Over the weekend, there was a flurry of news reports after Chris Hayes aired a segment on the repercussions of the Trump Administration’s unconscionable and inhumane new policy of separating children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. One expert reported that children as young as 53 weeks old are being separated from their parents.
Additionally, the hashtag #WhereAreTheChildren began trending on Twitter after a top official at the Department of Health and Human Services admitted that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children it placed with sponsors in the United States.
Read our news recap here, with links to some of the top and most informative stories from the past few days:
- For just the facts, in question-and-answer format, read Did the Trump Administration Separate Immigrant Children from Parents and Lose Them? from The New York Times.
- This is the powerful segment from All in With Chris Hayes that sparked much of the commentary and news coverage over the weekend. Hayes dove into the ‘despicable’ new Trump policy of prosecuting 100% of all people who cross the border illegally and separating children from their families. “The medical evidence is overwhelming that we may be doing permanent trauma to these kids,” said Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, interviewed in the video.
- Prefer podcasts? NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly of All Things Considered provides a brief history of the policy and interviews a child welfare expert in How The Trump Administration’s Family Separation Policy Is Playing Out: “It’s important to clarify that there’s nothing illegal about coming to our border and asking for asylum,” said Jennifer Nagda, policy director at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.
What you can do:
Add your name and sign Children’s Rights’ petition to STOP separating children from their families at the U.S. border. With almost 50,000 signatures, the names in our petition will urge Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to end this cruel and inhumane policy.
Further info:
- READ: What the legal process looks like for an immigrant child taken away from his parents — Washington Post
“When the child is meeting with an attorney or appearing before a judge, their ability to explain why they are there and the reasons they might be seeking refuge are limited. There’s a parent who could potentially answer those questions — but that parent was moved by the Department of Homeland Security to another facility.” - WATCH: Immigration issues explained: Family separation and missing children — MSNBC
An explainer video that breaks the issues down.