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Senator's Tweetstorm Shows Stark Human Toll of Trump Immigration Crackdown
'The gangs will target this mother and her child the moment they land in Honduras, yet Trump admin insists on this cruel policy'
May 03, 2017
Offering a stark example of the dreadful personal toll President Donald Trump's immigration policies are taking on vulnerable families, centrist Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on Wednesday took to Twitter to live-tweet the deportation of a mother and her young son to Honduras.
The dramatic series of tweets specifically highlighted how the Trump administration's immigration crackdown impacts Central American refugees, many of whom are fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
"Twitter: it's urgent," Casey wrote just after 11:00am on Wednesday. "I just found out that a young child & her mother who came to U.S. seeking refuge will be sent back to Honduras today."
He continued:
After outlining some of his immigration votes, Casey added:
Immigration attorney Bridget Cambria told a local NBC affiliate on Wednesday that the mother and son had been held at the controversial Berks County Residential Center outside Reading, Pennsylvania since December 18.
"We applied for the child this week who had qualified for a special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) and brought it to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the courts and we were in court today," Cambria said. "We literally were arguing to include this child while immigration was watching the plane take off."
TeleSUR reports that "a caravan of 200 refugees, fleeing violence and gangs in Central America, has embarked on a journey to the United States--by way of Mexico--in hopes of being granted asylum."
"The journey is meant to raise awareness about the perils and hardships faced by migrants trying to escape violence in Central America," teleSUR reports. The group expects to reach the U.S. border on May 7.
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Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Offering a stark example of the dreadful personal toll President Donald Trump's immigration policies are taking on vulnerable families, centrist Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on Wednesday took to Twitter to live-tweet the deportation of a mother and her young son to Honduras.
The dramatic series of tweets specifically highlighted how the Trump administration's immigration crackdown impacts Central American refugees, many of whom are fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
"Twitter: it's urgent," Casey wrote just after 11:00am on Wednesday. "I just found out that a young child & her mother who came to U.S. seeking refuge will be sent back to Honduras today."
He continued:
After outlining some of his immigration votes, Casey added:
Immigration attorney Bridget Cambria told a local NBC affiliate on Wednesday that the mother and son had been held at the controversial Berks County Residential Center outside Reading, Pennsylvania since December 18.
"We applied for the child this week who had qualified for a special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) and brought it to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the courts and we were in court today," Cambria said. "We literally were arguing to include this child while immigration was watching the plane take off."
TeleSUR reports that "a caravan of 200 refugees, fleeing violence and gangs in Central America, has embarked on a journey to the United States--by way of Mexico--in hopes of being granted asylum."
"The journey is meant to raise awareness about the perils and hardships faced by migrants trying to escape violence in Central America," teleSUR reports. The group expects to reach the U.S. border on May 7.
Deirdre Fulton
Deirdre Fulton is a former Common Dreams senior editor and staff writer. Previously she worked as an editor and writer for the Portland Phoenix and the Boston Phoenix, where she was honored by the New England Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. A Boston University graduate, Deirdre is a co-founder of the Maine-based Lorem Ipsum Theater Collective and the PortFringe theater festival. She writes young adult fiction in her spare time.
Offering a stark example of the dreadful personal toll President Donald Trump's immigration policies are taking on vulnerable families, centrist Democrat Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania on Wednesday took to Twitter to live-tweet the deportation of a mother and her young son to Honduras.
The dramatic series of tweets specifically highlighted how the Trump administration's immigration crackdown impacts Central American refugees, many of whom are fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
"Twitter: it's urgent," Casey wrote just after 11:00am on Wednesday. "I just found out that a young child & her mother who came to U.S. seeking refuge will be sent back to Honduras today."
He continued:
After outlining some of his immigration votes, Casey added:
Immigration attorney Bridget Cambria told a local NBC affiliate on Wednesday that the mother and son had been held at the controversial Berks County Residential Center outside Reading, Pennsylvania since December 18.
"We applied for the child this week who had qualified for a special immigrant juvenile status (SIJS) and brought it to [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and the courts and we were in court today," Cambria said. "We literally were arguing to include this child while immigration was watching the plane take off."
TeleSUR reports that "a caravan of 200 refugees, fleeing violence and gangs in Central America, has embarked on a journey to the United States--by way of Mexico--in hopes of being granted asylum."
"The journey is meant to raise awareness about the perils and hardships faced by migrants trying to escape violence in Central America," teleSUR reports. The group expects to reach the U.S. border on May 7.
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