Nearly two hundred migrant children kidnapped from the arms of parents continue to remain in U.S. custody, under a policy Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen repeatedly claimed never existed. “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border,” she tweeted back in June. “Period.” But that was a lie.
This week, two investigative groups obtained a late April memo, almost assuredly signed by Nielsen, authorizing family separation at the U.S./Mexico border as official policy of the United States government. Nielsen repeatedly lied to us, and with the stroke of a pen, shattered—and continues to shatter—thousands of migrant lives.
The most recent numbers show that 182 migrant children continue to remain separated from their parents, including six kids age 5 and under. The parents of 141 children have already been deported, including five kids age 5 and under. Having torn families apart with no plan set in place on how to reunite them, the filing also shows officials continue to mangle the reunification process.
“In the past week,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said, “parents have not been informed of changes in travel plans for their child and have traveled great distances only to have their child not arrive.” In other instances, “parents have not been given sufficient advance notice of an arriving child and the child has had to wait overnight, or for several days, for the parent to arrive at the reunification site.”
Wednesday, Sept. 26, also marks 62 days since a judge’s deadline ordering the administration to reunite these families, yet not one official has been held in contempt, been fired, or been forced to resign over this catastrophic humanitarian crisis repeatedly condemned by the U.N. Where are the resignations? Where’s the accountability? Why aren’t any asses getting hauled in front of Congress? If this Congress won’t do it, get a new one that will, and when that time comes, the first one must be Kirstjen Nielsen.
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