separation – R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Save the Children

David Posnett — Wed, 26 Jun 2019 19:18:26 +0000

Contributed by James Ewing (Watermill, NY).

Watch this powerful video from the border where Alyssa Milano is broadcasting live:

Over the past year approximately 400,000 migrants have been detained by the Customs and Border Protection (CBP).They are primarily from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Customs and Border Protection Commissioner John Sanders recently said that the Border Patrol is holding 15,000 people, and the agency considers 4,000 to be at capacity.

On any given day, 2,000 children are in Border Patrol custody, and the problems are hardly confined to one facility…Legally, they’re not supposed to be held by border agents for more than 72 hours before being sent to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for finding their nearest relative in the US to house them while their immigration cases are adjudicated.

Almost all of these children have family members, including parents, in the United States, who are able to and want to take care of their children.

At the Border Patrol facility in Clint, Texas, some of the children are going weeks without enough food, water, or hygienic sanitation. Researchers report that kids are sick, caring for each other, and lack baths and diapers.

These kids and teens are being forcibly separated from their families. Which, in spite of Trump’s repeated claims to the contrary, has not been the norm in previous administrations.

Unlike privately contracted child detention facilities (which charge the US taxpayer up to $750 a day per child), Border Patrol stations like the Clint Detention Facilty, are federal facilities, exempt from state health and safety standards, according to Texas Department of Health and Human Services spokesman John Reynolds. Child abuse and neglect investigators are not allowed to investigate the stations because they not licensed by the state.

Law professor Warren Binford, saw a 4-year-old with hair so matted and dirty she thought it would have to be cut off. The child had not bathed in more than a week, she said. She witnessed a 14-year-old caring for a 2-year-old without a diaper, shrugging as the baby urinated as they sat at a table because she did not know what to do. Here, in a warehouse filled with filthy kids who had not bathed in days, some with lice and influenza, it was kids taking care of kids. There was no soap. And when she tried to find baby food, there was none of that, either. All they had was instant oatmeal for breakfast, instant soup for lunch and a frozen burrito for dinner, “every single day,”

The Trump administration argued before a Ninth Circuit panel Tuesday that the government is not required to give soap or toothbrushes to children apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border and can have them sleep on concrete floors in frigid, overcrowded cells, despite a settlement agreement that requires detainees be kept in “safe and sanitary” facilities.

A 14-year-old girl from Guatemala said she had been holding two little girls in her lap.
“I need comfort, too. I am bigger than they are, but I am a child, too,” she said.

“She’s suffering very much because she’s never been alone. She doesn’t know these other children,” said her father.

“Try to imagine what it’s like for these children, not as a parent, but as one of the children. To be hungry, without anyone to help you, to be abandoned to filth with no way to get clean, to be trying to take care of yourself and children who are even younger that you are, to be confused about what might happen next and to be terrified that you will never be loved or cared for by anyone again.” (Unknown Field notes)

“In my 22 years of doing visits with children I have never heard of this level of inhumanity”— Holly Cooper—UC Davis Immigration Law Clinic

While existing aid levels to Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras will not be reduced this year, the Trump administration “will not provide new funds for programs in those countries until we are satisfied that the Northern Triangle governments are taking concrete actions to reduce the number of migrants coming to the U.S. border, said State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus. ‘This is consistent with the president’s direction and with the recognition that it is critical that there be sufficient political will in these countries to address the problem at its source.’ ” Washington AP 6/18/1

At least 24 adults and 6 children have died in US custody under Trump’s border policies.

“The death of a child is always a terrible thing, but here is a situation where, because there is not enough funding they can’t move the people out of our custody,” says outgoing CPB Commissioner John Sanders.

The victims from upper left (clockwise): Wilmer(2), Darlyn (10), Carlos (16) ,Mariee (20 mos), Felipe (8), and Juan (16)

By the way, Perry Gershon has it right regarding potential solutions.

Lee Zeldin parrots the Trump and FOX line. What a disaster. Think about it in November 2020.

Here is what one Candaian thinks:

and here is what you can do right now:

21 State Attorneys General Demand Sessions End the “Zero Tolerance Policy”

David Posnett — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 16:48:29 +0000

Twenty-one State AGs have a demanded that the Trump Administration end the policy that is the root of the disastrous family separation situation unfolding on the South border.

STATE OF NEW MEXICO

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

HECTOR H. BALDERAS ATTORNEY GENERAL

June 19, 2018

The undersigned Attorneys General write to express our strong opposition to the Department of Justice’s new “zero tolerance” policy of forcibly separating all families that cross the border illegally, including those seeking asylum. The policy is not only inhumane, but it also raises serious concerns regarding the violation of children’s rights, constitutional principles of due process and equal protection, and the efforts of state law enforcement officials to stop crime. Because of these concerns, we demand that the Department of Justice immediately cease these draconian practices.

On April 6, 2018, the Attorney General announced a new “zero tolerance” policy, calling for the immediate criminal prosecution of all individuals who illegally enter the United States, including those seeking asylum. Under this policy, adults who enter the United States are brought to federal prisons, instead of immigrant detention centers, and their children are treated as “unaccompanied minors” and forcibly placed into the care of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

As you are aware, the fundamental rights of children are expressed in international, federal, and state bodies of law. Each of these laws is, at its core, designed to protect the best interests of children. These laws are representative of the views of millions of Americans that the government, in any process, should first and foremost seek to protect those interests. Almost universally, the statutory mandates and the litany of cases interpreting them overwhelmingly express that a child’s best interests are served by remaining with his or her family, absent a rigorous judicial inquiry resulting in a finding that a parent is unfit or proof beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime has been committed. Policies that separate a child from his or her parent absent that level of inquiry, would not only be illegal under most state laws, but also may be contrary to the policy views of state legislatures and their constituents across this country.

