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Gregg Chadwick Family Values (Chinga la Migra) 24"x36" oil on linen 2018 |
Our protests against Trump's horrific Migrant Family Separation Policy are working.
As Rolling Stone reports,"The chaos that preceded the order's signing is further proof that nearly every move the administration makes is improvised, and that there has never been any real plan for how to deal with immigration other than projecting strength to tide over his base while the White House tries to figure out how to deliver the long-promised border wall. To Trump, signing the order is an act of weakness, and his claim that he's doing it because of how "important" it is to keep families together is as big of a lie as any of the many he's offered up since taking office."
The order itself was put together so quickly that when it was first posted online, its title was misspelled.
But we must keep up the pressure.
As outlined below, the Executive Order that Trump signed today is problematic. Senator Chris Murphy implores us not to get sucked into a moral vortex where something less than diabolically evil is somehow acceptable. If the new policy puts kids and parents in cages indefinitely that’s better than kids in cages alone, but still illegal and immoral.
To make matters worse, sources including Reveal are reporting that a number of migrant children who have already been torn from their parents are being given psychotropic drugs without consent from a parent.
1/ Immigrant children have been forcibly injected with powerful psychiatric drugs at one of the U.S. gov't shelters, Shiloh Treatment Center outside of Houston, according to court documents and interviews. https://t.co/Ve4XSyRw5N— Reveal (@reveal) June 20, 2018
One child's prescription cocktail included Latuda, Geodon, Olanzapine, Benztropin, Clonazepam, Divalproex, Duloxetine, and Guanfacine. https://t.co/aRJZ6iou6h— David Gura (@davidgura) June 20, 2018
Folks it ain't over. We have barely started fighting this abomination!
Analysis of Executive Order: 1. The plan is to keep families detained indefinitely together, which is illegal.
Zoe Tillman in Buzzfeed says,"The order directs the Department of Homeland of Security to keep families detained together, but any long-term enforcement of the order is contingent on a judge approving changes to the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement that restricts the detention of children. The administration can detain families together for up to 20 days — a deadline based on earlier court rulings interpreting the 1997 settlement — but then will have to separate them absent action by a judge or Congress."
Human Rights First explains that the Flores Settlement Agreement imposed several obligations on U.S. immigration authorities.
The government is required to release children from immigration detention without unnecessary delay to, in order of preference, parents, other adult relatives, or licensed programs willing to accept custody.
If a suitable placement is not immediately available, the government is obligated to place children in the “least restrictive” setting appropriate to their age and any special needs.
The government must implement standards relating to the care and treatment of children in immigration detention.2. Trump would like the courts or Congress to make that not illegal. 3. If Congress or the judiciary doesn't change the law, families will continue to be separated.
Unanswered Questions: 1. What, if anything, will be done to unite thousands of children with their parents?
This Executive Order in no way deals with reuniting the 2,300 children who have been torn away from their parents and remain separated. When will they see their parents again? They must be reunited immediately.
Jacqueline Alemany has learned that an "HHS official has told @weijia that there will NOT be special efforts made to reunite children who have already been separated from their families bc of the Zero Tolerance Policy, despite Trumps EO."
Let's be very clear here:— Mikel Jollett (@Mikel_Jollett) June 20, 2018
NO FAMILIES WILL BE REUNITED BY TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE ORDER.
That means there are still THOUSANDS of kids, sitting alone in cages, separated from their parents by Trump.
Horrifying Development:
The order literally directs the Department of Defense to "construct" massive camps to detain these migrant families indefinitely. Zoe Tillman in Buzzfeed explains,"The Pentagon is looking at four US bases to house unaccompanied children and detained immigrant families, although the Department of Health and Human Services would be in charge of caring for them — Fort Bliss, Goodfellow Air Force Base and Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, and Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas."
How to Fight Back:This is criminal and this is on you @HHSGov @SecNielsen @realDonaldTrump @IvankaTrump Say it loud and say it clear - Trump's Concentration Camps Have Got to Go! #FamiliesBelongTogether #TrumpandtheBabySnatchers https://t.co/WxSfytjnrJ— Gregg Chadwick (@greggchadwick) June 20, 2018
Make A Plan to March: Major protest to Keep Families Together on June 30th in Washington and communities around the country. Go to familiesbelongtogether.org to plug into events. All hands on deck NOW to end this brutality and move towards freedom for all: kids AND their families.
- How to Fight Back – Pressure Congress
Child’s World America, a member-based, 501(c)3 nonprofit organization committed to improving children’s lives in the U.S., reminds us:
"We find ourselves again upon a time where we will one day utter “how could we have let that happen?” We cannot afford to forget that there is a history of separating children from their parents: during slave auctions; during the forced assimilation of American Indians; and during the Holocaust. The reverberations of these barbaric stains on our history are still felt today and future generations of these original victims will inherit the intergenerational transmission of these traumas. To try and argue that this policy of ripping children from their parents at the border is somehow different from the systematic traumatization of children during the times of slavery, forced assimilation, and the Holocaust is to disregard history. To somehow convince ourselves that this systematic traumatization of children has no bearing on the lives of these children and no impact on the legacy of our country is to be living in an alternate universe. And to not care about the impact these policies have on these children is to succumb to the worst potential of humanity."
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has introduced The Keep Families Together Act (S.3036) which currently has 49 co-sponsors and is supported by American Academy of Pediatrics, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), Young Center for Immigrant Rights and the Women’s Refugee Commission. Please call your Senators today and tell them you want them to support this bill.
Find their contact info at Contacting Congress or at Call Congress.
Also, you can contact ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) directly. Write to them here or call them at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE.
TIP: If your Senators or Representative aren’t on board, explain that you will call back regularly for updates on this issue. Then, tell them that this issue is so important to you, that if they do not act to end the separation of children from their parents, that you will actively work to get their opponent elected in November by raising money and speaking to every constituent you can get in front of.
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