Campaign Action
Tuesday, Nov. 27, marks 124 days since a federal judge’s reunification deadline, yet children kidnapped from the arms of asylum seekers at the southern border continue to remain in U.S. custody. Of 25 children eligible to be reunified with their families, according to the most recently available numbers, the parents of 18 have already been deported.
Some of these children may never see their parents again, because a former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official confirmed to 60 Minutes this past weekend that the administration was tearing families apart without any documentation linking who was stolen from who. Now the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and government officials have been combing remote villages in search of deported parents.
Donald Trump finally broke his silence on this, but it wasn’t to address this crisis, but instead to lash out over being blamed for it. “60 Minutes did a phony story about child separation when they know we had the exact same policy as the Obama administration,” he tweeted. Lies. “Zero tolerance” is a trademark Trump policy, and it says quite a lot that he’s more upset over being blamed for it than for having created orphans.
He’s certainly not upset about the record number of migrant kids under U.S. custody—approximately 14,000—almost all of them unaccompanied minors who came here alone, fleeing gang violence and other danger. But rather than releasing these minors to sponsors, who are oftentimes relatives, officials are making it harder to release them. Meanwhile, these kids are struggling in detention, a recent investigation found.
"Being in detention can be a form of trauma," pediatrician Alan Shapiro told the Associated Press. "We can't treat children for trauma while we're traumatizing them at the same time." Enough of Trump and DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen’s state-sanctioned child abuse. Children belong with their families, not in detention.
