Tag: Trump separation of families

THE LATEST: Hundreds of Children Separated from Families for Longer Than Court-Mandated Limit

More than 130 children remain separated from their families because of Trump’s cruel policy, which the DHS Inspector General says was flawed from the start due, in part, to the Trump administration’s indifference to family separations. Now, we’ve also learned that the Trump administration kept hundreds of children detained for longer than the court-mandated time limit of 72-hours, including for as long as 25 days in the case of one child. Here’s the latest:

The Trump administration left at least 860 immigrant children in holding cells longer than the court-mandated time limit.

Washington Post: “The DHS Office of Inspector General’s review found at least 860 migrant children were left in Border Patrol holding cells longer than the 72-hour limit mandated by U.S. courts, with one minor confined for 12 days and another for 25.”

More than 130 children remain separated from their families, and the majority of their parents have already been deported.

MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff: “BREAKING: New numbers just released by Trump administration on remaining separated migrant kids. ➡ 136 *still* in custody, not eligible for reunification or discharge. ➡ 3 of those kids are under 5 years old. ➡ Parents of 96 of those kids already deported.” Continue reading “THE LATEST: Hundreds of Children Separated from Families for Longer Than Court-Mandated Limit”

White House admits 559 children still separated from their families

The following article by Eric Boehert was posted on the ShareBlue.com website August 10, 2018:

Deadline after deadline is missed.

Credit: Carolyn Kaster, AP Photo)

Trump’s national disgrace of kidnapping migrant children at the border and ripping families apart remains unresolved.

Today, weeks after a federal judge demanded the children be reunited with their parents, 559 remain separated, according to a new government filing.

“Of the 559 children, 386 remain separated because their family members are not in the U.S.; 51 because contact has yet to be made with family members; 87 because ‘red flags’ came up during the family members’ background checks; 88 because the parents are facing separate prosecution; 163 because family members ‘indicated desire against reunification;’ and 20 because ‘further review’ has shown the government didn’t actually separate them from their parents,” the San Diego Tribune reports.

View the complete article here.

Worker at US child immigration facility arrested for molestation

The following article by the Telegraph reporters was posted on their website August 2, 2018:

Fernando Magaz Negrete after his arrest on suspicion of molestation Credit: Maricopa Co. Sheriff’s Office

A worker at a nonprofit organisation in the US that houses immigrant children separated from their parents at the border has been arrested on suspicion of molesting a 14-year-old girl at its one of its facilities in Phoenix, police said Wednesday.

Southwest Key, which operates the facility, declined to say whether the 14-year-old girl was an immigrant who was separated from her parents.

Fernando Magaz Negrete kissed and groped the girl in her bedroom at the facility on June 27 in an encounter witnessed by the girl’s 16-year-old roommate, police said.

View the complete article here.

Trump’s Family Separation Crisis

Credit: John Moore, Getty Images

Today, the Trump administration has defied a court order and failed to meet yet another reunification deadline to reunite more than 1,500 children who were separated from their parents. Make no mistake–Trump created the family separation crisis, and his own policy has led to thousands of children being separated from their families.

When history is written, Trump’s treatment of immigrant families will be remembered as one of our nation’s darkest hours. America has forever been a nation of immigrants, yet the Trump administration is actively engineering a humanitarian crisis.

Now, the Trump administration is using every excuse not to reunite separated families. They’ve continued to incarcerate children in nightmarish conditions, deport parents without their children, and refuse immigrants urgent medical care with dire consequences. They’re even putting infants into deportation court by themselves. The only reason any children have been reunited with their parents is because courts are forcing the Trump administration to start dealing with the crisis they created. Trump officials deserve no credit for these reunifications. Continue reading “Trump’s Family Separation Crisis”

DNC on Trump Administration Keeping Families Separated

Today, the Trump administration failed to meet yet another court-ordered reunification deadline today to reunite more than 1,500 children who were separated from their parents. DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement:

“The unconscionable cruelty continues. Once again, the Trump administration has defied a court order and failed to reunite children with their parents after heartlessly tearing them apart. When history is written, Donald Trump’s treatment of immigrant families will be remembered as one of our nation’s darkest hours.

