking ticket is a petty offense. We do
not take children away from parents for a petty offense.]
-- 2014 --
June: Immigration by children to the United
States is nothing new. The Children and Family Justice Center’s immigration
practice has been representing children in immigration court proceedings for
more than ten years.
So, what’s new about this issue and why was it front and center in the news this
summer? Why did President Obama, for example, describe the situation at the
border as "an urgent humanitarian crisis?" Why did we see pictures of thousands
of children sleeping on the floor at military bases? Where are these children
from and why are they coming to the United States? Finally, what has happened to
the children and did the President’s recent executive actions grant them relief?
http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/cfjc/documents/CFJC%20Newsletter%20Article%20final.pdf
June 23: As children and teens played soccer
Monday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas Attorney General
Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen.
Ted Cruz blasted the Obama administration, saying its lax immigration policy
has led to the conditions they saw while touring a holding facility for
unaccompanied immigrant minors at the base.
The children are being temporarily housed at Lackland and facilities in other
states to alleviate crowded conditions at federal holding sites on the border.
Cruz said 145,000 unaccompanied minors, mainly from Central America, are
expected in the next year — most of whom say they are coming because they were
promised “ permisos” — what Cruz calls amnesty. “That is unacceptable,”
he said.
“The United States for decades has had in place standards for asylum and refugee
status. There are some of these children who are no doubt fleeing direct threats
of violence, who have a good case of persecution. ... But for those who were
induced to come here because they simply believed a permiso would be
granted, they believed that President Obama's amnesty would extend to them, we
should follow our laws and we should work to reunite them with their families
back home.”
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Abbott-Cruz-blast-Obama-during-tour-of-Lackland-5572821.php
July 9: ‘Flee or die’: violence drives
Central America’s child migrants to US border
Obama heads to Texas as the mirage of an open door on the southern border
triggers a political storm in Washington
Earlier this week, the White House
announced plans to introduce fast track deportations and $116m to pay for the
cost of transporting unaccompanied children back home, but activists in
Central America say that the political debate in the US is missing the point.
“All the talk is about the children in the US, but they are relatively well
off,” said Sister Lidia Mara Silva de Souza, a nun from the Scalabrini order
that has worked with deportees from the US for decades. “The ones who are the
most vulnerable are the ones who are returned to the situations they are running
from.”
The vast majority of the child migrants come from Honduras, El Salvador and
Guatemala – all struggling with levels of violence
tantamount to an undeclared regional war. Honduras has a murder rate of
around 90 per 100,000 inhabitants. The rate in Mexico hovers around 20. In the
US it is under five.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/09/central-america-child-migrants-us-border-crisis
July 9:
Is Illegal Immigration a Crime? Improper Entry v. Unlawful Presence
Both improper entry and unlawful presence should be avoided by any immigrant to
the United States, but an illegal alien cannot be criminally charged or
incarcerated simply for being undocumented. To learn more, check out FindLaw's
section on
Immigration Law.
https://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2014/07/is-illegal-immigration-a-crime-improper-entry-v-unlawful-presence.html
November 20:
President Obama Cites Exodus on
Immigration Reform: 'We Were Strangers Once Too'
His three-pronged plan:
1. "We’ll build on our progress at the border with additional resources for our
law enforcement personnel so that they can stem the flow of illegal crossings,
and speed the return of those who do cross over."
2. "I will make it easier and faster for high-skilled immigrants, graduates, and
entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to our economy, as so many business leaders
have proposed."
3. "We’ll take steps to deal responsibly with the millions of undocumented
immigrants who already live in our country."
https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2014/november/how-1000-protestant-pastors-feel-immigration-reform-lifeway.html
-- 2016 --
May:
United States Immigration Detention
The United States operates the world’s largest immigration detention system. On
any given day, the country has some 30,000 people in administrative immigration
detention at an estimated cost of nearly $150 a day. In 2016, the combined
budget of enforcement agencies was $19 billion. The country’s sprawling
detention estate counts on some 200 facilities, including privately operated
detention facilities, local jails, juvenile detention centres, field offices,
and euphemistically named “family residential centres.” The country has also
supported the detention of migrants and asylum seekers in neighbouring
countries.
Quick Facts:
Immigration detainees (2017): 323,591
Detained asylum seekers (2016): 44,270
Immigration detention capacity (2017):
44,000
Persons expelled (2016): 446,223
International migrants (2015):
46,627,100
New asylum applications (2017):
137,697
https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/countries/americas/united-states
June 20:
U.S. Detention and
Removal of Asylum Seekers:
An International Human Rights Law Analysis
In recent years, violence of “epidemic levels” has swept across the Northern
Triangle of Central America (Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala) and parts of
Mexico, driving many people to flee these countries and seek protection in the
United States and other countries in the region.1 The number of people
apprehended at the southwestern border—largely women and children fleeing for
their lives—increased sharply in 2014.2 The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR)3 has recognized that these asylum seekers are fleeing some of “the most
dangerous places on earth” and “present a clear need for international
protection.”4 Even U.S. immigration authorities have concluded that eighty-two
percent of the women arriving at the border from Northern Triangle countries and
Mexico in fiscal year 2015 had potential claims for protection.5
This paper details the U.S. obligation to treat these and other asylum seekers
in ways that comport with international human rights and refugee protection
commitments.
https://law.yale.edu/system/files/area/center/schell/human_rights_first_-_immigration_detention_-_final_-_20160620_for_publication.pdf
June 23: A short-handed and deeply divided
Supreme Court deadlocked Thursday on President Barack Obama’s immigration plan
to help millions living in the U.S. illegally, effectively killing the plan for
the rest of his presidency and raising the stakes even further for the November
elections.
On immigration, the tie is not likely to lead to an increase in deportations
since the president retains ample discretion to decide whom to deport. But the
ruling stymies his effort to bring people “out from the shadows” by giving them
the right to work legally in the U.S.
One of the Obama programs would have protected the parents of children who are
in the country legally. The other was an expansion of a program that benefits
people who were brought to the U.S. as children. Obama decided to move forward
on his own after Republicans won control of the Senate in 2014 and the chances
for an immigration overhaul, already remote, were further damaged.
Obama said Thursday’s impasse “takes us further from the country we aspire to
be.”
