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Simpich writes: "On May 5, the US government began separating children from their migrant parents. 2,300 youths remain in shelters and foster homes across the country. There is no system to reunite them."

A 2-year-old Honduran asylum-seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, on June 12. (photo: John Moore/Getty Images @jbmoorephoto)
A 2-year-old Honduran asylum-seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas, on June 12. (photo: John Moore/Getty Images @jbmoorephoto)


There Is No Plan: Can the 2300 Children Find Their Parents?

By Bill Simpich, Reader Supported News

22 June 18

 

n May 5, the US government began separating children from their migrant parents.

2,300 youths remain in shelters and foster homes across the country.

There is no system to reunite them.

HHS is responsible for the children. ICE has jurisdiction for the adults. There is no plan for these two agencies to work together.

Parents who are no longer detained “are entitled to get their kids back through a documented process,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said.

What process? The Trump’s zero-tolerance strategy is brand new. He has ordered that all immigrants illegally crossing the border will face criminal proceedings rather than civil proceedings. On its face, it makes no sense to charge refugees with misdemeanors. The devil is in the details.

Traditionally, criminal defendants are separated from their children.

Trump knew he could use this tradition as a fig leaf to hide his goal. He and his buddies figured he could use this family separation as leverage to get his policies through a divided Congress.

These families speak many languages. A number of them are Native American languages, known to few outsiders. Who will do the translation between these refugees and these HHS and ICE officials? After 9/11, only a handful of government officials even knew Arabic.

These 2300 children are now located at 100 sites scattered across 17 states. Their parents can literally be on the other side of the country – if they are still in the country.

President Trump’s executive order says nothing about reuniting the families. It does these families no good. The damage is done.

Many of this young people will be scarred for life. Think of the anguish their parents are suffering.

What Trump, his aide Stephen Miller, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions committed is far more than a mass human rights violation. It is one of the most terrible crimes anyone can imagine.

Furthermore, these men have endangered the security of American citizens around the world. Civilized nations are convinced that our country has lost its collective mind.

But punishment for Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and others cannot be the first priority.

The first priority is to reunify the children with their parents. How can it be done?

The Washington Post reported that the Texas Civil Rights Project is representing more than 300 parents and has only tracked down two children.

Natalia Cornelio, the project representative, stated many children arrive at shelters without the facility knowing that they have been separated from their parents. It is easy to mistake them as unaccompanied minors – not children seeking reunification.

Detained parents are supposed to get a flier providing a toll-free number for the HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement to help them find their children. Even this simple act is fraught with problems.

One is that many of the parents are not going to be able to read the flier.

The second is that many of the parents are not receiving the flier.

The third is that the rules are not being followed by the feds.

Families following “the rules” and going to designated checkpoints seeking asylum were treated as criminals and had their children separated from them in these last few weeks. The ACLU is seeking a national preliminary injunction to reunite the families of these asylum-seekers. Why should anyone assume that the feds will follow the rules for the rest of the 2300 children?

Additional lawsuits have been filed to reunite all of the children with their families. That is good. Every day matters. This may be the moment that immigration policy finally gets the attention it deserves. But what we need right now is a second win.

Because – right now – in the real world, not the legal world – it looks like hundreds of families will never be reunited. Parents have already been deported to countries such as Guatemala and Honduras. What will happen? Toddlers can’t tell you their name, or where their parents come from.

People of goodwill are gathering at the airports again – this time, to try to track any children being shipped around the country.

When interviewed by PBS (beginning at 2:55), Texas public defender Sergio Garcia was despondent about the prospects of effective reunification. “I would say zero.”

NBC’s approach was mordantly upbeat. “23andMe is donating kits for genetic testing to reunite kids with their parents.”

There is no plan.

There is a simple solution.

Bring all the children into one hall.

Bring all the parents inside.

Let them find each other.

- Bill Simpich




Bill Simpich is an Oakland attorney who knows that it doesn't have to be like this. He was part of the legal team chosen by Public Justice as Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2003 for winning a jury verdict of 4.4 million in Judi Bari's lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland police.

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