These views are complemented by numerous laws and judicial precedent that mandate and hold that parents have a fundamental right to raise their children. This principle is affirmed in both state and federal law, by both statute and judicial precedent. The notion that the government should intrude into the rights of a parent to be with their child has historically been met with extremely high levels of scrutiny. Thus, the deliberate separation of families for the express purpose of furthering an immigration policy is contrary to our laws.

Not only is it highly concerning that current Department of Justice policies may be in contravention of the express purpose of these legal mandates, but these practices directly interfere with the efforts of our offices and other enforcement officials—locally, nationally, and internationally—to prevent and prosecute crime. In most states, Attorneys General are responsible for enforcing laws that include human trafficking, drug trafficking, and gang violence offenses. As you are keenly aware, these issues are rarely local in context; rather, they require the efforts and collaboration of law enforcement officials across both state and international borders to prevent the widespread and syndicated perpetration of these crimes. These efforts rely on reporting and cooperation from survivors of these crimes and victims of criminal organizations. The practice of mandatory family separation is both inhumane and contrary to the efforts of the law enforcement and others who dedicate their tireless efforts to stopping violent criminals.

Put simply, the deliberate separation of children and their parents who seek lawful asylum in America is wrong. This practice is contrary to American values and must be stopped. We demand that you immediately reverse these harmful policies, as it is in the best interests of the children and families affected.

Sincerely,

Hector Balderas Xavier Becerra
Attorney General of California

George Jepsen Matthew P. Denn
Attorney General of Connecticut Attorney General of Delaware

Karl Racine

Attorney General for the District of Columbia

Lisa Madigan
Attorney General of Illinois

Janet Mills
Attorney General of Maine

Maura Healy
Attorney General of Massachusetts

Gurbir Grewal
Attorney General of New Jersey

Russell Suzuki
Attorney General of Hawaii

Thomas J. Miller Attorney General of Iowa

Brian Frosh
Attorney General of Maryland

Lori Swanson
Attorney General of Minnesota

Barbara D. Underwood Attorney General of New York

Josh Stein
Attorney General of North Carolina

Josh Shapiro
Attorney General of Pennsylvania

Thomas J. Donovan, Jr. Attorney General of Vermont

Bob Ferguson
Attorney General of Washington

Ellen Rosenblum
Attorney General of Oregon

Peter F. Kilmartin
Attorney General of Rhode Island

Mark R. Herring
Attorney General of Virginia

Child Abuse (Human Rights Violation)

David Posnett — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 16:15:26 +0000

Submitted by James Ewing (Watermill):

IMAGES
We want you to imagine for a moment what this might be like for a child: to flee the place you have called your home because it is not safe to stay and then embark on a dangerous journey to an unknown destination, only to be ripped apart from your sole sense of security with no understanding of what just happened to you or if you will ever see your family again. And that the only thing you have done to deserve this, is to do what children do: stay close to the adults in their lives for security.

The zero-tolerance policy was announced on April 6.
Nationwide, nearly 2,000 minors were taken from their parents from April 19 through May 31, according to figures from the Department of Homeland Security.
“…the children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever.”
Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff John F. Kelly.

“At minimum, forced separation will cause these children extreme emotional distress…the sadness is not the thing that really matters here. What matters is this is a trauma to the developing nervous system.”
Nim Tottenham of Columbia University.
“Extreme emotional responses to separation from parents is part of evolution’s plan to keep those parents close — to break any parent’s heart, because throughout human evolution, an absent caregiver has meant almost certain death.
Megan Gunnar University of Minnesota.…

When faced with separation from loved ones, “we fight as if it’s a matter of life and death, because it is.”
Jude Cassidy University of Maryland.
“…little minds and hearts can maintain that level of distress only for so long before the children face a horrifying decision: Continue, through severe emotional pain, to call out for their parents, or proceed on the assumption that their parents are gone…
James Coan University of Virginia

We are all being made complicit in child abuse by this administration.

Comments added by David Posnett:

Here is Zeldin’s response:

(UAC: Unaccompanied Alien Children)

Lee Zeldin contact info: (202) 225 3826, (631) 289 1097. Congressmanzeldin1@mail.house.gov

I am sure he would like to hear from you!

Perry Gershon for Congress

𝐋𝐞𝐞 𝐙𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐬 𝐎𝐮𝐭 𝐎𝐧 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝

Zeldin finally took a position on family separation at the border. As expected, he is supporting the cruel Trump policy. We need to replace Zeldin this November. Taking children away from their parents does not just apply to people attempting to cross the border without documentation. Our government is separating the children of asylum seekers too – these people with zero purported criminal activity. We cannot allow this to happen and be silent. And Zeldin cheers the policy. I pledge to fight this policy to all my ability if elected in November, and ask for your support on June 26 to help me get there.

If you want more color on the trump policy, this link describes it better. https://www.vox.com/2018/6/11/17443198/children-immigrant-families-separated-parents