The candidates vying to replace him split as plainly as the justices.
https://apnews.com/22b44f178c984e549aac5dd4b6192fce
-- 2017 --
December 5:
The Deported
Immigrants Uprooted from the Country They Call Home
Every day, people who call the United States home—including mothers, fathers,
and spouses of US citizens; tax-paying employees; and respected community
members—are arrested, locked up, and placed in a deportation system that rarely
considers their deep and longstanding ties to the United States before summarily
removing them from the country. Under President Donald Trump, border-crossings
and thus deportations at the border are down, but immigration arrests and
deportations from the interior of the country have skyrocketed—showing the Trump
administration’s disregard for the rights of individuals who have built their
lives and families here.
https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/12/05/deported/immigrants-uprooted-country-they-call-home
December 21:
Trump Administration Considers Separating Families to Combat Illegal Immigration
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/21/us/trump-immigrant-families-separate.html
-- 2018 --
February 26: ACLU Challenges Trump
Administration Practice of Forcibly Separating Asylum-Seeking Parents and Young
Children
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit today seeking to
reunite an asylum-seeking mother and her 7-year-old daughter fleeing violence in
the Democratic Republic of Congo, only to be forcibly torn from each other in
the U.S. and detained separately 2,000 miles apart.
Reports arose in December that the Trump administration was considering a new
plan to separate border-crossing parents from their children as a way to scare
others from seeking refuge in the U.S.
https://www.aclu.org/news/aclu-challenges-trump-administration-practice-forcibly-separating-asylum-seeking-parents-and
March 1: The Migrant Workers Convention: A
Legal Tool to Safeguard Migrants Against Arbitrary Detention
https://www.globaldetentionproject.org/the-migrant-workers-convention-a-legal-tool-to-safeguard-migrants-against-arbitrary-detention
March 9: ACLU files class-action lawsuit on
ICE, DHS separating asylum-seeking families
http://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/377635-aclu-files-class-action-lawsuit-over-trump-admin-separating-asylum
April 7: What Happened When Bush, Obama Sent
Troops to Mexico Border
Since he launched his run for president, Donald Trump has said things about
immigrants and the U.S.-Mexico border that no other U.S. president has. But now
he's reached directly into his predecessors' playbook by sending in the National
Guard.
When former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama deployed the Guard to the
border in 2006 and 2010, they were pushing Congress to pass wide-ranging
overhauls of immigration policy. Both overhauls failed. A 2011 government review
estimated the Bush and Obama deployments cost at least $1.3 billion.
Trump is also trying to reshape immigration law. But Congress so far has funded
a fraction of the border wall he promised during his campaign, so the president
said this week he wants 2,000 to 4,000 Guard troops on the frontier until the
wall goes up. Trump called the deployments crucial to helping the U.S. Border
Patrol, which after a drop-off last year has returned to apprehending about as
many people as it typically does.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/texas/articles/2018-04-07/what-happened-when-bush-obama-sent-troops-to-mexico-border
May 7: The Trump administration will more
frequently separate families at the southwest border under a new policy
announced Monday.
The Homeland Security Department will refer “100 percent of illegal southwest
border crossings“ to the Justice Department for prosecution under a federal
statute that prohibits illegal entry, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said
Monday.
If you cross the border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you,” Sessions said
at a press conference Monday afternoon near the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego.
“It’s that simple.”
“We don’t want to separate families, but we don't want families to come to the
border illegally,” Sessions said Monday. “This is just the way the world works.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/07/trump-administration-family-separation-border-519220
May 30:
How the Trump Administration Got Comfortable Separating Immigrant Kids from
their Parents
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-trump-administration-got-comfortable-separating-immigrant-kids-from-their-parents
June 1: No, Trump’s “family separation”
policy at the border is not the same as Obama’s
Separating women and children who cross the border illegally predates Trump —
but he has drastically ramped it up
There has always been a policy of separating children from parents at the border
when the adults are facing criminal charges but — and it’s a big caveat —
the current administration is manipulating the policy to deter migration.
https://www.salon.com/2018/06/01/no-trumps-migrant-family-separation-policy-is-not-the-same-as-obamas/
June 1: Dem leaders demand end to family
separations at border
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/390256-dem-leaders-demand-end-to-family-separations-at-border
June 1: Protesters Across The U.S. Decry
Policy Of Separating Immigrant Families
https://www.npr.org/2018/06/01/616257822/immigration-rights-activists-protest-trump-administration-child-separation-polic
June 2: 77,000 cases involving migrant kids
are stuck in limbo. Splitting up families will make it worse.
https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/immigration-zero-tolerance-children-families-limbo/
June 3: A group of evangelical leaders is
pleading with President Trump to find an alternate solution when it comes to
separating children from their parents at the US border with Mexico.
A letter addressed to the president states in part, “As evangelical
Christians guided by the Bible, one of our core convictions is that God has
established the family as the fundamental building block of society. The state
should separate families only in the rarest of instances. While illegal entry to
the United States can be a misdemeanor criminal violation, past administrations
have exercised discretion in determining when to charge individuals with this
offense, taking into account the wellbeing of children who may also be involved.
A “zero tolerance” policy removes that discretion with the effect of removing
even small children from their parents. The traumatic effects of this separation
on these young children, which could be devastating and long lasting, are of
utmost concern. “
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2018/june/separating-families-evangelical-leaders-plead-with-trump-to-address-border-concerns
June 3: A Moral and Legal Abomination
The government has offered no substantive legal justification for the Trump
administration’s policy of indefinitely separating children from their parents
at the border.
On Thursday, Sen. Dianne Feinstein proposed a law that would bar the intentional
separation of asylum-seeking parents from their children when they cross the
border. “It’s hard to conceive of a policy more horrific than intentionally
separating children from their parents as a form of punishment,” the California
Democrat
said in a statement publicizing the move.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/trumps-child-separation-policy-is-a-moral-and-constitutional-abomination.html
June 5: Today, the United Nation's human
rights office
denounced the US practice of separating children from their migrant and
asylum seeker parents at the US border.
