There is “anguish” at the U.S./Mexico border, where the U.S. is not only criminally prosecuting immigrant parents who cross the border without permission, but punishing them in the cruelest way imaginable, by tearing their babies and children from their arms as a matter of official policy:
From October 2017 to mid-April, before the new prosecution strategy officially went into effect, more than 700 children were reportedly separated from their parents at the border. The federal government has not released figures from May, but those who work on immigration cases have observed a large increase in the number of children affected. [Public defender Miguel "Andy”] Nogueras said he previously saw only one or two such cases a week in the McAllen courtroom in the Southern District of Texas; last week, he saw about 33 cases.
On a Monday in that same courthouse, 10 of the 92 immigrants who appeared were parents, and all were separated from their kids. Adding to the agony is these parents having no idea which detention facilities the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has sent their kids to:
The status of children is a constant theme. After Nogueras told the group that that the judge "knows many of you have been separated from your children and want to reunite," a man with graying hair raised his hand.
"I have a question about my son: Is he going back with me to my country?" said Calixton Ramon-Mateo, a Guatemalan who had pleaded guilty to crossing illegally with his 9-year-old.
Nogueras didn't have an answer. Neither did the judge or Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials who had escorted the group to court.
Nogueras told the Los Angeles Times that he’s also representing a dad who, along with his 11 year old, fled gang violence in Guatemala. “They came to him and said, 'Your daughter is becoming beautiful, we want her for a member of the gang.' He said, 'I brought her to protect her and now I don't even know where she is.'”
Trump and his administration have been escalating their brutal war on migrant kids, and the children of immigrants, since he took the oath of office. Just days ago, The Washington Post reported that the administration was “making preparations to hold immigrant children on military bases”—these are internment camps:
“We’re witnessing a shameful mix of incompetency, inhumanity, and basic cruelty,” said Pili Tobar of immigrant rights group America’s Voice. “Kids belong with their parents, not alone and on military bases, and our country deserves better than the leaders behind this shameful vision being implemented in our names. The policy of separate and lose must stop—stop separating children from their parents.”
Mass deportation and family separation are traumatizing, with research showing these policies “create toxic stress for young children by breaking families apart, instilling fear in the immigrant community, and preventing families from accessing programs that meet children’s most basic needs.” In response, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sued:
In affidavits filed with the lawsuit, parents tell of months long separations without knowing where their children are or how they're faring.
A woman identified as Ms. G said in an April 23 affidavit that she was separated from her blind 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son after crossing at Nogales, Arizona, where the family requested asylum. Her children are living in a shelter more than an hour away from where she's being held.
“I worry about them constantly and I don’t know when I’ll see them,” she said.
But families continued to be separated, with some parents, faced with the prospect of losing their kids to a system that could in turn lose them—government officials recently said they’ve lost track of nearly 1,500 unaccompanied kids they placed with U.S. sponsors—are choosing deportation:
On Tuesday, a migrant mother from Guatemala apologized to Ormsby for crossing illegally into surrounding Hidalgo County on Saturday. She started to cry as she pleaded with him to reunite her with her 9-year-old daughter.
"She's already had three operations on her eyes. At her age, she can't read because of the problems with her eyes," said Mildred Lucia Rojas-Quevedo de Roguel, 37, a slight redhead in a black jacket who had no criminal record."I will go back to my country, but I need my daughter."
She was sentenced to time served and sent back to detention to await a hearing on her immigration case. It was unclear when, or if, she would see her daughter.