Immigration

Trump Orphaned Hundreds of Migrant Kids

Written by SK Ashby

In 2018, a federal judge ordered the Trump regime to reunite immigrant families they had originally separated in 2017, but now -- about 3 years after they were separated -- hundreds of children remain apart from their parents.

At least 545 children have not been returned to their families according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and it's possible they never will be.

From NBC News:

"It is critical to find out as much as possible about who was responsible for this horrific practice while not losing sight of the fact that hundreds of families have still not been found and remain separated," said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project. "There is so much more work to be done to find these families.

"People ask when we will find all of these families, and sadly, I can't give an answer. I just don't know," Gelernt said. "But we will not stop looking until we have found every one of the families, no matter how long it takes. The tragic reality is that hundreds of parents were deported to Central America without their children, who remain here with foster families or distant relatives."

The ACLU says about two-thirds of the parents they haven't found were deported to Central and South America and that's why they may never be found. Some of them may even be dead because that's why they traveled to the United States in the first place.

Immigrants made the dangerous journey to our border to ask for asylum so they wouldn't be killed, and what did we do? We sent them back home to be killed rather than allow them to remain here with their children and start a new life as Americans.

Of all the cruelties of the Trump regime, I don't know if any of them have been as bad as his immigration policies.

From my own personal perspective, Trump's assaults on transgender rights are offensive and hurtful, but I still have relatively little to worry about compared to the hell forced on both legal and illegal immigrants just because of their skin color. I'm still a white girl, even if I'm transgender, and that means I'm not a constant target of institutional racism and xenophobia.

Turning people away when we could be adding to our ranks is self-defeating. It's inhumane. It's cruel. It doesn't benefit the economy. It doesn't benefit the Treasury. It doesn't improve society. It's the kind of thing only motivated by white supremacy.