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A mother whose daughter was ripped away from her arms while breastfeeding. A grandmother seeking asylum who got separated from her 16-year-old grandson with disabilities. A five-year-old child placed with foster parents after being taken away from his father. A father who died by suicide after being separated from his wife and three-year-old son.
America has a long history of tearing apart families of color, but the Trump administration’s recent directive to separate migrant parents and children at the border has been perceived as particularly cruel. (For a breakdown of the policy and how it works, go here.)
The directive is part of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ efforts to overhaul the immigration system. In the last year, Sessions unsuccessfully tried to put a stop to President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, slapped case quotas on immigration judges, and most recently, issued an order that would block most survivors of domestic abuse and gang violence from receiving asylum.
Before the directive went into effect, the administration was already splitting families apart. The New York Times reported that between October 2017 and April 2018, nearly 700 families were separated. After Sessions formally announced the separation policy, 658 children were separated from their families in the span of just two weeks.
Since there’s been a surge in the number of children placed in detention after the policy went into effect, the Trump administration is planning to start building new tent cities at military posts in the state of Texas to shelter these kids. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has told the U.S. that the practice of separating families violates the children’s rights and international law.
MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff had the opportunity to visit a former Walmart, now used as a detention center in Brownsville, TX. He tweeted: “This shelter, Casa Padre, is the largest licensed childcare facility of its kind in the country. Nearly 1,500 boys 10-17 in here now. They’re supposed to sleep four to room. Nearly every room has 5. They’ve received a variance from the state because of overcrowding.”
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