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As hundreds of separated migrant children continue to remain under U.S. custody and at ongoing risk of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, Donald Trump plans to honor the border agents who kidnapped them from their parents’ arms and locked them up in cages in the first place.
Politico reports the White House has planned a “Salute to the Heroes of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs [and] Border Protection" event for next Monday, coming a few days after Trump claimed that immigration agents “have been absolutely abused.” All right, if he wants to talk abuse, let’s talk abuse.
Despite a federal judge’s court order, the Trump administration continues to hold more than 560 kids under U.S. custody, including two dozen kids aged five years old and under. Not only is the administration blatantly violating a court order, it’s continuing to keep kids locked up in facilities where migrant children have already been molested, and are only there because of his family separation policy.
Earlier this month, a 32-year-old Arizona worker at a Southwest Keys facility—contracted by the government to detain migrant kids—was arrested and charged with molesting a 14-year-old girl, “accused of slipping into the girl's room late at night and forcibly kissing and inappropriately touching her, according to court documents,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported. This taxpayer-funded abuse is horrendous—and it’s widespread.
Internal documents going all the way back to 2009 have revealed that border agents themselves have assaulted migrant children “with their feet, fists, flashlights, and Tasers. In one case, an agent ran over a 17 year old with a patrol vehicle and then got out and punched the child in the head and body.” Other agents have molested children, while some have blocked families fleeing violence from asking for asylum at the border, in violation of U.S. law.
These out-of-control immigration agents are also deadly. Border officials initially claimed Claudia Patricia Gómez González, an unarmed migrant woman who crossed illegally into Texas, was shot and killed because she attacked an agent. They lied. A follow-up statement removed any references to the “blunt objects” she allegedly had in her hand—their claim had been disputed by an eyewitness— and a planned press conference was cancelled.
Back in her native Guatemala, Claudia’s distraught mom, Lidia, wept for a daughter who left her home for opportunities in America. Instead, she was flown back to her family in a casket. “I want justice. Why did they do this to her?” she cried. “They should have just sent her back home. Why did they do this? They killed her. You are with God. I know you are with God."
Meanwhile, 14 months’ worth of ICE data reveal that the arrests of immigrants with no criminal record at all have more than tripled under Trump, “and may still be accelerating,” NBC News reports. “Bad hombres?” Bullshit. It’s hardworking moms and dads who are getting swept up by ICE. It’s families that are getting decimated by ICE and Border Patrol’s cruel tactics. This is what Trump is “honoring” at the White House next week.
“Instead of using ICE and Border Patrol agents as a backdrop for a midterm political rally,” America’s Voice’s Frank Sharry said, Trump officials “should hold an emergency meeting with ICE and CBP to discuss how to immediately comply with the family reunification court order whose deadline passed three weeks ago.” Tom Jawetz of the Center for American Progress: “Only this White House would give medals for taking thousands of immigrant children from their parents, and continuing to detain hundreds of orphaned kids in defiance of a court order.”