Research: Children being separated from their parents at the border
Taking Children away from their Parents... the idea of it is not good in any way. But it happens frequently, probably more frequently then you could guess:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/633207/annual-terminations-of-parental-rights-us/
So in 2016, 65,000 parents had their rights terminated. Sixty Five Thousand. Let that sink in. Now, why do parents lose their rights?
Each state has its own statute(s) providing for the termination of parental rights. The most common reasons for involuntary termination include:
A parent can also lose his or her parental rights after being convicted of certain felonies. If a parent commits a crime of violence against his or her child or another family member, the court has the option to remove his or her parental rights and terminate the child-parent relationship. Also, if a parent is required to be imprisoned for a length of time that requires the child to enter foster care because there are no alternatives, the parent can lose parental rights.
The Border
So why are parents and children being separated at the border?
CNN Reports:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/us/immigration-family-separations-questions/index.html
(CNN)"Federal authorities have separated at least 2,000 children from their parents at the border as part of the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and stop other immigrants from making the trek"
"Administration officials say that this is only happening to families who enter the United States illegally, crossing between ports of entry.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy organizations say that's not true. These groups say they've documented cases of parents who've claimed asylum at ports of entry and also had their children taken away.
Department of Homeland Security officials maintain that aside from prosecutions, they only separate adults and children if a familial or custodial relationship cannot be verified, or if they are concerned about the well-being of the child."
The Independent (UK) Reports:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-immigration-children-audio-trump-border-patrol-separate-families-parents-detention-center-a8405501.html
The UN’s top human rights official has likened the situation at the border to child abuse, and the American Association of Paediatricians has said it could cause “irreparable harm.” Former Republican First Lady Laura Bush decried the practice in an editorial over the weekend, comparing it to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
But Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen continued to defend the zero tolerance policy at a White House press briefing on Monday. She claimed the children in DHS custody were being being “well taken care of” and receiving meals, medical care, and educational services.
===============================================================
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-family-separation-20180618-story.html
According to the San Diego Union Tribune:
There are currently about 11,351 children in ORR facilities, according to an agency official. That’s about 95 percent of the agency’s current capacity of 11,956 beds though it has another 1,620 on reserve, he said.
An announcement is expected within the next week, he said, about additional facilities for migrant children. That influx from separated families has swelled under a new Trump administration policy that prosecutes everyone, even asylum seekers or parents with children, for crossing the border illegally.
The Trump administration has said that, under law, it has to separate families who cross without authorization. It has pointed to so-called “loopholes” for the situation, specifically a court settlement that restricts the amount of time that children can spend in detention centers to 20 days. That law provides protection for trafficking victims, the asylum process and a Supreme Court ruling that immigrants who for some reason cannot be deported cannot stay in detention indefinitely.
“If members of Congress do not like the laws they pass, they need to change them,” said Jonathan Hoffman, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, on a recent call with reporters. “They should not ask DHS to look the other way. They should not ask DHS to abdicate our oath to enforce the law.”
===============================================================
Back to the Independent:
(Secretary Neilsen) blamed Congress for the family separations, saying the administration was only enforcing existing laws that require children to be released quickly from DHS custody – laws that do not apply to their parents.
"This administration did not create a policy of separating families at the border,” she said. “What has changed is that we no longer exempt entire classes of people who break the law.”
The National Review reports:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/illegal-immigration-enforcement-separating-kids-at-border/
"The Trump administration isn’t changing the rules that pertain to separating an adult from the child. Those remain the same. Separation happens only if officials find that the adult is falsely claiming to be the child’s parent, or is a threat to the child, or is put into criminal proceedings.
It’s the last that is operative here. The past practice had been to give a free pass to an adult who is part of a family unit. The new Trump policy is to prosecute all adults. The idea is to send a signal that we are serious about our laws and to create a deterrent against re-entry. (Illegal entry is a misdemeanor, illegal re-entry a felony.)
When a migrant is prosecuted for illegal entry, he or she is taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals. In no circumstance anywhere in the U.S. do the marshals care for the children of people they take into custody. The child is taken into the custody of HHS, who cares for them at temporary shelters.
The criminal proceedings are exceptionally short, assuming there is no aggravating factor such as a prior illegal entity or another crime. The migrants generally plead guilty, and they are then sentenced to time served, typically all in the same day, although practices vary along the border. After this, they are returned to the custody of ICE.
If the adult then wants to go home, in keeping with the expedited order of removal that is issued as a matter of course, it’s relatively simple. The adult should be reunited quickly with his or her child, and the family returned home as a unit. In this scenario, there’s only a very brief separation.
