Tag: immigrant children

4 reasons why migrant children arriving alone to the US create a ‘border crisis

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Children arriving at the southern border without their parents have presented a political and humanitarian challenge for the past three presidents.

Their numbers began rising considerably after 2009, when 19,418 children were taken into custody at the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Unaccompanied minors peaked in 2014, with 68,000 apprehensions. Analysts say 2021 is on pace to break that record, with more than 600 children arriving dailyto the U.S.-Mexico border. Most are teenagers seeking asylum.

Reports of children in warehouses or jaillike facilities have set President Joe Biden on the defensive about what critics refer to as a “crisis at the border.” In his first press conference, on March 25, 2021, Biden repeatedly stressed that his practice is different from that of former President Donald Trump, who introduced a policy of separating migrant children from their parents and detaining them in cages. Continue reading.

United Nations Blasts Migrant Detention Centers For ‘Damage’ To Children

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet slammed the current state of facilities used by the Trump administration to detain migrants families.

“As a pediatrician, but also as a mother and a former head of State, I am deeply shocked that children are forced to sleep on the floor in overcrowded facilities, without access to adequate healthcare or food, and with poor sanitation conditions,” Bachelet, a former president of Chile, said in a statement released on Monday.

“Detaining a child even for short periods under good conditions can have a serious impact on their health and development — consider the damage being done every

View the complete July 8 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Trump administration cancels English classes, soccer, legal aid for unaccompanied child migrants in U.S. shelters

The Trump administration is canceling English classes, recreational programs and legal aid for unaccompanied minors staying in federal migrant shelters nationwide, saying the immigration influx at the southern border has created critical budget pressures.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement has begun discontinuing the funding stream for activities — including soccer — that have been deemed “not directly necessary for the protection of life and safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation,” said Department of Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Weber.

Federal officials have warned Congress that they are facing “a dramatic spike” in unaccompanied minors at the southern border and have asked Congress for $2.9 billion in emergency funding to expand shelters and care. The program could run out of money in late June, and the agency is legally obligated to direct funding to essential services, Weber said.

View the complete June 5 article by Maria Sacchetti on The Washington Post website here.

Thousands Of Immigrant Children Say They Have Been Sexually Abused While In US Custody

Andres Leighton, AP

Over the past four years, 5,859 allegations of sexual abuse involving unaccompanied immigrant children in US custody have been reported.

There have been nearly 6,000 reports of sexual abuse involving unaccompanied immigrant children while in the custody of the United States government in the last four years, according to documents made public Tuesday.

The documents from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) were released by Rep. Ted Deutch, a Florida Democrat, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the thousands of family separations that resulted from the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy enacted last year.

Over the past four years, 4,556 allegations of sexual abuse were reported to HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), and 1,303 were made to the Justice Department, the documents show.

View the complete February 27 article by Adolfo Flores on the Buzzfeed News website here.

Hundreds of migrant children remain in custody, though most separated families are reunited at court deadline

The following article by Nick Miroff and Samantha Schmidt was posted on the Washington Post website July 26, 2018:

For some seeking asylum, family separations were worth the risk: ‘Whatever it took, we had to get to this country’ (Zoeann Murphy, Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)

At the expiration of a court deadline to reunite migrant families separated during its “zero tolerance” border crackdown, the Trump administration said Thursday that it has delivered 1,442 children to parents detained in immigration custody, and is on track to return all of those deemed eligible for reunification.

But 711 children remain in government shelters because their parents have criminal records, their cases remain under review or the parents are no longer in the United States, officials said. They added that 431 parents of those children have been deported.

Chris Meekins, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services, which has led the reunification effort, told reporters that “hundreds of staff have worked 24/7” to meet the court’s 30-day deadline. Administration officials said they would work with the court to figure out how to return the remaining children, including those whose parents have been deported.

View the complete article here.

Grimm Compares Migrant Children’s Conditions to ‘Day Care’ Dropoff

The following article by Jeff Cirillo was posted on the Roll Call website June 20, 2018:

Former Rep. Michael Grimm, R-NY, compared the conditions for migrant children separated from their parents on the border to child day care. Credit: Bill Clark, CQ Roll Call file photo

Former Republican Rep. Michael G. Grimm of New York dismissed the cries of migrant children separated from their families on the border as equivalent to the weeping of kids being dropped off at day care.

“I can take you to any nursery and you’re going to hear the exact same things. As a mother leaves to go to work and has to leave her child at day care, you’re going to hear those exact same things,” Grimm said during an interview with local news media Tuesday.

Grimm, who is challenging Republican Rep. Dan Donovan for the 25th District of New York congressional seat, was referring to audiotapes secretly recorded and released by ProPublica of migrant children wailing after being separated from their parents. Continue reading “Grimm Compares Migrant Children’s Conditions to ‘Day Care’ Dropoff”

US government can’t keep track of kids Trump rips from their families

The following article by Oliver Willis was posted on the ShareBlue website May 25, 2018:

The Trump administration’s callous policies mean families are being ripped apart at the border. And the U.S. is losing immigrant children.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions

The Trump administration is abusing helpless children through the new immigration policies it has enacted.

In its zeal to inflict harm on a minority population that Trump has previously denigrated with terms such as “animals” and “rapists,” families of undocumented immigrants are now being ripped apart at the border.

Not only are those families experiencing the brutal trauma of being separated in a strange country, but they’re also losing track of the children affected in the process.

One cruel act is being followed up by another act of cruelty, simply to satiate Trump’s own bigotry and the hatred embraced by his core supporters.

Continue reading “US government can’t keep track of kids Trump rips from their families”