Separating Children From Parents Who Have Done Nothing Wrong.
Baby Ripped From The Breast
CNN reported on a breastfeeding Honduran women had her baby horrifying taken away from her in the process of breastfeeding her baby. She was handcuffed while resisting having the agents take her baby away. She is seeking refugee status. There was no law broken other than the current zero policy that is against the spirit of the law
Punishment of the Innocents
Punishment of the Innocents
The Massacre of the Innocents is the biblical account of infanticide by Herod the Great. Although we are not killing them with a sword, we - the citizens of the United States of America, land of the free, home of the brave are allowing a system of administrative punishments, established by law to 'killing children softly'.
My letter to Jeff Sessions (in 2 parts since 2000 max on website)
I wonder what poems and sad letters kids are writing in detention centers while being separated by their families today. They probably feel utter despondent abandonment.
https://www.justice.gov/doj/webform/your-message-department-justice
The Trump administration has said that the separating of children from the parents was a tactic to deter future non-port crossings. The cruelty is for cruelty's sake, using innocent helpless children as political pawns.
The policy tramples the rights of immigrants who may have a legitimate claim for asylum in the USA, many of whom have no criminal record. US. law clearly allows for people in the United States a right to seek asylum, It doesn't matter how you come in.
Not only are the kids being held hostage, but those supervising the kids are not allowed to hold them when they cry.
"One woman tried to give her toys and books to calm her down, but even that shelter worker seemed frustrated, Kraft told The Washington Post, because as much as she wanted to console the little girl, she couldn't touch, hold or pick her up to let her know everything would be all right. That was the rule, Kraft said she was told: They're not allowed to touch the children."
It reminds me of the Romanian orphans where early neglect altered kid's brains, stunted their growth and mental development because no one is talking to you, or no one is soothing you when you get upset.
What is currently being done is doing irreparable harm because the really basic, foundational needs of having trust in adults as a young child are not being met. That contradicts everything we know that the kids need to build their health.
Separating children from parents by telling the parent that they are taking the kids away 'for a bath' only never to be seen again, is unnecessary cruelty that only a feckless country would do. There is no law that you are following that calls for this. You say you are following the law when it is merely a policy change that uses suffering as a discouragement.
Romans 13:10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
As the head of the DOJ, for you to be accustomed to using torture shows that you see detainees as something less than human beings by exerting excruciating emotional distress on innocent children and desperate parents.
ProPublica has obtained audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, in which children can be heard wailing as an agent jokes
Documented CBP Abuse
"The documents show numerous cases involving federal officials’ verbal, physical and sexual abuse of migrant children; the denial of clean drinking water and adequate food; failure to provide necessary medical care; detention in freezing, unsanitary facilities; and other violations of federal law and policy and international law." - The pervasive abuse and neglect of unaccompanied immigrant children detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
There is a pattern
Following The Rules Won't Save Yourself
Yu Mei Chen, wife of detained Chinese national Xiu Qing You, cries during a protest in support of her husband on June 18, 2018 in New York City. You, a Queens father who has been in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, was detained by ICE agents when he went for his green card interview last month and is now being threatened with deportation back to China. Spencer Platt, Getty Images
Jeff Sessions Was Weaponizing Religion In An Appeal To Law
Reunite an immigrant parent with their child Fundraiser for RAICES by Charlotte Willner and Dave Willner
We are collectively revulsed at what's happening to immigrant families on our southern border. In times when we often think that the news can't possibly get worse, it does.
The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), serves immigrants and refugees in our community by providing immigration-related legal services, advocacy and opportunities for educational and social support. We believe that by actively promoting the well-being and informed participation of immigrants and refugees in the community, everyone benefits.
Why is it the strongest advocates of tighter immigration policies are decendents of immigrats themselves?
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller is the major driver of the United States harshest immigration policies, had great grandparents were were ganted asylum in 1903.
Trump's zero policy has brought down worldwide condemnation from the UN and world leaders.
“The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” said Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, a Jordanian prince.
Arizona senator John McCain tweeted, "The administration’s current family separation policy is an affront to the decency of the American people, and contrary to principles and values upon which our nation was founded. The administration has the power to rescind this policy. It should do so now."
Act Now! Get Political Active!
