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Nearly 80 days past a federal judge’s reunification order, the children are still not with their parents. Thursday, October 11, marks 77 days since Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the Trump administration to reunite the thousands of migrant children who were kidnapped from the arms of parents at the southern border, yet over 100 kids remain under U.S. custody.
The very real fear, now, is permanent separation for some. The Associated Press (AP) reported this week that some migrant parents may have their kids stolen from them, yet again, through forced adoption by U.S.-parents. The AP’s investigation “identified holes in the system that allow state court judges to grant custody of migrant children to American families—without notifying their parents.”
Inexplicably, the judge overseeing family reunification has not punished one single Trump official, namely Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen or Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar, by holding them in contempt of court. During a Senate hearing Wednesday, parents and advocates let Nielsen know they haven’t forgotten about her role in implementing state-sanctioned child kidnapping, and walked out on her testimony.
“We walked out of the hearing today as Sec. Nielsen spoke,” tweeted Kunoor Ojha of The National Domestic Workers Alliance, one of the advocates calling for Nielsen’s resignation. “We wore Mylar blankets to represent the conditions that kids in detention are subjected to under her watch.” According to the most recent numbers available, the parents of 96 separated kids have already been deported. Of those children, two are age five or under. Yes, family separation remains a crisis.
Keep fighting for justice for these families and elect a Democratic Congress to hold officials accountable. Can you give $1 to each Daily Kos-endorsed candidate for House and Senate?