In response, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley
bashed the organization, suggesting that the UN “ignorantly attack(ing)” the
US was evidence of “hypocrisy.” While deflecting from the issue by pointing to
the “reprehensible human rights records” of other countries sitting on the UN
Human Rights Council, she added defiantly that “[n]either the United Nations nor
anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders.” But she
misses the point.
Yes, the US does have a right to protect its borders – but not by trampling the
rights of vulnerable families and children. The UN’s human rights office in
Geneva, led by High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, has an admirable track
record of shining a spotlight on human rights abuses around the world, and it’s
to their credit that they didn’t shy away from criticizing this US policy. Human
rights don’t end at border zones, after all.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/05/us-bashes-un-critiquing-trump-family-separation-policy
June 5: Trump-Sessions family separation
policy is not moral or required by law
Sessions and President Trump are erroneously leveraging the argument that “the
law” is responsible for their own administration-enacted policies such as family
separation on the border. In actuality, the attorney general and the president
are using the legality argument as a guise to justify their inhumane immigration
policies — and to increase immigrant detention and deterrence. They assume that
if they posit a particular policy as being legal, even if there
is no law requiring that policy, the majority of the American people will
follow.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2018/06/05/trump-sessions-family-separation-border-immigration-column/668905002/
June 6: Despite Trump's Family Separation
Threat, Border Arrests for Illegal Immigration Continue to Rise
More than 50,000 people were arrested crossing the U.S. southern border during
the month of May, the Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday,
despite the Trump Administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration and threat
to separate families at the border.
http://time.com/5303831/trump-illegal-immigration-border-arrests-may/
June 6: President Donald Trump has said
Democrats need to be pressured to end a "horrible law" that separates children
from their parents at U.S. borders.
There is
no law mandating the separation of families, contrary to Trump’s claims.
However, the Trump administration has introduced a "zero-tolerance" policy
calling for the prosecution of all individuals who illegally enter the United
States.
This policy has the effect of separating parents from their children when they
enter the country together, because parents are referred for prosecution and the
children are placed in the custody of a sponsor, such as a relative or foster
home, or held in a shelter.
More than 650 children were separated from their parents during a two-week
period in May as a result of the new approach being implemented.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2018/jun/06/what-you-need-know-about-trump-administrations-zer/
June 7:
A federal judge in California ruled
Wednesday that a challenge to the practice of separating parents seeking asylum
from children at the border can proceed.
The ACLU brought the case against the Trump administration.
In his opinion, the Judge Dana Sabraw said "at a minimum, the facts alleged are
sufficient to show the government conduct at issue 'shocks the conscience' and
violates Plaintiffs' constitutional right to family integrity. Accordingly,
Defendants' motion to dismiss Plaintiffs' due process claim is denied."
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/07/politics/family-separation-ruling/index.html
June 7:
[Judge Dana Sabraw]: Such conduct, if true… is brutal, offensive, and fails to
comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency, The facts alleged are
sufficient to show the government conduct at issue ‘shocks the conscience’ and
violates Plaintiffs’ constitutional right to family integrity.
https://americasvoice.org/press_releases/district-judge-trump-family-separation-policy-brutal-offensive-and-fails-to-comport-with-traditional-notions-of-fair-play-and-decency/
June 14: Sessions cites Bible in defense of
breaking up families, blames migrant parents
The attorney general, in a speech to law enforcement officers in Indiana, called
on his "church friends" not to blame him for the policy.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/sessions-cites-bible-defense-breaking-families-blames-migrant-parents-n883296
June 14: No, Jeff Sessions, Separating Kids
From Their Parents Isn’t ‘Biblical’
Being a Protestant and all, Sessions has no fear of the kind of “canonical
penalties” Catholic bishops might levy. But perhaps he is aware of an official
resolution passed by his own United Methodist Church in 2008 (and reaffirmed
in 2016), which reads in part:
"The fear and anguish so many migrants in the United States live under are due
to federal raids, indefinite detention, and deportations which tear apart
families and create an atmosphere of panic. Millions of immigrants are denied
legal entry to the US due to quotas and race and class barriers, even as
employers seek their labor. US policies, as well as economic and political
conditions in their home countries, often force migrants to leave their homes.
With the legal avenues closed, immigrants who come in order to support their
families must live in the shadows and in intense exploitation and fear. In the
face of these unjust laws and the systematic deportation of migrants instituted
by the Department of Homeland Security, God’s people must stand in solidarity
with the migrants in our midst."
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/no-jeff-sessions-separating-families-isnt-biblical.html
June 15: It’s not just cruel to separate a
breastfeeding baby from a mom. It’s medically dangerous.... The powerful
“oxytocin reflex” helps explain why.
... one of the most horrifying tales of
family separation came this week in a CNN report of an
undocumented migrant from Honduras whose daughter was taken away by federal
immigration agents while she was breastfeeding in a detention center. When the
mother tried to resist arrest, she was handcuffed, according to her lawyer
Natalia Cornelio.
“Most of the administration’s critics would probably answer that the only humane
option is to release the whole family together and find another way to monitor
their cases to make sure they show up for their court dates. But that is the one
option the administration refuses to put back on the table.”
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/15/17465306/children-immigrant-families-separated-breastfeeding-baby
June 15:
The Donald Trump Administration’s attack on families at the country’s southern
border came to a new low yesterday, when
Attorney General Jeff Sessions attempted to use the Bible to defend his
cruel zero-tolerance policy that has ripped more than
1,300 children out of the loving arms of their parents.
Sessions
cited Romans 13 and said we are called by the Bible to “obey the laws of the
government.” During the White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah
Sanders defended Sessions by saying, “It is very Biblical to enforce the law.”
But while Romans 13 calls Christians to be subject to governing authorities, it
makes it clear that these authorities also have a great debt of responsibility
to honor what is right: “Do you want to be free from fear of the one in
authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended.” And what is right?
The passage goes on to tell us the ultimate truth: “The commandments… are summed
up in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a
neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
There is no moral justification for taking children away from parents who are
fit to care for them. And subjecting these already traumatized children to
prison-like facilities is simply unconscionable.
http://time.com/5313878/jeff-sessions-left-out-the-key-part-of-the-bible-verse-he-used-to-rationalize-family-separation/
June 16: Trump hugs American flag at rally
... At one point during the rally, supporters in the crowd began a “build that
wall” chant, at which point the presumptive GOP presidential nominee turned
around and hugged an American flag on the stage.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/283159-trump-hugs-an-american-flag-at-his-rally
[Trump hugs a flag; a child cries upon separation from family during Trump
Administration's zero tolerance policy]:
Trump photo as seen on The Hill; child photo as seen
on CNN.