We’re in the midst of an immigration crisis at our southern border: U.S. authorities have forcibly separated more than 2,000 children from their families — that’s nearly 50 kids a day being taken away from their parents and thrown into makeshift internment camps. We cannot let this go on.
Let’s pressure Congress to get behind this push for justice.
There is no justification, political or moral, for breaking up families who have come to our border to flee violence and abuse and to seek the legal recourse of asylum in our country. It’s nothing but an affront to the values — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — that make America the fair and just land of opportunity we know it can be.
Each day this mistreatment continues is a blemish on our democracy. Please take action today to protect families at the border
The Trump administration has espoused that they are merely separating children from MS-13 Child smugglers and not from their own parents.
Yet only 0.6% of fiscal year 2018 are alleged child smuggling.
The Trump administration has annouced that it would “not apologize” for separating families and are “doing our job.”
Sounds like the Nuremberg defense.
"More than 600 members of the United Methodist Church have issued a formal complaint against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a fellow church member, charging that his "zero tolerance" policy on immigration violates church rules and may constitute child abuse." - https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/19/politics/sessions-church-complaint/index.html
“This is really an evil policy. And no matter how Trump tries to change the topic to something else, it is not OK to hurt children to send a message.” - Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly
From: https://www.logicallyfallacious.com/tools/lp/Bo/LogicalFallacies/73/Appeal-to-the-Law
Appeal to the Law
When following the law is assumed to be the morally correct thing to do, without justification.
Laws become archaic when they do not keep up with social norms and cultural changes. What was once deemed "immoral" could easily change to "moral" within a few years and vice versa. Never simply assume that laws are good and right; demand justification.
From: https://askdrbrown.org/
- In the Washington Post: “Jeff Sessions defended family separation with the Bible. John Oliver countered with Dr. Seuss.”
- On CNN: “What does the Bible verse Jeff Sessions quoted really mean?”
- In USA Today: “Why is Jeff Sessions quoting Romans 13 and why is the bible verse so often invoked?”
- In the Huffington Post: “Jeff Sessions Has Got The Bible All Wrong.”
- In the Star Tribune: “Jeff Sessions, immigration and the Bible: The problems with citing a passage to support an opinion.”
From NorthernSky Jacob's Trouble:
"They are trying to subvert asylum laws by frightening LEGAL asylum seekers into giving up their applications under threat of child abuse."
Further Reading
"There are reasons to question CAP’s efficacy and efficiency, and to look closely at unintended consequences. ... Moreover, despite this massive enforcement web, only 3 percent of the total number of CAP encounters resulted in removal of an individual with a conviction for a violent crime or a crime the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) classifies as serious. Indeed, strikingly, CAP removed mainly people with no criminal convictions and people who have not been convicted of violent crimes or crimes the FBI classifies as serious. " - https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/enforcement-overdrive-comprehensive-assessment-ice%E2%80%99s-criminal-alien-program
Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia from Guatemala is suing because even though she has now been released from custody, the US government will not tell her where her 7-year-old son is. She was never charged any criminal offense.
Alicia Lieberman, who runs the Early Trauma Treatment Network at University of California, San Francisco, said decades of study show early separations can cause permanent emotional damage.
“Children are biologically programmed to grow best in the care of a parent figure. When that bond is broken through long and unexpected separations with no set timeline for reunion, children respond at the deepest physiological and emotional levels.” - Alicia Lieberman, who runs the Early Trauma Treatment Network at University of California, San Francisco,
Darwin Micheal Mejia, 7 reunited with his mother, Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia,
Darwin Micheal Mejia, 7 reunited with his mother, Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia, after a month of separation. Beata sued the Trump administration in U.S. in D.C. challenging the family separation, that says that the constitutional guarantees of due process was violated and deprived her of her child’s “care and custody”
The boy said nothing during the following press conference.
If Trump’s order “is going to stop all family separations in the future, then that part of the lawsuit may no longer go forward. But what the executive order does not address, and it’s a clear and critical omission, is the reunification of thousands of young children who are sitting by themselves and who have already been separated.” - Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project,
Five children between the ages of 12 and 17 who all arrived unaccompanied are suing for being prescribed antidepressants as one of the cruel practices that may result in lifelong trauma and harm. -The Hill
“We need to have a serious rethink about current levels of prescribing, because it may well be that the drugs are in fact contributing to the disability burden.” Dr Joanna Moncrieff,
People on SSRIs for anxiety or panic disorder may become depressed persisting long after the SSRI is discontinued. This condition is called Tardive Dysphoria. - Psychology Today."
