Families Still Separated
- Maggie Kissinger
- Jul 27, 2018
- 2 min read
The federal government had until Thursday, July 26 to reunite the families it separated at the border and many parents have yet to see their children again.
Trump's "zer0-tolerance policy" forced thousands of children from the arms of their parents over the past couple of months. These families migrated from Central America seeking safety and protection in the U.S., but were instead met with prosecution, assault and separation from their children.
“Close to a thousand parents remain separated from their children,” The ACLU said in yesterday’s court filing. That approximate number includes hundreds of parents who were removed from the U.S. possibly without their children, children who were deemed “ineligible” for this court order, and parents whose cases are still “under review.”
The classification of "ineligible" concerning parents and their children is callous and inhumane. How is a person "ineligible" to see their parent or child again?
As many as 463 parents are not in the U.S. anymore. Attorneys and advocates worry that they were deported without their children, a fact that would make reunification highly unlikely.
About 120 parents have waived their right to reunification. Many parents felt forced to sign the documents waiving their rights. Others said the forms were difficult to understand due to language barriers and misinformation from immigration lawyers.
There shouldn't be any case at all in which innocent people, victims of violence and economic hardship, are separated from their children indefinitely.
The federal government is giving little to no information on the "red flags" from "case file reviews" on children and parents waiting to be reunited. What they did provide “was too general to be useful,” the ACLU said. There doesn't seem to be any viable reason to keep these families separated.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw is pleased with the efforts the government is taking to reunite most families but is critical of the zero-tolerance policy that separated them in the first place. This week he said the government gave no “forethought as to reunification and keeping track of people, and that’s the fallout we’re seeing...there has to be an accounting."
We here at This Boy's Vida are critical, as well, of the inhumane practices of the federal government concerning immigrants from Central America. The "zero-tolerance" is placed against this group of immigrants, only.
Joe, Cynthia and their parents suffered from discrimination at the hands of the government, causing years of suffering and an inability to settle down. This led to trauma that neither can fully recover from. Our show aims to inform viewers about the kind of destruction this kind of discrimination causes in the U.S. We are witnessing an escalation in the racist treatment Central Americans suffer and hopefully we can all work together to bring about an end to it.
Photo Courtesy of Joseph Orosco
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