June 17: Lock Kids Up – Trump’s Border
“Solution” for Prison Profits
There is no end in sight on Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” policy. Trump wants to use
the pain of these children as a way to negotiate for his “big, beautiful wall”,
which nobody wants to pay for. Speaker Ryan has an alternate proposal, which
involves incarcerating the entire family and then deporting them together.
Democratic members of Congress continue to press for a comprehensive immigration
plan, with an end to family separation, and a path to citizenship for DACA
recipients and others.
http://www.coloradopols.com/diary/109331/internment-camps-for-children-americas-choice#sthash.hn6ycCvE.dpbs
June 18:
The Trump administration's immigration "zero tolerance" policy that results in
the separation of thousands of children from their families
stoked outrage over the weekend, and several prominent Republicans sounded
off.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/republican-party-family-separation/index.html
June 18: "In wire-mesh, chain linked cages
that are about 30x30, a lot of young folks put into them. I must say though, far
fewer than I was here two weeks ago.
"I was told that buses full (of children) were taken away before I arrived. That
was one of my concerns, that essentially, when you have to give lengthy notice,
you end up with a little bit of a show rather than seeing what's really going on
in these centers."
https://www.ksat.com/news/video-inside-cpb-s-processing-detention-center-in-mcallen
June 18: Chain link fences, mattresses on
the floor and families queuing to be processed — and oftentimes separated. These
are the photos of the processing detention center in McAllen, Texas, that the
Customs and Border Protection agency wants you to see.
More than 1,100
immigrants — including children — were being held at McAllen when reporters
were allowed in Sunday.
http://fox5sandiego.com/2018/06/18/photos-inside-immigrant-processing-center-show-chain-link-fences-mattresses-on-floor/
June 18: Attorney General Jeff Sessions and
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defended the Trump
administration's enforcement of its "zero tolerance" policy, despite widespread
outcry over treatment of children at the nation's border. Under the current
policy, anyone suspected of crossing the border illegally faces criminal
prosecution. Children traveling with adults are separated from their families
and taken into U.S. custody. U.S. protocol prohibits detaining children with
their parents because the children are not charged with a crime while the
parents are.
"Surely it is the beginning of the unraveling of democracy when the body that
makes the laws rather than change them asks the body that enforces them not to
enforce the law, that cannot be the answer," she said.
Nielsen added, "Illegal actions have and must have consequences, no more free
passes, no more get out of jail free cards. In communities every day, if you
commit a crime police will take you to jail regardless of whether you have a
family."
"We do not have the luxury of pretending that all individuals coming to this
country as a family unit are in fact a family," said Nielsen.
Sessions, meanwhile, blamed previous administrations for allowing "loopholes"
that led to immigrants crossing the border illegally with children, effectively
given them immunity from prosecution.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeff-sessions-addresses-nations-sheriffs-amid-outcry-over-immigration-live-stream/
June 18: If President Trump’s new
“zero-tolerance” policy of separating immigrant children from their parents at
the border was intended to pressure Democrats, it is backfiring badly—among
Democrats, as expected, but among Republicans as well. Rupert Murdoch’s New York
Post, whose editorial page consistently backs the president,
wrote on Sunday
that “It’s not just that this looks terrible in the eyes of the world. It is
terrible.”
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2018/06/18/trumps-zero-tolerance-immigration-policy-puts-republicans-in-jeopardy/
June 18: Two-thirds of Americans disapprove
of the Trump administration's practice of taking undocumented immigrant children
from their families and putting them in government facilities on US borders,
according to a CNN poll conducted by SSRS. Only 28% approve.
But among Republicans, there is majority support for the policy that has
resulted in an uptick of children being separated from their families.
http://www.azfamily.com/story/38450381/majority-oppose-policy-that-causes-family-separation-but-republicans-approve
June 18: The Trump administration's "zero
tolerance" policy that calls for all migrants caught crossing the border for the
first time to be charged with illegal entry ends up systematically separating
families because children can't go with their parents who are being detained by
the US Marshals.
But people charged with illegal entry go before a judge within days or weeks of
their detention and are usually sentenced to time served for the misdemeanor.
There appears to be no set procedure for what happens with parent and child
after that.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/dhs-border-patrol-ice-orr-no-reunification-children-parents?utm_term=.fswwgER8K#.rb5KrXezR
June 18: Hillary Clinton tears into Trump
immigration policy: Calling family separation the law is 'an outright lie'
Clinton on Monday also criticized Attorney General
Jeff Sessions for
invoking the Bible to defend the policy.
“Those who selectively use the Bible to justify this cruelty are ignoring a
central tenet of Christianity,” she said.
“What is being done using the name of religion is contrary to everything I
was ever taught,” she said. “Jesus said ‘suffer the little children unto me,’ he
did not say ‘let the children suffer.’ ”
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/392819-hillary-clinton-tears-into-trump-immigration-policy-calling-family
June 19: An irate President Trump on Tuesday
defied mounting bipartisan pressure to end
his zero-tolerance policy of taking migrant children away from their parents
— and charged that Democrats want “illegal immigrants” to “infest” the US.
“Democrats are the problem. They don’t care about crime and want illegal
immigrants, no matter how bad they may be, to pour into and infest our Country,
like MS-13. They can’t win on their terrible policies, so they view them as
potential voters!”
And he defended his policy, saying that “only 2,000” children have been taken
away from their parents.
