81 children separated from parents at Us-mexico border since June
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration separated 81 migrant children from their families at the Us-mexico border since the June executive order that stopped the general practice amid a crackdown on illegal crossings, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press.
Despite the order and a federal judge’s later ruling, immigration officials are allowed to separate a child from a parent in certain cases serious criminal charges against a parent, concerns over the health and welfare of a child or medical concerns.
Those caveats were in place before the zero-tolerance policy that prompted the earlier separations at the border.
The government decides whether a child fits into the areas of concern, worrying advocates of the families and immigrant rights groups that are afraid parents are being falsely labeled as criminals.
From June 21, the day after President Donald Trump’s order, through Tuesday, 76 adults were separated from the children, according to the data. Of those, 51 were criminally prosecuted 31 with criminal histories and 20 for other, unspecified reasons, according to the data.
Nine were hospitalized, 10 had gang affiliations and four had extraditable warrants, according to the immigration data. Two were separated because of prior immigration violations and orders of removal, according to the data.
“The welfare of children in our custody is paramount,” said Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees US immigration enforcement.
“As we have already said and the numbers show: Separations are rare. While there was a brief increase during zero tolerance as more adults were prosecuted, the numbers have returned to their prior levels.”
At its height over the summer, more than 2,400 children were separated. The practice sparked global outrage from politicians, humanitarians and religious groups who called it cruel and callous. Images of weeping children and anguished, confused parents were splashed across newspapers and television.
A federal judge hearing a
lawsuit brought by a mother who had been separated from her child barred further separations and ordered the government to reunite the families.
But the judge, Dana Sabraw,
left the caveats in place and gave the option to challenge further separations on an individual basis. American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt, who sued on behalf of the mother, said he hoped the judge would order the government to alert them to any new separations, because right now the attorneys don’t know about them and therefore can’t challenge them. PARIS: France will forge ahead with its own tax on digital giants in 2019 if the EU fails to agree on how to get the likes of Google and Facebook to pay more tax in Europe, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Thursday.
Le Maire told France 2 television he would give himself “until March” to reach a deal with other EU members on a digital tax, nicknamed the GAFA tax after Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon.
If the talks fail, “we will do it at the national level in 2019: we will tax digital giants if European states do not take their responsibilities,” he said.
On Tuesday, France and Germany agreed on a scaledback version of the tax in a bid to overcome significant opposition to the plan among some of their EU neighbours.
Under the new plan -- presented as an interim solution while waiting for a global deal brokered by the OECD -- digital giants would pay a three-per cent levy on advertising sales.
The measure, set to come into force in 2021 if a global plan has not been agreed by then, would chiefly target Google and Facebook, which dominate the online advertising market in Europe.
Paris argues it would be a vote winner for mainstream EU parties before European Parliament elections next May, in which anti-brussels populists could do well.
France’s initial proposal had a far wider scope but failed to gain traction, effectively killing the proposal as European tax rules require unanimous backing by all EU members.
Ireland, which hosts the European headquarters of several US tech giants, leads a small group of otherwise mostly Nordic countries that argue the tax will also punish European companies and stoke Washington’s anger.