Immigrant children walk in a line
outside the Homestead Temporary
Shelter for Unaccompanied Children,
a former Job Corps site that now
houses them, on Wednesday, June 20,
2018, in Homestead, Fla. U.S. Rep.
Carlos Curbelo said he found it
"troubling" to see two of his
Democratic colleagues turned away
from the Miami-area detention center
for migrant children. (Photo: Brynn
Anderson, AP)
Trump’s
immigration
order
sparks
confusion,
deep
concern
By
NOMAAN
MERCHANT
and
COLLEEN
LONG
APNews.com
EDINBURG,
TX -
President
Donald
Trump’s
reversal
of a
policy
separating
migrant
families
at the
Mexico
border
sparked
confusion
over how
the new
guidelines
will
play out
and deep
concern
that the
changes
don’t go
far
enough,
allowing
children
to still
be held
in
detention
even if
they
remain
with
their
families.
“We
are
pleased
that the
president
is
calling
a halt
to his
inhumane
and
heartless
policy
of
separating
parents
from
their
children,”
said
Peter
Schey,
the
lawyer
in a
lawsuit
that
resulted
in a key
agreement
governing
the
treatment
of
migrant
children
in
detention
called
the
Flores
settlement.
Despite
the
president’s
order,
Schey
said he
was
concerned
that
several
thousand
children
have
already
been
separated
from
their
parents
“without
the
Trump
administration
having
any
effective
procedures
in place
to
reunite
children
with
their
parents,
many of
whom
have
already
been
deported.”
Trump
said
Wednesday
he
didn’t
like
seeing
children
being
removed
from
their
families,
a recent
practice
that has
sparked
worldwide
outrage.
But he
also
said
“zero
tolerance”
on
illegal
immigration
continues,
and
children
will be
held
with
their
parents
while
the
adults
are
prosecuted.
It
remains
unclear
what
will
happen
with the
more
than
2,300
children
separated
from
their
parents
at the
border
in
recent
weeks.
Officials
have
said
they are
working
to
reunite
families
as soon
as
possible
but have
provided
no clear
answers
on how
that
will
happen.
“This is
a
stopgap
measure,”
said
Gene
Hamilton,
counsel
to the
U.S.
Attorney
General
Jeff
Sessions.
Justice
Department
lawyers
were
planning
to file
a
challenge
to the
Flores
settlement,
which
requires
the
government
to
release
children
from
custody
and to
their
parents,
adult
relatives
or other
caretakers,
in order
of
preference.
If
those
options
are
exhausted,
authorities
must
find the
“least
restrictive”
setting
for a
child
who
arrived
without
parents.
Justice
Department
lawyers
will
seek
permission
to allow
for the
detention
of
families
until
criminal
and
removal
proceedings
are
completed.
Delaware
Sen. Tom
Carper
said he
was
concerned
about
whether
parents
can
track
down
their
kids. “I
am also
deeply
troubled
to hear
reports
that the
administration,
in its
haste to
hold
innocent
children
hostage
in order
to
demand
funds
for a
border
wall,
failed
to plan
appropriately
to
reunite
these
families
following
their
separation,”
the
Democrat
said.
Kay
Bellor,
vice
president
for
programs
at
Lutheran
Immigration
and
Refugee
Service,
among
the
largest
refugee
resettlement
agencies
in the
U.S.,
said:
“While
children
will no
longer
be
ripped
from the
arms of
their
parents
for the
sole
purpose
of
deterring
immigration,
they
will go
to jail
with
their
parents.
Jail is
never an
appropriate
place
for a
child.”
New
York
Mayor
Bill de
Blasio
on
Wednesday
went to
a center
in
Manhattan
that is
caring
for 239
migrant
children
separated
from
their
parents.
De
Blasio
told
reporters
the kids
at
Harlem’s
Cayuga
Center
included
a
9-year-old
Honduran
boy sent
to the
center
2,000
miles by
bus
after
being
detained
at the
border.
He said
the
youngest
child
there is
9 months
old.
The
center
is
operated
under a
federal
contract
that
places
unaccompanied
migrant
children
in
short-term
foster
care. De
Blasio
said
staff
members
reported
seeing
about
350
children
since
the
launch
of the
“zero
tolerance”
policy.
“It
looked
like the
kids
were
being
treated
very
well,”
the
mayor
said,
but
added
several
arrived
with
lice,
bed bugs
or
chicken
pox.
On
South
Texas’
border
with
Mexico,
Manuel
Padilla,
chief of
the U.S.
Border
Patrol’s
Rio
Grande
sector,
told The
Associated
Press on
Tuesday
that the
current
situation
for
migrant
children
in the
U.S. “is
not
ideal,”
but the
children
are
treated
“very
well.”
“The
ideal
situation
is for
these
children
and
family
units to
be in
their
home
country
in a
stable
situation,”
he said.
The
lines of
asylum
seekers
at some
locations
on the
border
seem to
have
waned in
recent
days as
the U.S.
government’s
treatment
of
migrants
has come
under
scrutiny.
Two
Guatemalan
sisters,
ages 20
and 24,
nevertheless
continued
waiting
Wednesday
on a
bridge
connecting
the
Mexican
city of
Matamoros
with
Brownsville,
Texas.
Josseline
Garcia,
the
younger
sister,
told the
AP she
knew
that ICE
could
detain
them
indefinitely.
But, she
said,
“we are
waiting
our
turn,
and
hoping.”