“We must always arrest people coming into our Country illegally. .."
https://nypost.com/2018/06/19/trump-dems-want-illegal-immigrants-to-infest-us/
June 19: While speaking to the National
Federation of Independent Businesses, President Trump said "you have to take
children away" to prosecute parents for coming to the US illegally.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/trump-take-children-away-to-prosecute-parents/vi-AAyRXNw
June 19: Trump Separation Policy Backlash:
Governors Refuse to Send National Guard to Border Over 'Inhumane' Treatment of
Children
http://www.newsweek.com/trump-separation-policy-backlash-governors-refusing-send-national-guard-border-982946
June 19: When Attorney General Jeff Sessions
used the Bible last week to justify the horrendous and vile practice of
separating children from their parents at the border, he signaled a new low in
contemporary American politics of using religious doctrine to justify doing harm
to children. Actually, this isn’t a new low. The Bible has long been used as the
foundational holy text of white supremacist doctrine in this country. Slave
masters preached a Christianity to black enslaved people that included
Scriptures like “servants, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your
masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who
are harsh” (1 Peter 2:18).
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a21602198/jeff-sessions-bible-family-separation-policy/
June 19: Members of
Jeff Sessions' own church filed a
formal complaint against the attorney general, accusing him of "child
abuse," "immorality," and "racial discrimination" and the “dissemination of
doctrines contrary to the established standards of doctrines” of the United
Methodist Church.
Last week, Sessions
cited the Bible in his defense of the administration's border policy
separating children from their parents after they enter the U.S. illegally,
which he issued last month.
In the letter, church members took issue with this characterization, criticizing
Sessions' "misuse of Romans 13 to indicate the necessity of obedience to secular
law, which is in stark contrast to Disciplinary commitments to supporting
freedom of conscience and resistance to unjust laws."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hundreds-sessions-church-file-formal-complaint-accusing-child/story?id=56003177&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_three_posts_card_hed
June 20: The solution to the crisis of
family separation at the US-Mexico border, the Trump administration has
decided, is to get rid of a 1997 federal court decision that strictly limits the
government’s ability to keep children in immigration detention.
The administration has fingered Flores v. Reno, or the “Flores
settlement,” as the reason it is “forced” to
separate parents from their children to prosecute them. It claims that
because it cannot keep parents and children in immigration detention together,
it has no choice but to detain parents in immigration detention (after they’ve
been criminally prosecuted for illegal entry) and send the children to the
Department of Health and Human Services as “unaccompanied alien children.”
The Flores settlement requires the federal government to do two things: to place
children with a close relative or family friend “without unnecessary delay,”
rather than keeping them in custody; and to keep immigrant children who are
in custody in the “least restrictive conditions” possible.
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/20/17484546/executive-order-family-separation-flores-settlement-agreement-immigration
June 20:
American Airlines to Trump: Don’t put separated migrant kids on our flights
American Airlines does not want the US government to use its planes to transport
the immigrant children torn from their families as a result of the Trump
administration’s
controversial border policy.
“We bring families together, not apart,” the Fort Worth, Texas-based airline
said in a strongly-worded statement Wednesday.
The airline acknowledged that it has contracts with the federal government that
have previously involved transporting refugees to be reunited with their
families.
https://nypost.com/2018/06/20/american-airlines-to-trump-dont-put-separated-migrant-kids-on-our-flights/
June 20: Three U.S. airlines —
American,
United and Frontier — on Wednesday asked the federal government not to use
their airlines to transport children who were separated from their families
under a controversial immigration policy.
The airlines responded after reports that claimed migrant children separated
from their parents were transported on some flights.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/20/airlines-dont-put-migrant-children-separated-from-family-on-planes.html
June 20: President Trump on Wednesday signed
an executive order to allow children to stay with parents caught crossing the
border illegally -- moving to stop the family separations that have triggered a
national outcry and political crisis for Republicans.
... Trump said he wants to keep families together while also enforcing border
security. He vowed his administration's "zero tolerance" policy for illegal
immigration would continue.
The separations stem from the administration's "zero tolerance" immigration
policy, which aims to prosecute all illegal border crossers. But because of a
1997 order and related decisions, children cannot be detained for longer than 20
days with the adults.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/20/trump-signs-executive-order-to-stop-family-separations-at-border.html
June 20: How bad is it in the countries
these families are fleeing? This bad ....
We've been bombarded by arguments about
whether parents and children crossing the US-Mexican border without
documentation should be separated. But we seldom hear how dire life is in
these migrants' homelands.
A snapshot of the countries they're fleeing shows the nightmares they're trying
to escape ...
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/americas/separated-families-countries-snapshots/
June 20: A Republican congressional
candidate in New York said Tuesday that the sounds of crying immigrant children
separated from their parents at the border were the "same exact" sounds heard at
any daycare when a parent leaves for work.
"I think it's extremely unfortunate. But what people are forgetting -- they just
want to listen to those tapes -- I can take you to any nursery and you're going
to hear the same exact things as a mother leaves to go to work and has to leave
her child at daycare. You're going to hear those same exact things," Michael
Grimm, who is running for the Republican nomination in New York's 11th
Congressional District, told NY1.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/20/politics/grimm-comments-on-kids-at-border/
June 20: Here Are the Facts About President
Trump's Family Separation Policy
http://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/
June 20:
The convicted tax cheat, running for his old congressional seat, said
Americans shouldn’t put too much stock into recordings recently released of
children sobbing at immigration shelters after they’d been taken from their
parents at the border.
https://nypost.com/2018/06/20/grimm-compares-kids-crying-at-border-to-daycare-drop-off/
June 20: Along with detaining migrants who
illegally cross the border and separating them from their children, ICE has
locked up thousands of other non-citizens with deep roots in their communities
under the Trump administration’s orders, a new report said Wednesday.
Those detained and separated from their families include people with little or
no criminal record who have lived in the US for years, such as Pablo
Villavicencio, a pizza deliveryman
arrested for being in the country illegally after he took food to a Brooklyn
military base.
In earlier years, ICE would have released many of these people on bond soon
after their arrest, allowing them to live with their families while awaiting
legal proceedings that can take years, Reuters reported.
Now, ICE denies bond for many of those people and pushes to keep them locked up
for the duration of their cases, the news service found, based on an analysis of
government data and dozens of interviews with immigration judges, lawyers and
current and former officials.
https://nypost.com/2018/06/20/ice-has-unwillingness-to-give-bond-to-locked-up-immigrants/
June 21:
Stephen Miller: Trump's Advisor Behind
Separating Families
http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2018/06/21/stephen-miller-trumps-advisor-behind-separating-families
June 21: Melania Trump has made a surprise
visit to the US-Mexico border a day after the president retreated on immigration
policy and
signed an executive order to end his policy of family separations amid
enormous political pressure.