Where it becomes much more of an issue is if the adult files an asylum claim. In that scenario, the adults are almost certainly going to be detained longer than the government is allowed to hold their children."
===============================================================
SNOPES DECEPTION ALERT (Do not blindly trust Snopes)
Here is the Snopes article - https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/was-law-separate-families-passed-1997/
The article is correct, there was no Law Passed. So obviously it was not passed by Democrats. But there is deception, because it was not a Law. It was a court ruling, not unlike Roe. vs. Wade. read on.
===============================================================
National Review continues - "That’s because of something called the Flores Consent Decree from 1997. It says that unaccompanied children can be held only 20 days. A ruling by the Ninth Circuit extended this 20-day limit to children who come as part of family units. So even if we want to hold a family unit together, we are forbidden from doing so.
The clock ticking on the time the government can hold a child will almost always run out before an asylum claim is settled. The migrant is allowed ten days to seek an attorney, and there may be continuances or other complications.
This creates the choice of either releasing the adults and children together into the country pending the ajudication of the asylum claim, or holding the adults and releasing the children. If the adult is held, HHS places the child with a responsible party in the U.S., ideally a relative (migrants are likely to have family and friends here).
Even if Flores didn’t exist, the government would be very constrained in how many family units it can accommodate. ICE has only about 3,000 family spaces in shelters. It is also limited in its overall space at the border, which is overwhelmed by the ongoing influx. This means that — whatever the Trump administration would prefer to do — many adults are still swiftly released."
Emotions aside, now the Common Sense and the whole story.
Parents entering the country illegally (operative word) are being detained. There is a 1997law Decree on the books stating that children cannot be held for more than 20 days.
The dreadful looking chain link fence area is the '20 days' area. During this time, the parents can request to be sent home and returned to their country with their children. Or they can request asylum. The previous practice, which is contrary to the law, was to let parents take their kids into the country and wait for court dates. That is not the case.
Trumps policy of Zero tolerance refers straight to US Law which allows suspected criminals who cross the border illegally to be apprehended. We can't send children to prison with their parents, nor can they be detained in the chain link fence area for longer than 20 days.
So then they get spread out among all of the places like Casa El Cajon in the article I cited earlier: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-family-separation-20180618-story.html.
There they are educated, given nice beds, computers, and other needs until their criminal parents can be finished with the Asylum process. But this is not for all of the children.
Many times, the children are connected to a relative and released to them instead. This is where the missing children situation comes from because the relatives do not want to risk being deported and do not show up for court dates.
Washington Post reports:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/27/the-u-s-lost-track-of-1500-immigrant-children-last-year-heres-why-people-are-outraged-now/?utm_term=.87d68d5fbaf3
"Did the United States really lose track of 1,475 immigrant kids?
In short, yes. During a Senate committee hearing late last month, Steven Wagner, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services, testified that the federal agency had lost track of 1,475 children who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on their own (that is, unaccompanied by adults) and subsequently were placed with adult sponsors in the United States. As the Associated Press reported, the number was based on a survey of more than 7,000 children:
From October to December 2017, HHS called 7,635 children the agency had placed with sponsors, and found 6,075 of the children were still living with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else. The rest were missing, said Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary at HHS.
Health and Human Services officials have argued it is not the department’s legal responsibility to find those children after they are released from the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under HHS‘s Administration for Children and Families. And some have pointed out that adult sponsors are sometimes relatives who already were living in the United States and who intentionally may not be responding to contact attempts by HHS."
https://www.statista.com/statistics/633207/annual-terminations-of-parental-rights-us/
So in 2016, 65,000 parents had their rights terminated. Sixty Five Thousand. Let that sink in. Now, why do parents lose their rights?
Each state has its own statute(s) providing for the termination of parental rights. The most common reasons for involuntary termination include:
- Severe or chronic abuse or neglect
- Sexual abuse
- Abuse or neglect of other children in the household
- Abandonment
- Long-term mental illness or deficiency of the parent(s)
- Long-term alcohol or drug-induced incapacity of the parent(s)
- Failure to support or maintain contact with the child
- Involuntary termination of the rights of the parent to another child
A parent can also lose his or her parental rights after being convicted of certain felonies. If a parent commits a crime of violence against his or her child or another family member, the court has the option to remove his or her parental rights and terminate the child-parent relationship. Also, if a parent is required to be imprisoned for a length of time that requires the child to enter foster care because there are no alternatives, the parent can lose parental rights.
The Border
So why are parents and children being separated at the border?
CNN Reports:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/us/immigration-family-separations-questions/index.html
(CNN)"Federal authorities have separated at least 2,000 children from their parents at the border as part of the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on illegal immigration and stop other immigrants from making the trek"
"Administration officials say that this is only happening to families who enter the United States illegally, crossing between ports of entry.
