Political Action to Resist Trump Separation of Families

March 04, 2022 Post a Comment

As public outrage over the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant families apprehended at the U.s.a.-Mexico border continues to simmer, Democrats are start to go on the offensive, in Washington and on social media.

Over the weekend, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) traveled to Texas to see detention centers where undocumented children are being held past border authorities. His trip to a Brownsville facility that refused him entry went viral, and brought renewed attention to the plight of the immigrant children in federal custody. In a telephone call with reporters Wednesday, he blasted the Trump assistants'southward immigration policy as "morally bankrupt ... wrong on every level."

Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California has renewed a button for two bills that would help reunify parents and children who have been separated at the border.

The Democratic push on the outcome comes in the wake of the Trump administration'south May vii annunciation that it would start separating all families apprehended at the border who are trying to cross into the United States without documentation. A recent story about i,500 "missing" children that went viral over Memorial Mean solar day weekend — though it appears few of those immigrant children really went missing, according to clearing advocates — further stoked public business over the fate of families seeking asylum in the The states.

President Trump has tried to steer the narrative, seemingly blaming Democrats for his administration's policy of family separation.

With more than families coming to the border, this issue is not likely to go away before long.

Merkley says young asylum seekers are existence kept in "cages"

On a press call this calendar week, Merkley relayed what he saw in Texas detention centers, including a processing eye in McAllen, Texas, to which he was granted entry. He said the atmospheric condition were "seared" into his heed, and described people in "dog kennel-manner cages, people crowded in with nothing but a space coating."

Merkley, who was rejected from ane location, described one "cage" that independent a group of boys, the youngest of whom he estimated was around 4 years erstwhile, all the way up to teenagers.

"There was one holding a group of boys [who] were lining up to eat," the senator said. "The smallest would barely come up upwardly to my belt buckle. This is non a zero-tolerance policy — this is a zilch-humanity policy."

Merkley is trying to continue media attention on a slow-rolling crunch of U.s.a. immigration policy toward unaccompanied minors. Though the surge of asylum seekers from Fundamental American countries like Venezuela, Honduras, and El salvador started in 2014, the Trump administration's response has sparked fury over how children and teens are treated. A contempo story about 1,500 "missing" children went viral over Memorial Day weekend, though immigration advocates say those children are probable safely placed with family members who might be undocumented, muddling the issue further.

The White House, meanwhile, has pushed back on Merkley's recounting of his experience with the detention centers. Deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley said before this week that the senator was "irresponsibly spreading blatant lies" and "smearing hardworking, dedicated constabulary enforcement officials."

On Tuesday, Merkley said the deportment of administration officials speak for themselves — and he's joining Democratic voices in calling for activity.

"It'south morally broke, it'due south wrong on every level," he said. "You don't hurt children to influence policy choices of the parents."

Democrats take some ideas virtually how to stop family separation

'The Harvest' Screening — Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard.

What to do with separated immigrant families has been a longstanding event extending all the way back to the Obama administration, but it's reemerging after the Trump administration'southward May 7 announcement information technology would start prosecuting all people apprehended at the border trying to cross into the The states without documentation, fifty-fifty those seeking aviary. An consequence of the policy is that families are being separated, as adults face up prosecution.

Democrats are trying to advance policy solutions to stop this from happening. Democratic Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard of California is one of the near fervent voices on this: She's one of two master sponsors of the Help Separated Families Act of 2018, along with fellow California Autonomous Rep. Norma Torres.

"The Trump administration'southward heartless anti-immigrant policies are tearing children from the loving arms of their undocumented parents," Roybal-Allard said in a argument. "It is time for our regime to affirm that your immigration status should not prohibit you lot from being a parent."

Though she first introduced the bill in 2012, she's made a renewed push in recent months as the public grows concerned about making sure parents accept the right resources to effort to place their children with family members or other caretakers. The beak does several things with the objective of keeping families together, including:

Ensuring the immigration status of a parent, legal guardian, or relative caregiver isn't used to split up them and their child.
Prohibiting child welfare agencies from filing for termination of parental rights when a fit and willing parent or relative has been deported or detained, or is otherwise involved in an immigration proceeding, which is increasingly an upshot equally the Trump administration has stepped upwards arrests.

Roybal-Allard also introduced a divide nib last calendar month aimed at giving immigrant children separated from their families certain legal protections. It's the similarly titled Assistance Separated Children Act, and the Congress member introduced it forth with Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN).

This bill essentially gives detained parents more elbowroom to make arrangements for their children to be cared for by another family member or caregiver while they are detained, and allowing detained parents to participate in the family court arrangement. It also ensures that parents and children tin even so visit and contact each other while the parent is detained, among other measures.

Fellow House Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal of Washington, Bennie Johnson of Mississippi, and Zoe Lofgren of California are leading a group of 108 Democrats calling for Congress to say that no DHS budget funds tin be used for family separation.

But these efforts are unlikely to go anywhere in a Republican-controlled Congress that has been paralyzed by inaction on immigration. Some moderate Republicans are pushing a discharge petition to force a floor vote on a fix for the Deferred Activity for Childhood Arrivals program, but that's a separate result related to work permits for young undocumented immigrants who are already in the United states of america.

With increased attention on undocumented children housed in detention centers, there'south some talk almost including action on unaccompanied minors too. It would be an uphill battle, simply one that Democrats and immigration advocates desire to continue in the public eye.

The Trump administration didn't get-go the humanitarian crisis, just it is exacerbating information technology

President Trump isn't giving any acceptance to the Democrats' ideas so far. Instead, he'due south looking to place the blame on them.

Trump tweeted Tuesday morning that family separation at the border "is the error of bad legislation passed by the Democrats," though he provided no examples of what legislation he was talking about.

Separating families at the Border is the fault of bad legislation passed past the Democrats. Border Security laws should be inverse but the Dems tin can't go their act together! Started the Wall.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 5, 2018

This is non true. No 1 in Congress has passed a police force declaring family separation should happen — information technology'south a policy enacted by the executive branch. Members of the Trump administration, including Attorney Full general Jeff Sessions, take framed the new policy as a mode to deter families from coming to the U.s..

"If people don't want to get separated from their children, they should not bring them with them," Sessions said in a recent interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. The radio host said he was "disturbed" by the administration's policy of separating young children from their families.

Vox's Dara Lind recently wrote about how the Trump administration settled on a family unit separation policy:

An increasing share of border crossers seeking aviary come as "family units": 1 or more adults with one or more children. (The Trump administration refers to them every bit "purported 'family units'" to underline the fact that they could be lying about their family human relationship.) And it's much harder for the regime to detain whole immigrant families than it is for them to detain adults.

Federal court rulings take set strict standards on the conditions nether which families can be detained. Under the Obama administration, courts ruled that they couldn't exist kept in detention for more than 20 days.

The Trump administration'south solution, now codification in policy, is to end treating them as families: to detain the parents as adults and place the children in the custody of Health and Human Services as "unaccompanied minors."

In some cases, co-ordinate to immigration lawyers, parents separated from their children have begged to withdraw their asylum applications — on the logic that it would be easier for them to reunify their families in their abode countries.

Hewitt and congressional Democrats share a common concern virtually family separation. Only business concern solitary may not be enough to actually become something done.

robinsonving1958.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.vox.com/2018/6/8/17429670/democrats-trump-family-separation-policy-border