June 12th 2018, McAllen, Texas: Mother and child: After fleeing the violence in Honduras a month ago, crossing Mexico, and crossing the Rio Grande on a raft, a two-year-old girl cries as US Border Patrol searches her mother. (John Moore/Getty Images)
The zero tolerance immigration policy (2018- ), also called family separation, was rolled out in the US in April 2018 by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Over this past Father’s Day weekend it has become infamous for separating children from parents who cross the south-western border, putting the children in cages.
An Ipsos poll on June 14th and 15th asked 1,000 people in the US age 18 or over if they agreed with this:
“It is appropriate to separate undocumented immigrant parents from their children when they cross the border in order to discourage others from crossing the border illegally.”
Overall:
- 27% agreed,
- 56% disagreed,
- 17% unsure.
By party:
- 46% Republicans agreed,
- 29% Independents,
- 14% Democrats.
Only 32% of Republicans disagreed!
The policy is opposed by the United Nations, the American Academy of Pediatrics, 300 US Catholic bishops, First Lady Laura Bush, the Southern Baptist Convention, and even Franklin Graham.
President Trump blames the Democrats for the policy. President Obama did separate some children from their parents at the border, but not as a general practice – he thought it would be unworkable.
It is unworkable: it is already overloading the courts and makeshift prisons down in Texas. Due process of law is more in form than substance. Tent cities are being set up to handle the overflow.
There is nothing in the law that requires it. It is a choice made by Trump, something he could end at any time.
Refugee crisis: the US is dealing with a refugee crisis coming from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, three countries it has screwed up. The moms and pops are fleeing the drug violence and failing states down there.
Catch and release: Under Obama they were allowed to seek asylum, a right under international law, whether you have the right papers or not. While the US government sorted out a family’s claim, it was kept together at a detention centre. If the claim did not hold up, they were deported as a family. The right-wing calls this “catch and release”, as if they were animals.
Zero tolerance: Under Trump the parents are charged with the crime of entering the US without the right papers, even when seeking asylum. They are sent to jail while their children are sent to Health & Human Services (HHS) – thus the tents and cages. Since there is no system in place to make sure children are returned, parents can be deported without them. And HHS has already lost at least 1,475 children, some of them almost certainly to traffickers.
Ports of entry: Trump’s government says asylum seekers should present themselves at “ports of entry”, like a checkpoint. In practice, though, you can still be arrested and separated from your children.
Trump says he is trying to protect the country, that without borders there is no country. Somehow, in the days before Trump, the US managed to take in millions of people from all over the world, many of them refugees seeking a safe haven – just like the Hondurans, Salvadoreans and Guatemalans of today.
Trump is not protecting the US – he is protecting White rule.
– Abagond, 2018.
Update (June 20th): President Trump is going to sign an executive order to temporarily undo the family separation part of his border policy.
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