Campaign Action
Despite a federal judge’s reunification order, nearly 600 kidnapped migrant children continue to remain under U.S. custody as of August 9. Hundreds because their parents have already been deported, some possibly coerced or mislead into deportation. For another group of children, the Trump administration has absolutely no clue where their parents even are.
“About 120 deported parents, more than a quarter of the total number removed without their children, have no ‘potentially viable’ addresses in the government’s database,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said earlier this month. The administration, in a blatant disregard of the humanitarian disaster it created, tried to shift reunification responsibilities onto the ACLU. Thankfully, Judge Dana Sabraw stopped that bullshit in its tracks.
“The reality is,” he said, “for every parent who is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child, and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration.” This is a crisis, and until every single family separated by the Trump administration is reunited in safety, it will remain a crisis. The fact is, every single day that kids continue to remain separated from their parents and in child detention facilities is another day of state-inflicted trauma.
Some separated kids have described being kicked, fed raw meat, and being told “you’re never going to see your parents again” by guards. Others released from their jails said they witnessed one distraught child being forcibly drugged following his dad’s deportation. Ten-year-old Diego said he saw one boy “repeatedly injected with something that made him fall asleep,” adding that he “was very scared. I thought they were going to inject me, too.”
In one instance, a 14-year-old migrant child in a Southwest Key detention facility visited by Melania Trump during her publicity stunt was molested by a 32-year-old worker. But abuse in these facilities are no isolated incidents, because Southwest Key, which runs facilities across three states and has a lucrative contract with the federal government, has already been under fire for deplorable and secretive conditions, including hundreds of violations and another employee showing up for work drunk off his ass.
But even as officials drag their feet and leave kids to languish, those who gave out the orders have dropped out of sight, including Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen, who had the gall to deny family separation even existed, America’s Voice notes. “Some 3,000 family separations later, she defended the practice as good policy. Once the nationwide disgust registered with this administration and the federal court ordered the families to be reunited, she has disappeared from view.” But heaven forbid she get disturbed while enjoying her Mexican food, right?
“Nielsen has presided over what must be described as state-sanctioned kidnapping and child abuse,” said America’s Voice leader Frank Sharry. “Her outrageous attempts to avoid responsibility and wash her hands of this moral crisis is an act of profound cowardice. She should resign her position and make way for someone capable of adhering to basic standards of decency, humanity and accountability.”
No amount of hiding changes the fact that Nielsen, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Stephen Miller, Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar, and Donald Trump have committed human rights atrocities. Let’s get a Congress this November that will hold them accountable. Call on mainstream media to ignore the administration’s latest publicity stunt and instead hound Press Sec. Sarah Sanders on family separation—when she actually dares show her face to press. Just as importantly, continue to support these kids and parents. Keep speaking out. Don’t forget them.