By Trévon Austin
14 July 2018
The Trump administration has
blatantly ignored a court order requiring it to reunify children under the age
of five who were separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border. Out of
103 of the youngest children, only 57 children were reunited with their parents
while the remaining 46 were deemed “ineligible” for alleged “safety” reasons or
because their parents were already deported or in criminal custody. That means
that roughly 2,950 of the 3,000 children separated from their families have not
been reunited with their parents.
Last month, US District Judge
Dana Sabraw established a series of deadlines for the Trump administration to
reunite the nearly 3,000 children separated from their parents, mostly under
the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. The first group of children was
required to be reunited with their parents by Tuesday.
The government falsely claims
that it is in full compliance with Sabraw’s order. Attorney General Jeff
Sessions, Homeland Security (DHS), Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Health and
Human Services Secretary (HHS) Alex Azar said in a joint statement that their
departments “worked tirelessly” to safely reunite children, and the Department
of Justice (DOJ) has been negotiating with Sabraw to carve out exceptions.
The media has effectively
abandoned the issue, deeming it resolved. The media has instead focused on
bogus allegations of “Russian intervention” in the US elections. But in
reality, hundreds of parents will never see their children again as a result of
Trump’s policy.
Half of the children under the
age of five who were not returned to their parents were not returned because
the parents are in criminal custody in the United States or have been sent back
to their home countries. Twelve parents have already been deported and have
found it impossible to locate their children. The US government claims that it
is working with foreign consulates in an effort to return children to the
deported adults, officials said.
Although the Trump
Administration has claimed that it has stopped large-scale separations of
families at the border, some parents claim that they were separated from their
children after the supposed halting of the family separation policy. Even if
the family separation policy were actually halted, the change would only mean a
return to the status quo previously set by the Obama administration under which
families were detained together in immigration jail.
In reality, families crossing
the border will still face the possibility of being separated and children will
continue to be used as a deterrent. In their joint statement, the DOJ, DHS, and
HHS confirmed this:
“Our message has been clear
all along: Do not risk your own life or the life of your child by attempting to
enter the United States illegally,” the statement said. “Apply lawfully and
wait your turn.”
The government has also
implemented tougher rules for migrants seeking asylum in the United States.
Earlier this week, officials at the US border were provided with a new set of
guidelines that will likely lead to more asylum seekers being turned away
before they have had a chance to prove their “credible fear” of returning to
their home country before an immigration judge.
On Wednesday, US Citizenship
and Immigration Services issued a memo that indicates asylum seekers fleeing
domestic or gang violence should generally be denied entry into the United
States, and also notes that officers may use an illegal border crossing against
a migrant in his or her asylum case.
Under US law, migrants who
demonstrate they have a “credible fear” of persecution in their home country
can be granted asylum within the United States. Migrants that cross the
US-Mexico border, illegally or through legal ports of entry without valid
visas, are placed into detention and typically given a “credible fear”
interview after a few days.
However, the new memo all but
reverses such rules. Some reports from the border have even shown that migrants
trying to enter legally are being turned away.
The new guidelines largely
mimic a decision made by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month. Sessions
reversed long-standing US policy by ruling that most victims of gang or
domestic violence alone are not eligible for asylum under federal law.
Ignoring the fact that the US
is largely responsible for destabilizing countries in Central America, Session
wrote, “the mere fact that a country may have problems effectively policing
certain crimes or that certain populations are more likely to be victims of
crime, cannot itself establish an asylum claim.”
Sessions’ decision and the new
memo have already drawn criticism from immigration lawyers.
Laura Lynch, a senior policy
lawyer with the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the Texas
Tribune that migrants wouldn’t have any opportunity “to obtain a lawyer or
provide evidence to corroborate their claims” under the new policies. “This
memo…is effectively shutting off access to asylum in the US,” she said.
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