Exploiting separated immigrant children
A Congolese woman lawfully seeking asylum in San Diego hears her 7-yearold screaming in the next room as Mom is sent to detention and the daughter goes to a Chicago facility.
An El Salvadoran mother, fleeing gangs threatening her 16-year-old son, is forced apart from her three children after illegally crossing the border. “Bye, Mommy,” sobs her daughter, 11.
Most Americans, whatever their feelings about border walls or immigration, would find the emotionally damaging practice of separating children from parents abhorrent. And though the Trump administration didn’t invent this, it has vastly exploited it.
The number of immigrant children held by the government jumped more than 20% in May to 10,773 — so many that the government is running out of shelter space.
It’s unclear how many of those are older children who crossed the border on their own and how many are youngsters taken from parents. But in a 13-day period this month, 658 were among the latter.
Homeland security officials deny employing this cruelty to deter illegal immigration; they say it’s just an unfortunate byproduct of following the law. But Attorney General Jeff Sessions explicitly warned this month, in announcing a 100% prosecution policy for illegal immigration, that “if you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally.”
It’s yet another example of a “zero tolerance” policy translating into zero common sense.
To be sure, the government faces challenges when adults with children illegally cross the border.
Are the kids truly theirs? What’s to be done with a child while the adult is prosecuted?
But remedies short of wrenching a child from a parent are readily available. DNA testing done in a matter of hours can establish parenthood. Processing asylum requests ahead of criminal prosecutions, as previous administrations have done, avoids the need for separation.
Once a criminal prosecution for the misdemeanor of illegal border crossing is completed and a days-long sentence served, parents and children should be quickly reunited. If a plea for asylum follows — as often happens — the families can be kept together in detention centers or released with the adults wearing ankle bracelets to ensure appearance in court.
A federal judge is reviewing whether these separations violate federal bestinterest-of-the-child safeguards. Meanwhile, the practice smells a lot like Trump’s decision last year to end popular protections for “DREAMers,” children brought to the USA illegally before 2012 who grew up knowing only this country. Apparently, the president is comfortable using kids as pawns to get his way. — USA TODAY’s Editorial Board