SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
As seen through fencing, migrants--including a young child--stand while being detained by Department of Homeland Security police after crossing to the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border barrier, on June 27, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
'No Limit to the Depths of the Cruelty of the Trump Regime': Admin Spurns Court Order to Stop Separating Families
"Where are they? How are they treated? When will they be reunited? Why were they still separated?"
Jul 30, 2019
Court documents from the ACLU revealed Tuesday that President Donald Trump's war on immigrants continues unabated--the administration has for a year been flouting a court order to stop separating children from their parents at the border, resulting in the wrenching apart of at least 900 families.
The ACLU filed suit in San Diego Tuesday to stop the government from continuing the practice, which was meant to be kept only in cases of neglect or danger to the child.
"It is shocking that the Trump administration continues to take babies from their parents," ACLU lead attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement. "Over 900 more families join the thousands of others previously torn apart by this cruel and illegal policy."
The Trump administration has continued to separate families for relatively minor infractions like traffic tickets, according to the ACLU.
In court documents, the civil liberties organization alleges that Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) reasoning for separating families included that a father was HIV+; that a parent didn't immediately change the diaper of his sick and sleeping child; and multiple unsubstantiated allegations of abuse.
"There is no limit to the depths of the cruelty of the Trump regime," commented soccer agent Ron Waxman.
Gelernt, in an interview with The Washington Post's Maria Sacchetti, noted the government was using the narrow language of the original ruling to get around its substance.
"They're taking what was supposed to be a narrow exception for cases where the parent was genuinely a danger to the child and using it as a loophole to continue family separation," said Gelernt.
And, he added, the damage done by family separation is itself a danger to the child.
"What everyone understands intuitively and what the medical evidence shows," said Gelernt, is that "this will have a devastating effect on the children and possibly cause permanent damage to these children, not to mention the toll on the parents."
In a tweet, journalist Wajahat Ali wondered what a year of forced separation had done, and was doing, to the administration's victims.
"Where are they?" asked Ali. "How are they treated? When will they be reunited? Why were they still separated?"
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Court documents from the ACLU revealed Tuesday that President Donald Trump's war on immigrants continues unabated--the administration has for a year been flouting a court order to stop separating children from their parents at the border, resulting in the wrenching apart of at least 900 families.
The ACLU filed suit in San Diego Tuesday to stop the government from continuing the practice, which was meant to be kept only in cases of neglect or danger to the child.
"It is shocking that the Trump administration continues to take babies from their parents," ACLU lead attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement. "Over 900 more families join the thousands of others previously torn apart by this cruel and illegal policy."
The Trump administration has continued to separate families for relatively minor infractions like traffic tickets, according to the ACLU.
In court documents, the civil liberties organization alleges that Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) reasoning for separating families included that a father was HIV+; that a parent didn't immediately change the diaper of his sick and sleeping child; and multiple unsubstantiated allegations of abuse.
"There is no limit to the depths of the cruelty of the Trump regime," commented soccer agent Ron Waxman.
Gelernt, in an interview with The Washington Post's Maria Sacchetti, noted the government was using the narrow language of the original ruling to get around its substance.
"They're taking what was supposed to be a narrow exception for cases where the parent was genuinely a danger to the child and using it as a loophole to continue family separation," said Gelernt.
And, he added, the damage done by family separation is itself a danger to the child.
"What everyone understands intuitively and what the medical evidence shows," said Gelernt, is that "this will have a devastating effect on the children and possibly cause permanent damage to these children, not to mention the toll on the parents."
In a tweet, journalist Wajahat Ali wondered what a year of forced separation had done, and was doing, to the administration's victims.
"Where are they?" asked Ali. "How are they treated? When will they be reunited? Why were they still separated?"
Court documents from the ACLU revealed Tuesday that President Donald Trump's war on immigrants continues unabated--the administration has for a year been flouting a court order to stop separating children from their parents at the border, resulting in the wrenching apart of at least 900 families.
The ACLU filed suit in San Diego Tuesday to stop the government from continuing the practice, which was meant to be kept only in cases of neglect or danger to the child.
"It is shocking that the Trump administration continues to take babies from their parents," ACLU lead attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement. "Over 900 more families join the thousands of others previously torn apart by this cruel and illegal policy."
The Trump administration has continued to separate families for relatively minor infractions like traffic tickets, according to the ACLU.
In court documents, the civil liberties organization alleges that Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) reasoning for separating families included that a father was HIV+; that a parent didn't immediately change the diaper of his sick and sleeping child; and multiple unsubstantiated allegations of abuse.
"There is no limit to the depths of the cruelty of the Trump regime," commented soccer agent Ron Waxman.
Gelernt, in an interview with The Washington Post's Maria Sacchetti, noted the government was using the narrow language of the original ruling to get around its substance.
"They're taking what was supposed to be a narrow exception for cases where the parent was genuinely a danger to the child and using it as a loophole to continue family separation," said Gelernt.
And, he added, the damage done by family separation is itself a danger to the child.
"What everyone understands intuitively and what the medical evidence shows," said Gelernt, is that "this will have a devastating effect on the children and possibly cause permanent damage to these children, not to mention the toll on the parents."
In a tweet, journalist Wajahat Ali wondered what a year of forced separation had done, and was doing, to the administration's victims.
"Where are they?" asked Ali. "How are they treated? When will they be reunited? Why were they still separated?"
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.