In the latest absolute madness to come out of the Trump administration, a proposal being considered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to separate women and children crossing the border together in order to deter illegal immigration.
No, you didn’t misread that. The thinking behind this disaster waiting to happen is that they want to deter women who are planning to cross the border with their children from migrating to the United States.
The policy shift would allow the government to keep parents in custody while they contest deportation or wait for asylum hearings. Children would be put into protective custody with the Department of Health and Human Services, in the "least restrictive setting" while until they can be taken into the care of a U.S. relative or state-sponsored guardian.
So instead of keeping undocumented immigrant parents and kids together, this administration proposes to lock up parents in detention and put kids into custody with child services and/or foster care until a relative or state-sponsored guardian can claim them. And what exactly happens if there is no magical unicorn to take own guardianship of these poor babies? Meh. That’s their problem. This administration could not care less.
To give you a sense of how many people this could impact, here are some numbers:
About 54,000 children and their guardians were apprehended between Oct. 1, 2016, and Jan. 31, 2017, more than double the number caught over the same time period a year earlier.
This is completely illogical. In a scenario such as this, are all 54,000 children going to go into protective custody? And is Trump willing to add additional funding to the organizations, workers and facilities that will clothe, house, feed and place these kids? Not only is this a logistical nightmare, it is utterly and completely inhumane. And experts agree.
Implementing the new policy proposal "could create lifelong psychological trauma," said Marielena Hincapie, executive director at the National Immigration Law Center. "Especially for children that have just completed a perilous journey from Central America."
Ripping parents and kids apart for no reason, detaining parents indefinitely, putting innocent and already traumatized kids into the “system” until someone comes along to get them out, lifelong psychological trauma for immigrant children and parents? Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse, it does. Sounds like Trump has a dangerous, divisive and dark plan for America. And its only the 42nd day of his administration.