#ReuniteTheFamiliesNow: Children’s Rights in the News

More than 2300 children have been taken away from their parents as a result of Trump’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy, and despite his Executive Order on Wednesday, June 20th, there is still no discernible plan to reunite these children with their families. Children’s Rights has outspokenly condemned this policy in multiple news outlets:

• Romper: The Crisis For Separated Children Is Just Beginning (June 25, 2018)
  Sandy Santana is quoted: “In a foster-care system, for example, where we see rows of cribs where kids weren’t being soothed and weren’t being touched, eventually those kids stopped caring because no one was responding to them … Over time, they developed no ability to attach to an adult. Not only did it lead to brain impairment, but an attachment disorder, that meant the kids developed a lifetime of inability to develop relationships with adults.”
• Rolling Stone: How the Stress of Family Separation May Permanently Damage Migrant Children (June 22, 2018)
  “This type of separation is especially dangerous for infants because in the first three years of life, the brain is going to rapid neurological development,” says Sandy Santana, executive director of Children’s Rights, a non-profit advocating for kids in the foster-care system.“Even very short separations can lead to cognitive impairment, and it can manifest itself physically, too. The child could literally deteriorate physically.”
• Teen Vogue: Trump’s Order to Detain Families Together Won’t Help the Children Already Separated From Their Parents (June 21, 2018)
  Sandy Santana is quoted: “There is absolutely no plan to reunite these families. These two bureaucracies aren’t always communicating with each other, so it’s not always clear if the children are being tracked.”
• The New York Times: Family Separations at the Border Alarm Child-Welfare Experts (June 20, 2018)
  “The trauma can have life-long consequences for these kids, so a good system tries to return the child to the parent as soon as possible when safety is not an issue,” said Sandy Santana.“The federal government has no plan for reuniting the children with their families. It is deliberately inflicting trauma on children to punish their parents.”
• The New Republic: The Uncertain Fate of Migrant Children Sent to Foster Care (June 20, 2018)
  Sandy Santana is quoted: “We’ve heard stories of parents being deported and their children being left behind. And then kids are being sent all over the country, and that distance makes it less likely that these reunifications are going to take place quickly. So our fear is that many of these children will linger in foster care.”
• Bustle: Trump Defends Migrant Family Separation The Same Way My Dad Justified Abusing Me (June 20, 2018)
  “There are times when we need to use strong language to convey what this is,” said Sandy Santana.“It is now U.S. government policy to inflict — deliberately — trauma on children to punish parents.”
• The Texas Tribune: For families Who Have Already Been Separated, Policy Change Doesn’t Guarantee Reunification (June 20, 2018)
• ABC News: Advocacy Groups Mobilize Supporters to End ‘Zero-Tolerance’ Immigration Policy (June 19, 2018)
  “In addition to partnering with the ACLU in a lawsuit against the policy, Children’s Rights has created a toolkit to guide those who wish to help end the ‘abhorrent’ policy.”
• Bustle: 9 Petitions Against Trump’s Family Separation Policy That You Can Sign Right Now (June 18, 2018)
  “One petition created on Change.Org, entitled ‘Keep them together! Stop separating children from their families at the U.S. border,’ was started by Children’s Rights. Children’s Rights is an advocacy organization which, according to its website, ‘hold[s] governments accountable for keeping kids safe and healthy.’”
• In the Thick: “Zero Tolerance” Featuring Sandy Santana (June 14, 2018)
  Sandy Santana, Executive Director of Children’s Rights, was interviewed on a new political podcast, In the Thick, discussing the inhumane and potentially unconstitutional policy of separating immigrant children and their families at the border.
• 

  Christina Wilson Remlin on CNN en Español

  CNN en Español: EE.UU. enjuiciará a quienes crucen ilegalmente la frontera: abogada comenta anuncio de Sessions (May 8, 2018)
  “Christina Remlin dice que estas familias ‘tienen derechos’ y que ‘deberían recibir mejor trato’ y advierte que ‘es un peligro grave’ que los menores inmigrantes queden al cuidado del Gobierno Federal de EE.UU.”

• Daily Beast: ‘Inhumane’: Advocates Decry the Separation of Families at Border (May 7, 2018)
  Sandy Santana is quoted: “Needlessly ripping kids, toddlers, babies away from their parents is inhumane, barbaric and unconstitutional. An administration that purports to uphold family values is callously inflicting devastating trauma on children and families in service of its punitive immigration policies.”