No end to ‘zero tolerance’ policy, S.F. immigrant advocate warns
Donald Trump’s executive order Wednesday halting the separation of immigrant children from their families is not the end but just the beginning, Santa Fe Dreamers Project Director Allegra Love told a packed house at First Christian Church later that day.
“Zero tolerance,” or the misdemeanor arrests of anyone crossing the nation’s southern border without documentation, will continue, along with incarcerations, she told the crowd of about 500 people.
The nonprofit scheduled the educational session to explain the complicated legal underpinnings that led to the Trump administration’s controversial policy of separating children from their parents — and to urge action.
“We all know it’s wrong,” Love, an attorney, said of the policy. “The issue is not morally complicated. That’s why there are 500 people in this room,” she said, drawing thunderous applause.
While the family separation policy has prompted outrage across the nation, it has residents on edge in Santa Fe, a city that is home to many immigrant families without documentation. One woman attending the Dreamers Project event said federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been active in Santa Fe, recently arresting and deporting five people from El Salvador.
Rather than separate families at the border, Trump’s order issued Wednesday calls for detaining parents and children together — a practice that would violate terms of the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, the result of a legal case involving children detained at the border in the 1980s and incarcerated with adults.
Many questions remain about whether the order will achieve anything.
“President Trump could end the appalling family separation crisis he created with the stroke of a pen,” U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said in a statement Wednesday, “but this executive order doesn’t do that. …
“The president’s ‘plan’ to end his family separation policy does not actually guarantee this horrible practice ends — and its only alternative is to detain families together, on military bases and other unacceptable locations, in violation of a federal court decision,” Udall said.
Under the Flores order, named for a 15-yearold girl from El Salvador, those under 18 who enter the country without documentation cannot be detained in a federal prison and must be placed in the least restrictive environment possible within 72 hours. And children cannot be held for more than 20 days.
Additionally, under a law passed in 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials can hold an unaccompanied child for only 72 hours before they must transfer the child to the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“There is no humane way to detain a child,” Love said.
During a surge in border crossings several years ago, President Barack Obama’s administration faced a similar public outcry, as well as legal challenges, over family detention centers and the incarceration of children who were caught crossing the border alone. One of those controversial immigrant detention centers, a facility in Artesia, closed in 2014. But that did not end immigrant detentions. Many of those crossing the border are asylum-seekers, hoping to legally enter the U.S. because of violence in Central American nations such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, Love said. It’s not a crime to ask for refuge, she said, but “political asylum is an insanely hard thing to win.”
Rather than detain people who have illegally crossed the border, Love said, the Trump administration could use ankle bracelet monitors or cellphone monitoring to track undocumented immigrants until their day in court.
One man in the audience suggested fundraising to pay for GPS monitoring devices so that detainees could be freed.
But, Love said, Trump is opposed to what he calls “catch and release” of border crossers. “What can we do?” she asked the crowd. She suggested clicking on the “donate” button on the website for any grass-roots group seeking to help immigrants, as well as groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Immigration Justice Center.
Raising money for bonds to free immigrants from jail is another way to help, Love said.
She also urged members of the audience to find out more about private prison operators: “People on the stock exchange are getting rich off corporate detention.”
Love suggested simple steps that can be taken locally.
“Go meet some immigrant neighbors,” she said. Attend marches and concerts organized in support of immigrants.
“Don’t let your rage dissipate,” Love said. “The goal of [Trump’s] executive order is to get everyone to back off.”