ACLU: U.S. has taken nearly 1,000 child migrants from their parents since judge ordered stop to bord

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

ACLU: U.S. has taken nearly 1,000 child migrants from their parents since judge ordered stop to border separations

By Maria Sacchetti July 30 at 4:03 PM

Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union told a federal judge Tuesday that the Trump administration has taken nearly 1,000 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border since the judge ordered the United States government to curtail the practice more than a year ago.

In a lengthy court filing in U.S. District Court in San Diego, lawyers wrote that one migrant lost his daughter because a U.S. Border Patrol agent claimed that he had failed to change the girl’s diaper. Another migrant lost his child because of a conviction on a charge of malicious destruction of property with alleged damage of $5. One father, who lawyers say has a speech impediment, was separated from his 4-year-old son because he could not clearly answer Customs and Border Protection agents’ questions.

Acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin McAleenan has said that family separations remain “extraordinarily rare” and happen only when the adults pose a risk to the child because of their criminal record, a communicable disease, abuse or neglect. Of tens of thousands of children taken into custody at the border, 911 children were separated since the June 26, 2018, court order as of June 29, according to the ACLU, which cited statistics the organization received from the government as part of ongoing legal proceedings.

While the judge recognized that parents and children might still be separated when a parent is found to pose a risk to their child, the ACLU and others say federal immigration and border agents are splitting up families for minor alleged offenses — including traffic violations — and urged the judge Tuesday to clarify when such separations should be allowed.

Approximately 20 percent of the new separations affected children under 5 years old, the ACLU said, compared with about 4 percent last year.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/aclu-us-has-taken-nearly-1000-child-migrants-from-their-parents-since-judge-ordered-stop-to-border-separations/2019/07/30/bde452d8-b2d5-11e9-8949-5f36ff92706e_story.html

[BigmanPigman]

1. The ACLU was just on Lawrence O'Donnell's show and ne said the same thing.

I couldn't believe it.

He said that the US citizens need to go out, protest, call reps and be outraged like we did a year ago... BIG and LOUD!

[BeckyDem]

3. YES!!!

[BeckyDem]

2. Why can't we go after Trump on this alone? Impeach the bastard and be done with it.

According to former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, it had been more than a decade since a child had died in CBP custody when Jakelin Caal Maquin died in December, which means that there were no deaths of children in CBP custody under Obama. Since Jakelin’s death late last year, at least four other children have died in CBP custody.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/trump-child-immigrant-detention-no-toothpaste-obama.html