In typical Trump administration fashion, the Department of Homeland Security is patting itself on the back for meeting yesterday’s deadline to reunite the children it jacked from immigrant parents under Jeff Sessions’ cruel “zero tolerance” policy. But they’re lying. Via CNN:
As a court-ordered deadline to reunite all eligible families the Trump administration separated at the border elapsed, one in three children still remained away from their parents, with no clear indication when they would be reunited.
According to a court filing, the government has reunited 1,442 families with children aged 5 and older by late Thursday. The government says an additional 378 children have already been released under “appropriate circumstances,” according to the court filing. That includes children released to another family member or friend who can care for them, children who were released to parents already out of government custody and those who have turned 18.
But there are more than 700 children still left in government custody, unable to be reunited with their parents any time soon. The government maintains that it could not or should not have reunited all of those children, including hundreds of parents who were apparently deported and others who the government says declined to be reunified or have criminal histories…
In a call with reporters, officials emphasized that they had met the obligations as they saw them, noting that there would be no parents and children in the country who could be reunited by the end of the day left.
Like their boss, who had a photo-op meeting with Kim Jong-Un and declared the North Korean nuclear conundrum solved, the Trump administration thinks they’re done here. Far from it. According to the article, the government didn’t share any plans to reunite the remaining children with parents, some of whom were likely deported and difficult to reach:
“Parents that did return home without their child did so after being provided an opportunity to have that child accompany them on the way home,” Albence said, later adding the parents “declined” that offer. “Yes, they’ve been deported. We don’t keep track of individuals once they’ve been deported to foreign countries…”
“We cannot force a parent to take a child with them,” he said. The ACLU has filed a number of affidavits to the court alleging numerous parents did not know what they had signed when they relinquished their right to be reunified.
I’ll believe the ACLU over the lying Trump administration, every fucking time. Recall that DHS Secretary Nielsen straight-up lied in our faces about the existence of this vile policy in the first place, even after thousands of children were already stolen:
We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.
— Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) June 17, 2018
She should have been forced to resign, but luckily for her career, the entire administration is stocked with amoral, lying, corrupt buffoons from top to bottom. Unlike Nielsen, Rep. Karen Bass is telling the truth (h/t: valued commenter Rikyrah):
Last week, I spoke to a grandmother (in a cage) who the government had deemed "ineligible" to stay with her grandchild because she was not his mother.
The boy was shipped off to foster care and in 6 months, can be put up for adoption in Texas.
That’s what “ineligible” means. https://t.co/DkofFDKtNn
— Congressmember Bass (@RepKarenBass) July 27, 2018
We’ve got to stay focused on this shameful episode, fellow citizens, until every child has been accounted for — about a third are still in limbo. The minute we take our eyes off the ball, Trump administration-affiliated “Christian” charities will probably pounce on these kids and sell them off. This is being done in our name, so it’s up to us to hold the bastards to account.
Hundreds of Stolen Children Still Held by US GovernmentPost + Comments (163)