The American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy organizations say that's not true. These groups say they've documented cases of parents who've claimed asylum at ports of entry and also had their children taken away.
Department of Homeland Security officials maintain that aside from prosecutions, they only separate adults and children if a familial or custodial relationship cannot be verified, or if they are concerned about the well-being of the child."
The Independent (UK) Reports:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-immigration-children-audio-trump-border-patrol-separate-families-parents-detention-center-a8405501.html
The UN’s top human rights official has likened the situation at the border to child abuse, and the American Association of Paediatricians has said it could cause “irreparable harm.” Former Republican First Lady Laura Bush decried the practice in an editorial over the weekend, comparing it to the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII.
But Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen continued to defend the zero tolerance policy at a White House press briefing on Monday. She claimed the children in DHS custody were being being “well taken care of” and receiving meals, medical care, and educational services.
===============================================================
http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-family-separation-20180618-story.html
According to the San Diego Union Tribune:
There are currently about 11,351 children in ORR facilities, according to an agency official. That’s about 95 percent of the agency’s current capacity of 11,956 beds though it has another 1,620 on reserve, he said.
An announcement is expected within the next week, he said, about additional facilities for migrant children. That influx from separated families has swelled under a new Trump administration policy that prosecutes everyone, even asylum seekers or parents with children, for crossing the border illegally.
The Trump administration has said that, under law, it has to separate families who cross without authorization. It has pointed to so-called “loopholes” for the situation, specifically a court settlement that restricts the amount of time that children can spend in detention centers to 20 days. That law provides protection for trafficking victims, the asylum process and a Supreme Court ruling that immigrants who for some reason cannot be deported cannot stay in detention indefinitely.
“If members of Congress do not like the laws they pass, they need to change them,” said Jonathan Hoffman, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, on a recent call with reporters. “They should not ask DHS to look the other way. They should not ask DHS to abdicate our oath to enforce the law.”
===============================================================
Back to the Independent:
(Secretary Neilsen) blamed Congress for the family separations, saying the administration was only enforcing existing laws that require children to be released quickly from DHS custody – laws that do not apply to their parents.
"This administration did not create a policy of separating families at the border,” she said. “What has changed is that we no longer exempt entire classes of people who break the law.”
The National Review reports:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/illegal-immigration-enforcement-separating-kids-at-border/
"The Trump administration isn’t changing the rules that pertain to separating an adult from the child. Those remain the same. Separation happens only if officials find that the adult is falsely claiming to be the child’s parent, or is a threat to the child, or is put into criminal proceedings.
It’s the last that is operative here. The past practice had been to give a free pass to an adult who is part of a family unit. The new Trump policy is to prosecute all adults. The idea is to send a signal that we are serious about our laws and to create a deterrent against re-entry. (Illegal entry is a misdemeanor, illegal re-entry a felony.)
When a migrant is prosecuted for illegal entry, he or she is taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals. In no circumstance anywhere in the U.S. do the marshals care for the children of people they take into custody. The child is taken into the custody of HHS, who cares for them at temporary shelters.
The criminal proceedings are exceptionally short, assuming there is no aggravating factor such as a prior illegal entity or another crime. The migrants generally plead guilty, and they are then sentenced to time served, typically all in the same day, although practices vary along the border. After this, they are returned to the custody of ICE.
If the adult then wants to go home, in keeping with the expedited order of removal that is issued as a matter of course, it’s relatively simple. The adult should be reunited quickly with his or her child, and the family returned home as a unit. In this scenario, there’s only a very brief separation.
Where it becomes much more of an issue is if the adult files an asylum claim. In that scenario, the adults are almost certainly going to be detained longer than the government is allowed to hold their children."
===============================================================
SNOPES DECEPTION ALERT (Do not blindly trust Snopes)
Here is the Snopes article - https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/was-law-separate-families-passed-1997/
The article is correct, there was no Law Passed. So obviously it was not passed by Democrats. But there is deception, because it was not a Law. It was a court ruling, not unlike Roe. vs. Wade. read on.
===============================================================
National Review continues - "That’s because of something called the Flores Consent Decree from 1997. It says that unaccompanied children can be held only 20 days. A ruling by the Ninth Circuit extended this 20-day limit to children who come as part of family units. So even if we want to hold a family unit together, we are forbidden from doing so.
The clock ticking on the time the government can hold a child will almost always run out before an asylum claim is settled. The migrant is allowed ten days to seek an attorney, and there may be continuances or other complications.