The first lady was taking part in briefings and attending a tour of a “nonprofit
social services center for children who have entered the United States illegally
and a customs and border patrol processing center”, according to a statement
from her office.
Sitting at a table with officials at a center in McAllen, Texas, she said: “How
can I help these families reunite with their children as quickly as possible?”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/21/melania-trump-family-child-separation-detention-centre-visit-surprise
June 21: Michael Cohen Cites Holocaust
Survivor Parents to Blast Trump in Quitting RNC
As the son of a Polish Holocaust survivor, the images and sounds of this family
separation policy is heart wrenching,' Cohen wrote in a letter to the Republican
National Committee
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/michael-cohen-blasts-trump-in-quitting-rnc-1.6197908
June 21: A child's anguish meets America's
indifference on new TIME cover
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/21/us/time-immigration-cover-june-magazine-trnd/index.html
June 22: Time cover backlash: Magazine
stands by illustration of crying girl next to Trump
Reporters began searching for more information about the little girl, who for
many, reminded them of their own children in her red sneakers, jeans, long
sleeve shirt and curly dark hair.
Soon reports began to emerge, citing the girl's father, who is still in
Honduras, and Customs and Border Protection, who said
she was not separated from her mother.
Time magazine, however, stands by the cover.
"The June 12 photograph of the 2-year-old Honduran girl became the most visible
symbol of the ongoing immigration debate in America for a reason: Under the
policy enforced by the administration, prior to its reversal this week, those
who crossed the border illegally were criminally prosecuted, which in turn
resulted in the separation of children and parents. Our cover and our reporting
capture the stakes of this moment," Time's editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal
said in a statement to CNN .
http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/22/media/time-cover-photo-critics/index.html
June 22: The crying girl on the magazine’s
cover wasn’t separated from her mom at the border. But 2,300 other children
were.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/6/22/17494688/time-magazine-cover-crying-girl-photo-controversy-family-separation
June 22: Trump accuses Dems of 'phony
stories' of sadness on border, seeks delay on immigration fix until after
midterms
"Republicans should stop wasting their time on Immigration until after we elect
more Senators and Congressmen/women in November," Trump tweeted.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/reversal-trump-suddenly-calls-lawmakers-stall-immigration-action-until-after-n885661
June 22:
Donald Trump has always proudly paraded
his Time Magazine covers but the latest may not make it on to the walls at the
golf club.
The powerful image on this week’s cover depicts the US president looking down at
a sobbing two-year-old girl next to the caption “Welcome to America”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/22/time-magazine-puts-trump-opposite-sobbing-child-on-cover
June 23: Chanting protesters briefly blocked
a bus leaving
a migrant detention center in McAllen, Texas, on Saturday afternoon.
Protesters stood in front of the bus and yelled, "Set the children free" and
"Shame on you" at Border Patrol officers. The Border Patrol ended up surrounding
the bus so it could back up and go out the other end of the street.
CNN reporters could see children through the darkened windows, and a protester
told CNN she also saw children through the windows. She said some of the
children waved at her and she told them, "You are not alone" in Spanish.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/23/us/texas-detention-center-bus-protest/index.html
June 25: Rep. Maxine Waters claimed the
favor of the Almighty during a speech at a Capitol Hill "Keep Families Together"
rally on Saturday. She said cabinet members and highly visible Trump enablers
should expect harassment at restaurants, gas stations, shopping places, and even
their homes until they change their immigration policy. Several have already
been confronted at public places.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/06/25/maxine_waters_god_is_on_our_side.html
June 25: Trump issues thinly-veiled threat
against congresswoman Maxine Waters
The president also lied about what she said.
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-maxine-waters-threat-6e9bc9f0a7f4/
On Twitter: Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an
extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face
of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which
there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you
wish for Max!
June 25
@realDonaldTrump
June 25: Maxine Waters reads list of times
Trump has called for violence
The Democrat again disputed that she had told her supporters to physical harm
Trump supporters.
“Protest is about peaceful resistance to the kind of actions that we are
experiencing from this president,” she added.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/394087-maxine-waters-reads-list-of-times-trump-has-called-for-violence
June 25: Pelosi rebukes Democratic Rep.
Maxine Waters for urging supporters to confront Trump administration officials
In a tweeted statement Monday referencing Waters' comments, Pelosi said that
"Trump's daily lack of civility has provoked responses that are predictable but
unacceptable." She added: "As we go forward, we must conduct elections in a way
that achieves unity from sea to shining sea."
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/25/nancy-pelosi-rebukes-maxine-waters-for-comments-on-trump-administratio.html
June 25: Democrats — and Trump — push back
on Maxine Waters’s calls for confrontation
Maxine Waters called for supporters to confront members of the Trump
administration in public. Democrats don’t exactly agree.
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/25/17501450/maxine-waters-trump-pelosi-civility-sarah-sanders
June 25: Democrats call out Maxine Waters
for encouraging incivility
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5801794474001/?#sp=show-clips
June 25:
With help from Fox News, Trump pushes brazen lie about his family separation
policy
But it’s simply not the case that Trump’s policy is the same as Obama’s.
It is true that family separations happened during Obama. As former homeland
security secretary Jeh Johnson recently
explained to NPR, “I can’t say that it never happened. There may have been
some exigent situation, some emergency… There may have been some doubt about
whether the adult accompanying the child was in fact the parent of the child.”
But ... separations did not happen “as a matter of policy or practice. It’s not
something that I could ask our Border Patrol or our immigration enforcement
personnel to do.”
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-fox-news-brazen-lie-immigration-family-separation-policy-b0aa1d66051d/
June 25: The Government Had No Intention of
Reuniting Separated Families ... There’s also no plan to do so now.
For some period of time, which may or may not be ongoing, the U.S. Justice
Department was routinely treating parents who were caught having crossed into
the U.S. without border inspection (a misdemeanor offense) as criminals to be
briefly incarcerated pending a hearing and then placed in immigration detention.