“All children must be reunited with their parents immediately. Democrats believe that diversity and compassion are our nation’s greatest strengths. We believe in fixing our immigration system, not uprooting lives and shattering families. If Republicans truly cared about these families and American values, they would help Democrats end Trump’s humanitarian crisis by passing a bipartisan solution that actually protects children.”

Here are the latest stories of Trump’s inhumane family separation crisis: Continue reading “DNC on Trump Administration Keeping Families Separated”

HHS secretary: Separating immigrant families is ‘one of the great acts of American generosity’

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress.org website July 11, 2018:

Secretary Azar boasted of the Trump administration’s abusive policy, claiming his department had nothing to hide.

Alex Azar, HHS Secretary. Credit:  Win McNamee, Getty Images

The same day the federal government missed a court-imposed deadline to reunite roughly 84 children under the age of 5 with their families — after being forcibly separated from them at the U.S.-Mexico border — Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar appeared on CNN to defend how his agency has handled the recent immigration crisis.

“We have nothing to hide about how we operate these facilities,” Azar told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday night, referring to the juvenile and “tender age” facilities in which many of the separated children are currently being detained, which HHS officials have barred media outlets and public figures from filming or visiting unannounced.

Speaking to the conditions in which the children are being held, he added, “It is one of the great acts of American generosity and charity, what we are doing for these unaccompanied kids.”

View the complete article on the ThinkProgress.org website here.

Trump administration seeks more time to reunite some migrant families split at border

The following article by Maria Sacchetti was posted on the Washington Post website July 6, 2018:

Migrant families line up to enter a bus station after they were processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on June 24. Credit: David J. Phillip, AP

Lawyers for the Trump administration on Friday asked a federal judge for more time to reunite immigrant children with their parents, the latest signal that the government is struggling to bring families back together after separating thousands as they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ordered the government to return children younger than 5 to their parents by Tuesday, but federal lawyers said they could meet that deadline for only about half of the 101 children in that age group.

Officials say they have deployed hundreds of government employees and opened a command center usually reserved for natural disasters to match parents and children. But the massive effort is complicated by difficulty in locating some parents and, in other cases, uncertainty about the parents’ identities. Some parents have been deported and others have been freed in the United States, apparently without a system to monitor everyone’s whereabouts.

View the full post on the Washington Post website here.

NRA complains Trump’s child detention centers are ‘too nice’

The following article by Oliver Willis was posted on the ShareBlue.com website June 23, 2018:

As part of its ongoing crusade to defend Trump and attack his detractors, NRA-TV is now complaining that facilities used to hold children taken from their families are ‘too nice.’

The NRA is promoting the ridiculous allegation that children who’ve been ripped apart from their families are being held in facilities that are “too nice.” Continue reading “NRA complains Trump’s child detention centers are ‘too nice’”

The government accidentally just admitted it separated 3,300 immigrant kids from their families

The following article by Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 22, 2018:

Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

This is a lot more kids than we thought.

The U.S. government accidentally just admitted it separated more than 3,000 immigrant kids from their families.

In a statement to CNN’s Nick Valencia on Friday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said that it has reunited “approximately 500 children (over 15%) with their parents who had been referred for prosecution for illegal entry.” Continue reading “The government accidentally just admitted it separated 3,300 immigrant kids from their families”

Still digging: Jeff Sessions says Trump administration ‘never really intended’ to separate families

The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website June 21, 2018:

The Trump administration said that family separation wasn’t its policy and that it couldn’t fix the problem itself. Then it gave lie to all of that by reversing the policy.

You would think it would stop barking up this tree, but you’d be wrong.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a new interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, seems to double down on the idea that this was never the intent — although he spoke about separating families a full six weeks ago and even described it as a deterrent to potential future illegal immigration. Continue reading “Still digging: Jeff Sessions says Trump administration ‘never really intended’ to separate families”