At 64 days past a judge’s reunification deadline, 136 kidnapped migrant children continue to remain separated from parents, according to the new numbers released by the Trump administration. Of those kids, three are age 5 or under. The parents of 96 kids have already been deported. Of those children, two are age 5 or under.
These kids are still detained, at risk of permanent trauma, 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.
Earlier this week, investigative groups obtained an April memo, almost assuredly signed by Nielsen, authorizing family separation at the southern border as official policy of the U.S. government. Nielsen repeatedly lied to us, and with the stroke of a pen, shattered—and continues to shatter—thousands of migrant lives.
Are you angry over this? Are you angry over unchecked federal immigration agencies? Are you angry over a Republican Congress that refuses to hold officials, like Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen accountable? Then get out this November and vote in a new Congress that will.
Judge Dana Sabraw has cut officials plenty of slack, but we don’t have to. We can do something about it. We’ve shown our support for these kids through marches, with donations, with our tears and frustration. But we have to do more. We have to sweep in a new Congress that will hold the perpetrators of this humanitarian disaster accountable and will ensure justice for families. Family separation remains a crisis. Do not forget the children.
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