More Racial Ugliness: Breaking Up Immigrant Families

During his campaign and since occupying the White House, one of the pillars of Donald Trump's policies has been racism and prejudice aimed at non-whites and non-Christians.  Things once thought beneath America are now the norm.  And Trump's evangelical Christian base relishes in the reprehensible, proving to me yet again that there are few segments of American society more morally bankrupt than "conservative Christians."  Nowhere is this targeting of non-whites more cruel than in the case of the Trump/Sessions policy - I'm sure Mike Pence is applauding from the sidelines - of separating immigrants seeking asylum from their children.  What would be considered horrible and certainly raise an outcry if done to lily white families, is seemingly just fine by Der Trumpenführer and his "godly folk" supporters.  Indeed, he/they seem to view immigrants and their families much as Hitler viewed Jews.  Many of those being subjected to this family destroying policy come from Honduras (my own mother's birthplace) and El Salvador, the basket cases of the Western Hemisphere, and have good reason to be fleeing and seeking asylum.  Their real crime: brown skin.  A piece in the New York Times looks at this vicious policy.  Here are excerpts:    

Ramping up a promised “zero tolerance” immigration policy on the Southwest border, the Justice Department said that 11 members of a caravan of migrants from Central America were being criminally prosecuted for crossing the border illegally.

At least four of those facing criminal charges had children taken from them and placed into separate custody, lawyers for the migrants said, highlighting one of the most contentious aspects of the Trump administration’s new border policies: family separations.

Hundreds of immigrant children have already been separated from their parents at the border since October, and the new policy calling for criminal prosecutions of all those who cross illegally promises to increase that number drastically.

President Trump and his aides at the White House have pushed a family separation policy in order to deter Central American families from trying to cross the border illegally, according to administration officials.

The new policy on criminal prosecutions became official on Monday when Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited Arizona and California.

With few exceptions, the United States has historically treated immigration violations as civil, rather than criminal, offenses, and thus parents have not typically been separated from their children when they enter the legal system.

“This is an additional punitive measure the administration is imposing on parents in an effort to frighten Central Americans, to discourage them from seeking asylum,” said Reuben Cahn, executive director of the Federal Defenders of San Diego, who is representing several of the caravan migrants.

Mr. Sessions said his department would criminally prosecute everyone who illegally enters the United States. If a mother or father is with a child when apprehended for the crime of illegal entry, the minor must be taken from the parent. The child cannot remain with a parent in the criminal court system.

The majority of apprehended migrants hail from Honduras and El Salvador, two countries wracked by violence. Children are often targeted for recruitment by gangs, and their families seek safe haven in the United States.  Nearly 80,000 people came as members of family units between October, the beginning of the current fiscal year, and April. About 14,000 came in March; about 15,000 in April.

[F]amily separations began after Mr. Trump took office pledging to crack down on illegal immigration, though a very small number occurred during previous administrations.  The practice gained momentum in the last two months, particularly in Texas, where many families from Central America seek to cross, they say.

The American Civil Liberties Union is seeking a nationwide injunction against the practice. The organization argues in its lawsuit that it is a violation of due process to separate parents and children simply as a means to deter illegal immigration. Only parents who are abusive or unfit to care for their children can legally have them taken away, the suit argues. . . . . the A.C.L.U. accused the Homeland Security Department of unlawfully separating a Congolese woman and her 7-year-old daughter who had sought asylum.

Another plaintiff — a Brazilian woman who crossed with her 14-year-old son and asked for asylum — was prosecuted for the misdemeanor of illegal entry. She received 25 days of jail time in Texas; her son was sent to the Chicago facility. They were not reunited even after the mother returned to immigration custody. They have been apart for seven months.

The government has acknowledged that about 700 children have been separated from their parents since October 1. But that number appears to be increasing.

Studies have shown that children who are separated from their parents can suffer from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, as well as exhibit behavioral problems and poor educational outcomes.

In an affidavit attached to the A.C.L.U. lawsuit, the heads of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Child Welfare League of America, among others, strongly urged the homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, not to break up families.

“Separation from family leaves children more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, no matter what the care setting. In addition, traumatic separation from parents creates toxic stress in children and adolescents that can profoundly impact their development,” they said.

Some abuses have been documented. Beginning in 2013, minors were fraudulently plucked from shelters by men who posed as friends or family, promised to provide them shelter and transport them to their immigration court hearings, then made them work on egg farms in Ohio.

Imagine the terror suffered by these children.  With young grandchildren of my own, I cannot imagine how much such an experience would harm them.  If you support Trump, you support this policy, plain and simple.  And if  you then park your ass in a church pew each week and feign piety, you are truly far more despicable than the Pharisees of the New Testament.  You are, indeed, a morally bankrupt monster.