IndivisibleMT

#WhereAreTheChildren

5/27/2018

#WhereAreTheChildren #EndFamilySeparation

WHAT’S HAPPENING???

Thing 1: The Trump administration is forcibly taking migrant children from their parents and placing them in separate detention centers to “deter” illegal immigration.

The Trump administration has begun forcibly taking children from their parents. Rather than only taking truly unaccompanied children, or children whose parents are charged with violent crimes, HHS has classified all unauthorized border crossers as criminals and separates the children from their families.
More than 700 children have been taken from adults claiming to be their parents (October 2017 – April 2018), including more than 100 children under the age of 4.
These children wait in shelters or are sent to federally contracted foster homes, often without parents being told exactly where they are.
In the meantime, space in shelters and foster homes is limited. The administration plans to open internment camp facilities at military bases to house some of the separated children.

Thing 2: The US government has lost some of the children.

Federal officials lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children last year after a government agency placed the minors in the homes of adult sponsors.
These children may end up in the hands of human traffickers or be used as laborers by people posing as relatives. We know this has happened. Two years ago, a Senate homeland security subcommittee released a report detailing how HHS officials placed eight children with human traffickers who forced the minors to work on an egg farm in Marion, Ohio. The report found that department officials had failed to establish procedures to protect the unaccompanied minors, such as conducting sufficient background checks on potential sponsors and following up with sponsors. We have evidence that children have been sold into sex trafficking.
Homeland Security and HHS signed a memorandum of understanding in 2016 and agreed to establish joint procedures within one year for dealing with unaccompanied migrant children. More than a year after the new guidelines were due, the two agencies have not completed them. Article here.

WHY WOULD THEY DO THIS?

The Trump administration claims it will deter people from trying to enter the US. Chief of staff John Kelly told NPR in an interview three weeks ago that the plan to forcibly separate mothers from their children was explicitly designed as a “tough deterrent” to scare immigrants from trying to enter the U.S.
Trump is using these children as bargaining chips. He said so himself when he tweeted “Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there [sic] parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.” Trump wants to force the Democrats to vote for a new immigration bill that gives him what he wants: tougher law enforcement on the border, a higher rate of deportation, and funding for his wall.
Racism. Sometimes the simplest answer is the correct answer. Trump and his administration have told us, in word and deed, that they are racists and see people of color as criminals, as gang members, as animals. We should believe them when they say that.

BUT OBAMA!

By now you have probably heard someone say “Obama started it” or “Obama did it too.”
NO. Not true. This is a change from Obama policy. Previously, most parents had been allowed to remain with their children in family shelters while awaiting asylum cases or deportation proceedings. The Office of Refugee Resettlement generally placed only children who crossed the border without a parent in government-run detention centers. If a parent and a child came together, they would be processed together unless border officers could not be certain that they were actually the parents of the children accompanying them or if the adults were prosecuted for a crime.
This is a complete change of rules and drastic escalation by the Trump administration. People of conscience around the world are noting that this is what the Nazis did. It is a betrayal of everything the United States stands for.

CALL TO ACTION!

Being outraged and upset is not enough. Posting on Facebook is not enough. If we can't stop this in the United States, we can't stop it anywhere.

Connect with local groups.
- DAILY ACTIONS HERE.
- Get the app! Our team code is 289-029-004.
Put pressure on our members of Congress. All three of them. Call. Email. Fax. Show up at their offices and their events. Congress is a co-equal branch of government and is supposed to act as a check and balance on the Executive. It’s time for them to act like it and do their jobs. Stay updated with Daily Actions and events telling our Members of Congress to:
- Force HHS to end the 100% prosecution policy, stop separating families, and do not put children in military concentration camps. All you have to say is “I am outraged by how our government is treating children at the border. What is my Senator/Rep doing about this?”
- Pass a clean DREAM Act to protect the 800,000 Dreamers.
- Restore Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for another 300,000 refugees.
Put pressure on other parts of the government.
- You can contact ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) directly. Write to them here or call them at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.
- Call/fax E. Scott Lloyd, the Director of The Office of Refugee Resettlement in DHHS. He is responsible for the missing children. Phone: 202-401-9246
  Fax: 202-401-0981.
Action on the ground.
- There is an effort to organize #WhereAreTheChildren marches for June 14. Check here for more information.
- We need more volunteers helping immigrant serving/organizing organizations with things like showing up at city council meetings to voice support for immigrants, ask your city government to invest in legal services money for people going through deportation, preparing your neighbors to defeat any anti-sanctuary efforts, and accompanying undocumented people to ICE check ins.
- If you are a person of faith or a member of a faith community, ask what your congregation is doing to stop family separation.
Midterm Elections. Demand every candidate support legislation to fix this harm. Republicans control both the House and Senate. Republicans refuse to take any action to hold Trump accountable for anything, including this horrific policy. Democrats are afraid to make immigration a campaign priority. Enough is enough. Democrats have to stand up and demand that the United States do the right thing.

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