Additionally, Customs and Border Protection was often separating parents and
kids who legally presented themselves at a border-inspection point, seeking
asylum. Under the new policy, children in either case were removed and placed
first in shelters and eventually in foster care or other centers. Some members
of the Trump administration persistently denied that this was a policy. Others,
including the president, bragged about it.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/donald-trumps-family-separation-the-government-had-no-intention-of-reuniting-parents-and-children.html
June 25: Parents who cross illegally from
Mexico to the United States with their children will not face prosecution for
the time being because the government is running short of space to house them,
officials said on Monday.
White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the administration was not dropping
its policy of “zero-tolerance” of illegal immigration but it needed a “temporary
solution” until it can house migrant families.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration/illegal-immigrant-parents-not-facing-us-prosecution-for-now-idUSKBN1JL1DS
June 26: Ex-secret service agent: Maxine
Waters' comments are dangerous
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/25/opinions/ex-secret-service-agent-says-waters-comments-are-dangerous-wackrow/index.html
June 26: Republican lawmaker introduces
motion asking for Maxine Waters' resignation
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/26/republican-lawmaker-introduces-motion-asking-for-maxine-waters-resignation.html
June 27: American Jews turn on Trump's
senior advisor
Stephen Miller, who was believed to be the mastermind behind the American
president's immigration policy of separating families, has recently caught the
ire of members of the Jewish community in the US who have vowed to distance
themselves from him.
https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5296109,00.html
June 27: Will Trump Administration Reunite
Families Within 30 Days After Federal Court Ruling?
A federal judge has given the Trump administration 30 days to reunify the
thousands of families separated by immigration agents at the U.S.-Mexico border
and ruled that U.S. immigration agents can no longer separate children from
their parents.
U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw
issued the ruling late Tuesday evening, granting the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU) a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed over the
family separation policy.
In her ruling, which was
published online by the ACLU, Sabraw said the "facts set before the court
portray reactive governance responses to address a chaotic circumstance of the
government's own making" and warrant "the extraordinary remedy of classwide
preliminary injunction."
"They belie measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of
due process enshrined in our Constitution," the judge said, adding: "This is
particularly so in the treatment of migrants, many of whom are asylum seekers,
and small children."
http://www.newsweek.com/will-trump-administration-reunite-families-within-30-days-after-federal-court-996764
June 27: The Trump administration struggled
Wednesday with how to abide by a federal judge’s order requiring that thousands
of migrant children who were forcibly separated from their parents be reunited
within 30 days.
https://www.apnews.com/417932ed67fd420297bd29ea4e087f16
June 28: Thousands of kids still haven't
been reunited with their parents.
The clock is ticking. A judge's ruling Monday laid out a series of deadlines the
government must meet:
• Within 10 days (by July 6), officials must make sure every
separated parent has a way to contact their child.
• Within 14 days (by July 10), children under 5 must be
reunited with their parents
• Within 30 days (by July 26), all children must be reunited
with their parents.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/28/us/separated-families-reunions-protests/index.html
June 28: Will President Trump Ignore the Court Order Against His Lawless
Family Separation Policy?
The crisis is nowhere near over.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/will-president-trump-ignore-the-court-order-against-his-family-separation-policy.html
July 5: The Trump administration just
admitted it doesn’t know how many kids are still separated from their parents
The department that separated families at the border didn’t talk to the agency
that took custody of separated kids.
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/5/17536984/children-separated-parents-border-how-many
July 5: HHS now estimates under 3,000 kids
separated from parents in government custody
New estimate nearly 50% higher than last figure
https://www.channel3000.com/news/politics/national-politics/revised-hhs-estimate-nearly-3000-kids-separated-from-parents/763537543
July 5: U.S. has nearly 3,000 separated
migrant kids, will use DNA to find parents
Azar also said some children who are part of the nearly 3,000 may not qualify
for reunification because they became separated from their parents during their
journey and not by U.S. border agents.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/u-s-has-nearly-3-000-separated-migrant-kids-will-n888986
July 5:
U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego last month ordered the government to stop
separating children from immigrant parents entering the United States illegally
and set deadlines for the government to reunite families.
The U.S. government is moving some migrant parents to detention sites closer to
the young children they were separated from while crossing the U.S.-Mexico
border in an attempt to meet a court-imposed deadline to reunify families, U.S.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said on Thursday.
The U.S. government is moving some migrant
parents to detention sites closer to the young children they were separated from
while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in an attempt to meet a court-imposed
deadline to reunify families, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex
Azar said on Thursday.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-children/u-s-moving-some-detained-migrant-parents-closer-to-their-children-idUSKBN1JV2FH
July 6: ...Donald Trump has no answers for
the border crisis. And things are about to get worse.
Trump's solution to stop the family separations at the border -- an executive
order that allows children to be detained with their parents -- is a stop-gap
solution that is about to expire. Why? Because Trump's executive order did not
override a Supreme Court decision from the early 1990s that says a child cannot
be held in a detention facility for more than 20 days. Which means that on or
around July 10 -- 20 days from Trump's signing of the EO on June 20 -- border
enforcement officials will be required to start separating families currently
being held in detention centers.
In short: The family separation crisis is likely to get worse -- and soon.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/05/politics/immigration-separation-border-trump/index.html
July 6: Rivera: Trump made 'terrible
mistake' with family separation
http://video.foxnews.com/v/5806145760001/?#sp=show-clips
July 24: The Trump administration may have
deported up to 463 parents of children separated by immigration officials at the
border, even as their children remain in U.S. custody. A federal judge has
ordered the Trump administration to reunite all separated migrant children and
parents by July 26th—that’s Thursday. But new government filings reveal nearly
500 of these parents are no longer in the country. In total, at least 1,700
children are still in U.S. custody, waiting to be reunited with their parents.
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/7/24/headlines/trump_admin_may_have_deported_up_to_463_parents_of_children_separated_at_border
July 27: The next family separation crisis:
Finding hundreds of deported parents
Immigrant advocacy groups are gearing up to track down more than 400 parents who
were separated from their children and deported without them.
The challenge is so daunting that government attorneys have bristled every time
it's come up in court.
"It's going to be really hard detective work," said Lee Gelernt, an American
Civil Liberties Union attorney who's been leading the organization's lawsuit
over separated families.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/27/politics/deported-parents-search/index.html
July 27: Wife of a former US Marine is
facing deportation to Mexico
The Davenport resident has no criminal record but faces a removal order over her
1998 illegal entry into the United States, Soto said. She's married to a former
Marine and Iraq War veteran, and they have two girls, ages 8 and 16, who are US
citizens.
