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Trump, Stephen Miller Plan New Family Separations at Border
The Trump Administration was told that separating children from their parents causes significant and lasting harm — they want to do it again anyways.
The White House is actively considering plans that could again separate parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border.... One option under consideration is for the government to detain asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days, then give parents a choice: Stay in family detention with your child for months or years as your immigration case proceeds, or allow children to be taken to a government shelter so other relatives or guardians can seek custody.
Stephen Miller is determined to act, arguing that separating kids from their parents deters illegal border crossings.
Senior administration officials say.... they feel compelled to do something to appease the president’s intensifying frustration over border security. Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller is advocating for tough measures because he believes the springtime separations worked as an effective deterrent to illegal crossings.
While some inside the White House and Department of Homeland Security are concerned about the “optics” and political blowback of renewed separations, Miller and others are determined to act.... There have been several high-level meetings in the White House in recent weeks about the issue.
We cannot let them rip children away from their families again.
At least 2,500 children were taken from their parents over a period of six weeks.
....the chaotic forced separations carried out by the Trump administration in May and June that spawned an enormous political backlash and led to a court order to reunite families.
Any party that cannot see this issue with total moral clarity should not be in power.
Advocates for immigrants counter that asylum seekers are fleeing violence and acute poverty, mainly in Central America, and deserve to have a full hearing before an immigration judge.
More than 90,000 adults with children were caught at the southwest border last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, a number that has surpassed the previous high of 77,600 in 2016.