The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is considering detaining separately children and parents who cross the US border without authorization, Secretary John Kelly confirmed yesterday.
Parents and children who cross the border or who show up at airports without authorization to enter the US are not currently separated as a rule, but it does happen.
In mid-December, for example, I got a frantic call right before Christmas from Laura (not her real name), a grandma from Honduras living in New York. Her son and her grandson had recently fled Honduras after being threatened by gangs. Joel, 32, and Jair, 4, (not their real names), were separated by US officials soon after they crossed the border into the US. Joel was sent to adult detention, and Jair was sent to a children’s shelter run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“My son raised that boy on his own since he was baby,” the grandmother told me. “We’re desperate, the boy has been held for a month now, and I’ve only been able to talk to him a few times. His father hasn’t been able to talk to him at all.”
As a new parent, I am only beginning to understand what it would mean to have authorities rip my child away from me, to not know how he is faring, if he is well-fed and healthy. This trauma in asylum seeking families is only compounded by the traumatic events that caused them to flee. That’s why the Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasizes that keeping families together is a fundamental right.
So why would the US government adopt a deliberate policy of separating parents and children? Kelly seemed to acknowledge that the goal of the proposed new policy would be to deter families from entering the US without authorization, noting that he would do “almost anything” to dissuade Central Americans from making the “dangerous” trip north to the US border. The idea that the government would cause harm to children to dissuade other families from crossing the border is cynical in the extreme.
I spoke to Laura yesterday after Kelly announced his plan to put more families through this pain. Four-year old Jair remains detained after four months. Joel was deported 10 days ago. Fearing a years-long separation, he wanted to take Jair with him, but, Laura said, US authorities did not allow it. One thing has not changed: Laura is still desperate to get Jair out of custody.
“He’s too small to be locked up like that,” she told me. “He’s not a criminal.”