"In virtually every mass school shooting during the past 15 years, the shooter has been on or in withdrawal from psychiatric drugs.” - Lawrence Hunter
Court-imposed July 10 deadline to reunite the families appears that it will miss the deadline.
ICE are telling rejected asylum seekers to sign a voluntary deportation form in order to be reunited with children before leaving or be deported without them.
“We’re hearing that people were told [by immigration agents], ‘You don’t have the option to seek asylum and be reunited with your children." - Gracie Willis
“They are capitalizing on the fear of these parents to have their children given out to someone else, and their purpose is to deport them.” - Adriana Zambrano
But even if the parent is released it still take weeks to fingerprint and inspect home.
'The Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with caring for those children, won't release them to sponsors — even biological parents — without a background check.'- npr
“Unfortunately, the president has created this situation where ICE is not doing what it was created to do. It is being used as his own personal police force, and in those actions it is actually making it less safe because the critical functions of ICE can no longer happen when the president has them going after people in church and workplaces.” - Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI)
As reported by justia;
Judge Victor Bolden of J.S.R. v. Sessions. said, “the parties agree that a constitutional violation occurred when the Government separated children from their parents—both on the basis of substantive due process, as the separation deprived the children of their right to family integrity, and procedural due process, as J.S.R. and V.F.B. were given no notice and no fair opportunity for a hearing before being separated from their parents.The Government failed to provide the children with notice or a hearing, instead taking their parents, while distracting the children.”
Add your name: Demand that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resign immediately.
The humanitarian crisis at the border goes beyond separating families and jailing children. Now, we’re faced with breaking news about horrific abuse in detention centers:
Children forcibly injected with psychotropic drugs. A six-year-old girl sexually abused while in detention who was forced to sign a statement saying it was her responsibility to stay away from her abuser. And this week, a report about a child jailed by ICE who died after apparently negligent care.
Add your name: Demand that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resign immediately.
Nielsen oversaw the implementation of Trump’s “zero humanity” policy. She directed the cruel separation of thousands of migrant families seeking safety in this country. Replacing her isn’t enough, but leaving her in place is unthinkable. We demand that Nielsen resign immediately.
According to The New York Times, over 1,300 claims of sexual abuse have been filed against ICE by women and children in detention between 2013 and 2017 -- and that because the abuse is often perpetrated by staff in power over terrified immigrants, that number likely represents just a small percentage of abuse that occurs.
The work of ending family detention, reuniting families separated by ICE, and preventing any more abuse of immigrants by American authorities can feel like too much for one person.
But together, we’re a powerful force. Together, we can right these wrongs. We can protect children.
We have to.
Hold Trump and his administration responsible for the humanitarian disaster they’ve created -- demand DHS Secretary Nielsen resign.
Right now, add your name:
Grace v. Sessions: policies are against the law for gender-based persecution for asylum & gut process protections.
NYT reported that one of the plaintiffs, Carmen and her daughter was taken in the middle of the night,and put on a plane back to El Salvador. Without any explanation, DHS said the two of them will not get off the plane and will be flown back to the USA immediately.
No Agency Claims Any Legal Responsibility
"The subcommittee began investigating HHS’s sponsorship screening process in 2014, after a human trafficking ring was busted for luring children into crossing the border. Members of the ring then acted as sponsors so that the migrant children were released. They were then allegedly forced them to work for no pay under threat of violence."
The ACLU has said that those parents already deported back to home countries are refusing to be reunited with thier children who had been separated from them at the border because their countries are too dangerous. The exact reason why they were seeking refugee status in the United States in the first place.
12,800 children were detained in federal custody September 2018, compared to 2,400 children detained in May 2017 not because more kids are coming in but due to not being released.
200 million transferred to ICE who has a history of "lack of fiscal discipline" and "unsustainable" spending.
"The additional $200 million would put ICE's budget for detention and transportation at more than $3.6 billion." - CNN
