Yesterday, June 20, 2018, (National Refugee Day) Donald Trump signed an executive order to stop separating families at the border. It was not even a band-aid, just Donald Trump slipping through one of his own loopholes which he provided for in his Zero Tolerance Policy. There is a very good reason why no one says that Donald Trump has ended separating families who have crossed our border illegally. But we are flooded with the statement that Donald Trump has ended separating families at the border. Today in a press conference Trump admitted that putting an end to family separations at the border wasn't going to accomplish anything because eventually the families will be separated. He knew that yesterday. I knew that yesterday. Everyone who has read his Zero Tolerance Policy knew that yesterday.
The Zero Tolerance states that everyone who crosses into the United States illegally will be charged with a federal offense. It is a federal crime. So even if a family remains together at the border, which could be days before being able to appear in front of a federal judge, if the parent is found guilty of crossing illegally, then the parent will be sentenced to a 'short stay' in one of our Federal prisons. Children cannot serve time with a parent so that is his second loophole to separate families.
What happens to the children then? The DHHS hands them over to the ORR to be put into our system. Our foster care and group home system. Our broken system which cannot even protect the American children already in that system. HG.ORG Legal Resources tells us that "Often, foster care is treated as a temporary solution While the parent or parents in the home work on problems to later become reunited with their children. However, children may be raped, molested, or sexually abused in these settings." They go on to show one study by John Hopkins University which found that " children who are in foster care are four times more likely to be sexually abused than children not in that setting. Additionally, children who are in group homes are 28 times more likely to be sexually abused than children not in these homes."
And that is the system we are releasing these immigrant children into. It is also interesting to note, about the flood of earlier minor children crossing our southern border illegally, may very well have been accompanied by a parent. It was our Government who was separating families as early as 2014, and once the children were separated from the adults, they were classified as 'unaccompanied.'
Also on June 20, National Refugee Day, I saw on CNN the bridge which crosses the Rio Grand at our port of entry in Brownsville, TX. Currently, from the Mexico side, people are being shot at who cross onto the bridge. Once safely on the bridge, they have to wait in line for days at a time before being allowed entry into the US. That means parents with children in tow are sleeping on cardboard mats during the cold night temperatures, and risking heat stroke or sunstroke in the heat of the day. On average, one family is admitted in the US every two or three days.
It is disgusting to me to think that soon these families who are requesting asylum in the US will be facing merit-based entry. Which is what Donald Trump wants, and is pushing for. I can hear it now, "Sorry, little Angel, mommy and daddy have no master's degree and no money. Go back home."
Also interesting to note, is that the border wall which Trump has promised to build, is going to cost 25 Billion dollars. Which it appears that he is trying to force the hand of Congress to approve. The proposal is to significantly cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. So, Mr. Trump, tell me again, who is going to pay for the border wall? Certainly not Mexico, but our own citizens who are elderly and the neediest, the most vulnerable
CNN says that Trump wants to house 20,000 children on military bases. Know this, the military will not oversee the care of these children, and on any military base in the US, there are absolutely no regulations to oversee the care. No DHHS, no ORR, no Southwest Keys.