Seventy days. It’s been 70 days since a federal judge’s reunification deadline, yet 136 migrant kids continue to remain separated from parents, according to the most recent numbers from 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.
This, much like the record number of migrant children overall jailed by the U.S., is a crisis of the administration’s own making. Trump officials chose to make family separation at the border official policy, contrary to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen’s numerous, and shameless, lies.
There was never a plan on how or when to piece these broken families back together—a recent report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general revealed that the administration’s claim there was a central database linking children and parents was a total fabrication. Now administration officials continue to struggle to reunite the remaining separated kids, and it’s very possible that some kids may never see their parents again.
What’s happened to these kids and families is criminal, yet there’s been no accountability from administration officials, not even one single resignation, over the policy itself or the willful violation of a court order. The judge in the case has, inexplicably, refused to hold anyone in the administration accountable—but we can this November. Family separation remains a crisis. Do not forget the children.
No comments: