They needn't fear any more

[Diogenes]

Migrant families separated by Trump still feel the fallout and fear his return to office​

Billy's friends at his rural high school in the South don't know he was one of thousands of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under then-President Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy.

At school, where he plays football and soccer, Billy doesn't talk about what he went through — that his father was told six years ago that Billy was being given up for adoption and he would never see his son again.

Billy wants people to know that what happened to him and several thousand other children reverberates still. Some families have not been reunited, and many of those together in the U.S. have temporary status and fear a vengeful Trump carrying out his promised mass deportations.

“It was a very painful thing that happened to us,” said Billy, who was 9 at the time. He did not want his full name or the state he lives in identified for fear of endangering his family.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Diogenes]

For Efrain, there was guilt. Efrain said his father didn't want to bring him to the U.S. in 2018, but he pushed for it.

When they were separated by Trump, Efrain wondered whether it would have been better if his father had been alone.

His father was sent back to Guatemala.

Efrain, who didn't want his full name used because he fears the repercussions, was placed in a shelter for unaccompanied children for roughly five months.

His father has diabetes, and Efrain worried about his health. When they could do a video call after Efrain left the shelter, he noticed how much thinner his father looked.

Three years later, they reunited at the Atlanta airport. Ever since, Efrain says he's been trying to make up for lost time. He says he struggles with anxiety and loneliness, echoing the isolation he felt after being separated from his father.

“It’s like I’m alone in a room locked up,” he said in Spanish.

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Migrant families separated by Trump still feel the fallout and fear his return to office​

Billy's friends at his rural high school in the South don't know he was one of thousands of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under then-President Trump's zero-tolerance immigration policy.

At school, where he plays football and soccer, Billy doesn't talk about what he went through — that his father was told six years ago that Billy was being given up for adoption and he would never see his son again.

Billy wants people to know that what happened to him and several thousand other children reverberates still. Some families have not been reunited, and many of those together in the U.S. have temporary status and fear a vengeful Trump carrying out his promised mass deportations.

“It was a very painful thing that happened to us,” said Billy, who was 9 at the time. He did not want his full name or the state he lives in identified for fear of endangering his family.

MSN

www.msn.com

If you are arrested for say, DUI and have your kid(s) in the car, do they go to jail with you? If you are convicted of a felony and go to prison does your family go with you?

Of course, we all know they don't. You go to jail / prison and are separated from your family.

So, why the FUCK should we expect people arrested for the CRIME of illegally entering the US--and yes, that is a CRIME--to be jailed or held in custody to have their family kept together?

Sounds like Billy's parents were criminals and his separation from them was probably a good thing for him. Maybe the adults involved should have considered the potential consequences of their criminal actions before committing them.

 

[Diogenes]

After an outcry, Trump said on June 20, 2018, that he was ending the policy.

Six days later, a judge ordered the government to reunite the families, thousands of whom had been separated. Agencies didn’t have their computer systems properly linked, making it difficult to reunite families. Many parents were deported, complicating things even more.

When Joe Biden became president, he created a task force to reunite families. Building on efforts by groups that had sued the Trump administration, the task force estimated that about 5,000 children were separated and that about 1,400 aren't confirmed to be reunited with their families.

Some are in the process. Others are believed to have reunited in the U.S. but aren't coming forward, possibly fearing government interaction. For others, no valid contact information exists, so the search continues.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought a lawsuit against the Trump administration that helped end family separation, puts the number of separated children closer to 5,500.

Lee Gelernt, lead counsel in that lawsuit, said the ACLU estimates that as many as 1,000 families are still apart.

“Some little children have now spent nearly their entire lives without their parents," he said.

The 2023 settlement barred future administrations from using family separation.

MSN

www.msn.com

Trump will never be able inflict that kind of cruel pain on children again.

Because we've got this!

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Doesn't change what I stated. If your parents are criminals, and they go to jail, you don't go with them as their child. Which part of illegal in "Illegal immigration" don't you get?

 

[Diogenes]

The goal was to dissuade people by criminally prosecuting everyone who crossed the border.

It didn't work.

For families, parents were prosecuted. Some were jailed, some deported.

Kids, after it transpired that they cannot be held in custody, were treated as unaccompanied minors (even though they weren't) and transferred to shelters.

It was cruel.

Now, Billy is telling his story.