About 2,300 children, many under the age of five, have recently been separated from their parents under the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance policy.”
The Justice Department is not allowed to prosecute children alongside their parents, and so they made the frankly heartless decision to separate children from their families. This policy was implemented by choice and can be removed by choice as well.
However, we truly need to focus on the conditions that these children have endured while being held in government custody. The United States’ current immigration policies state that families apprehended at the border must be separated, children must be placed with sponsors in the United States, while their parents face deportation.
Not only is the Trump Administration making an effort to separate families, but they’re also putting innocent children into a system wherein they are exposed to hardships, due to inequality and inhumane policies which begin the minute they step onto U.S. land.
The fact remains that no family would leave their native land and come to a country where they are neither accepted nor welcomed if they didn’t truly need to.
The United States is in part responsible for the struggles that many immigrants have in their native country, beginning with the fact that they exploit their economies through NAFTA.
The Trump Administration is caging children and putting them through a great deal of psychological trauma. Neither children nor their parents are at fault for dreaming of a better life.
Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen told NPR in May,
“that’s no different than what we do every day in every part of the United States when an adult of a family commits a crime. If you as a parent break into a house. We’re doing the same thing at the border.”
The problem with this statement is that though immigrants may be entering the country “illegally,” the biggest crime was to simply dream of a better life which their native country could not offer.
Considering the history that the United States has had with regards to its native population it could be rightfully claimed that the United States is not “rightfully” owned, but is instead stolen through blatant abuse of power and white supremacy.
Since 2014, hundreds of children and families have fled to the United States to escape gang activity in Central American Countries. Theoretically, those who apply should be granted asylum or refugee status.
However, the Trump Administration has infamously stated that many undocumented immigrants are exploiting the law in order to gain entry.
DHS transfers children to the custody to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services. On average, they spend about 51 days at an ORR shelter before they’re placed with a sponsor in the United States, according to HHS.
This brings into question the logic and even the humanity of the Trump Administration. Children are left in the United States without their parents, leaving them lost and desperate to be reunited with their families.
“We’re increasing the rate of what we were already doing,” Waldman said. “Instead of letting someone slip through, we’re saying we’re doing it for all.”
In other words, they’re going through a racial removal program wherein they are quick to shut the door of opportunities to people who are just looking for another chance.
Featured Image via Max Pixel
