[News] Parents of 545 children still not found three years after Trump separation policy

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/21/trump-separation-policy-545-children-parents-still-not-found?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

PARENTS OF 545 CHILDREN STILL NOT FOUND THREE YEARS AFTER TRUMP 
SEPARATION POLICY

Ed Pilkington - October 21, 2020
-------------------------

Three years after Donald Trump ordered a crackdown on undocumented 
migrants crossing into the US, lawyers are still struggling to find the 
parents of 545 children separated from them under the "zero-tolerance" 
policy [1], according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

In a court filing [2], the ACLU said that about two-thirds of the 
parents had been deported back to the country of origin in Central 
America, leaving their separated children behind. In the rush to carry 
out Trump's orders, the locations of the parents were not recorded and 
three years later they still cannot be found.

The zero-tolerance policy was announced [3] in April 2018. It was later 
revealed that the administration had begun family separation the 
previous year under a secret pilot program.

In total, 1,030 children were removed from their parents by the US 
government under that pilot scheme, of whom 485 children have had their 
parents found under a scheme imposed by federal judges. The ACLU and a 
team of lawyers have been tasked by the courts with finding all the 
parents.

Under the pilot scheme, about 66% of the parents separated from their 
children were deported back to Central America before the court order 
was imposed on the Trump administration [4] to find them. The search for 
the parents, who are called "unreachable" in the court document, has 
been hampered by the coronavirus pandemic.

The on-going suffering of hundreds of children and their parents lost to 
each other as a result of government action three years after the event 
has caused widespread anger and revulsion. Paola Luisi, director of the 
coalition of almost 250 groups, Families Belong Together, said that 
efforts would continue to find the parents until they had all been 
found.

"The Trump administration ripped 545 children away from their parents, 
lied about it, then lost track of them as they departed them into 
danger. That's par for the course for a sadistic immigration system."

Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project, 
told NBC News [5]: "We will not stop looking until we have found every 
one of the families, no matter how long it takes. The tragic reality is 
that hundreds of parents were deported to Central America without their 
children, who remain here with foster families or distant relatives."

Family separation was one of the most visceral results of the Trump 
administration's ruthless assault on illegal border crossing. The goal 
of the zero-tolerance policy was to criminally prosecute every migrant 
who entered the US without authorization - irrespective of the 
consequences to their families including their children.

The full horror of the administration's intentions was only disclosed 
earlier this month when the New York Times [6] reported previously 
unpublished communications between top officials. Jeff Sessions, then US 
attorney general, told prosecutors in a conference call in May 2018: "We 
need to take away children."

Notes of that call taken by a participant added: "If care about kids, 
don't bring them in. Won't give amnesty to people with kids."

The then deputy AG, Rod Rosenstein, told prosecutors at the time that 
children should be pulled away from their parents no matter how young 
they were - even if they were infants.



Links:
------
[1] 
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jun/18/why-are-families-being-separated-at-the-us-border-explainer
[2] 
http://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2020/images/10/20/ms_l_v_us_immigration_and_customs_enforcement__casdce-18-00428__0556.0.pdf
[3] 
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-announces-zero-tolerance-policy-criminal-illegal-entry
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/trump-administration
[5] 
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/lawyers-say-they-can-t-find-parents-545-migrant-children-n1244066
[6] 
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/06/us/politics/family-separation-border-immigration-jeff-sessions-rod-rosenstein.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
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