... her teen daughter will stay with her father in Florida while the younger one
will go with her to Mexico if she's deported. "My heart is torn apart," ...
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/27/us/florida-marine-wife-to-be-deported/
July 28: Some of the kids in U.S.
custody may never see their parents again
We haven't seen their faces. We don't know their names. We only know a number:
711.
That's how many immigrant kids from separated families remain in custody,
according to the latest government tally.
Officials say that,
for various reasons, their families weren't eligible for reunification by
Thursday's deadline. They might be in the future, although a former head of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement warned this week that some of the children
might never see their parents again.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/28/politics/separated-kids-what-next/index.html
August 8:
Family separations haven’t deterred migrants from trying to enter US
https://nypost.com/2018/08/08/family-separations-havent-deterred-migrants-from-trying-to-enter-us/
August 30: Hundreds of children separated
from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border remain separated, according to a
court filing on Thursday.
The filing from the Justice Department and American Civil Liberties Union shows
that 497 children remain in U.S. government custody, CNN
reports.
Twenty-two of those children are under the age of 5, according to the report.
The parents of 322 children have been deported, including the parents of six
children 4 years old or younger, CNN reported.
Only 14 children were reunited with their parents since last week, according to
the government. In total, 1,937 children have been reunited with their parents
by the Trump administration.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/404497-trump-administration-identifies-497-migrant-children-still-in-custody
September 7: As 400+ Children Remain
Separated from Parents, Trump Admin Wants to Detain Kids Indefinitely
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/9/7/as_400_children_remain_separated_from
October 1: Trump’s Child-Detention Crisis Is
Getting Worse
Under cover of darkness, the
federal government has been moving hundreds of children a week to a sprawling
tent city near the Rio Grande.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/10/donald-trump-child-detention-crisis-is-getting-worse
October 11: Six months after US officials
separated them at the border, ICE put a 4-year-old girl on a plane to Guatemala
this week so she could be reunited with her father.
But there was one major problem, according to advocates who worked on the case:
The man didn't learn his daughter was coming until 30 minutes before her flight
was set to land in Guatemala City.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/11/us/ice-separated-families/
October 15:
Administration officials are weighing a proposal that could result in parents
and kids once again being split up by the US government -- but this time, it
would be the parents' choice.
The proposal would give detained immigrant families two options: remain detained
together while their case works its way through the system, or allow children to
be released from custody after 20 days while their parents stay behind bars.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/15/politics/immigration-family-separations-binary-choice/index.html
November 26:
Pushing back against an explosive "60 Minutes"
report about his immigration policies, President Donald Trump revived false
claims that downplay his controversial practice of separating immigrant families
at the southern border.
The episode of "60 Minutes" highlighted the saga of more than 2,600 children who
were separated from their parents after illegally entering the US this year. The
report revealed that the policy began earlier than acknowledged and detailed an
internal probe at the Department of Homeland Security that found major
problems with the plan's implementation, including that computer systems erased
data meant to link children to their parents, complicating efforts to reunite
families later on.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/26/politics/trump-family-separation/index.html
November 28: Families still being separated
at border — months after Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy reversed
The Trump administration has quietly resumed separating immigrant families at
the border, in some cases using vague or unsubstantiated allegations of
wrongdoing or minor violations against the parents, including charges of
illegally re-entering the country, as justification.
Over the last three months, lawyers at Catholic Charities, which provides legal
services to immigrant children in government custody in New York, have
discovered at least 16 new separation cases. They say they have come across such
instances by chance and via their own sleuthing after children were put into
temporary foster care and shelters with little or no indication that they
arrived at the border with their parents.
“If the authorities have even the most specious evidence that a parent was a
gang member, or had some kind of blemish on their record,” said Neha Desai, a
senior attorney at the National Center for Youth Law, “anything they can come up
with to say that the separation is for the health and welfare of the child, then
they’ll separate them.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/27/donald-trump-zero-tolerance-policy-border-migrants-families-separated-immigration/2132426002/
November 29: Baltimore sues Trump
administration over immigration policy
Baltimore filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday against the Trump administration
alleging that "unlawful" efforts altering a State Department policy are
restricting visa applicants and deterring law-abiding immigrants from claiming
public assistance.
In its lawsuit, Baltimore asserts the U.S. State Department earlier this year
quietly expanded its definition of "public charge" — someone the United States
deems likely to be primarily dependent on government aid. It says the change is
not only frightening legally entitled immigrants from applying for public
programs but impeding otherwise eligible immigrants from entering the country in
the first place.
https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/2018/11/29/baltimore-sues-trump-administration-over-immigration-policy/2146878002/
December 18: Thousands of Migrant Children
Could Be Released With Trump’s Major Policy Reversal
Federal officials have reversed course and announced they will reduce
fingerprint requirements of potential sponsors for detained children.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news/trump-fingerprint-policy-change-reduce-migrant-children-detention-tornillo/
-- 2019 --
January 17:
The Trump administration most likely separated thousands more children from
their parents at the Southern border than was previously believed, according to
a report by government inspectors released on Thursday.
The federal government has reported that nearly 3,000 children were forcibly
separated from their parents under last year’s “zero tolerance” immigration
policy, under which nearly all adults entering the country illegally were
prosecuted, and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster
care.
But even before the administration officially unveiled the zero-tolerance policy
in the spring of 2018, staff of the United States Department of Health and Human
Services, the agency that oversees the care of children in federal custody, had
noted a “sharp increase” in the number of children separated from a parent or
guardian, according to the report from the agency’s Office of Inspector General.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/family-separation-trump-administration-migrants.html
February 12: The
Trump Administration Wants to Detain Migrant Kids at Toxic Waste Sites (Updated)
Thousands of migrant children would be held "on top of and in close proximity to
toxic waste sites" if the Trump administration gets its way.
https://rewire.news/article/2019/02/12/the-trump-administration-wants-to-detain-migrant-kids-at-toxic-waste-sites/
-- 2020 --
Webpage visitor counts provided
by
copyr 2018 trump-news-history.com, Minneapolis, MN