This creates the choice of either releasing the adults and children together into the country pending the ajudication of the asylum claim, or holding the adults and releasing the children. If the adult is held, HHS places the child with a responsible party in the U.S., ideally a relative (migrants are likely to have family and friends here).
Even if Flores didn’t exist, the government would be very constrained in how many family units it can accommodate. ICE has only about 3,000 family spaces in shelters. It is also limited in its overall space at the border, which is overwhelmed by the ongoing influx. This means that — whatever the Trump administration would prefer to do — many adults are still swiftly released."
Emotions aside, now the Common Sense and the whole story.
Parents entering the country illegally (operative word) are being detained. There is a 1997
The dreadful looking chain link fence area is the '20 days' area. During this time, the parents can request to be sent home and returned to their country with their children. Or they can request asylum. The previous practice, which is contrary to the law, was to let parents take their kids into the country and wait for court dates. That is not the case.
Trumps policy of Zero tolerance refers straight to US Law which allows suspected criminals who cross the border illegally to be apprehended. We can't send children to prison with their parents, nor can they be detained in the chain link fence area for longer than 20 days.
So then they get spread out among all of the places like Casa El Cajon in the article I cited earlier: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/immigration/sd-me-family-separation-20180618-story.html.
There they are educated, given nice beds, computers, and other needs until their criminal parents can be finished with the Asylum process. But this is not for all of the children.
Many times, the children are connected to a relative and released to them instead. This is where the missing children situation comes from because the relatives do not want to risk being deported and do not show up for court dates.
Washington Post reports:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/27/the-u-s-lost-track-of-1500-immigrant-children-last-year-heres-why-people-are-outraged-now/?utm_term=.87d68d5fbaf3
"Did the United States really lose track of 1,475 immigrant kids?
In short, yes. During a Senate committee hearing late last month, Steven Wagner, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services, testified that the federal agency had lost track of 1,475 children who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on their own (that is, unaccompanied by adults) and subsequently were placed with adult sponsors in the United States. As the Associated Press reported, the number was based on a survey of more than 7,000 children:
From October to December 2017, HHS called 7,635 children the agency had placed with sponsors, and found 6,075 of the children were still living with their sponsors, 28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else. The rest were missing, said Steven Wagner, acting assistant secretary at HHS.
Health and Human Services officials have argued it is not the department’s legal responsibility to find those children after they are released from the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which falls under HHS‘s Administration for Children and Families. And some have pointed out that adult sponsors are sometimes relatives who already were living in the United States and who intentionally may not be responding to contact attempts by HHS."
"However, neither of those arguments has done much to quell outrage surrounding the testimony by Wagner, a principal deputy at HHS who oversees the Administration for Children and Families.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), chairman of the Senate subcommittee, has repeatedly argued that it was a matter of humanity, not simply legal responsibility, citing a case in which federal officials had turned over eight immigrant children to human traffickers.
“These kids, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be treated properly, not abused or trafficked,” Portman said in the subcommittee. “This is all about accountability.”
Portman reiterated his stance in an April 24 “Frontline” special called “Trafficked in America,” which documented the plight of the eight children who were forced to work on an egg farm in Ohio."
Finally, the President's job is to enforce Laws enacted by Congress as well as Decrees enacted by the Courts. He cannot make laws, but he can do directives. The problem with a directive is that the next President can just undo them. That is why Barack Obama's legacy has been systematically overturned, because he issued Executive Directives (EDs) and did not work with Congress to pass any decent laws except the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and Affordable Care Act.
If a new law is put into place explaining what to do with Families (other then just letting them come on in), we could have a better immigration process. That is up to Congress.
Additional Information:
NY Times Reports:
Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of homeland security, suggested in two appearances on Monday that the Trump administration policy to separate children from their parents at the border was justified, in part, to prevent smugglers from posing as families to take advantage of a “get-out-of-jail-free card.”
But characterizing the increase of this type of fraud as “staggering” is misleading. The data reflects a period of less than two years, making it difficult to draw a meaningful historical comparison. And the instances of fraud make up less than 1 percent of families apprehended at the border.
The numbers Ms. Nielsen cites are correct. Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, told The New York Times that there were 46 cases of fraudulent family claims in the 2017 fiscal year, which began in October 2016 and ended in September 2017. In just the first five months of the 2018 fiscal year, there were 191 cases — a 315 percent increase.
But those instances of family fraud are a tiny fraction of the total number of families apprehended at the southwestern border: 0.06 percent of nearly 76,000 families in the 2017 fiscal year and 0.6 percent of 31,000 families apprehended in the first five months of the 2018 fiscal year.
Hopefully this clears things up for you, if you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment.
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