SUMMARY
After Missing Deadline, Government Faces New Hearing on Family Separation
Following the administration’s failure to reunite all children under 5 who were separated from their parents at the border under the administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released an updated reunification plan, which U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw reviewed in a hearing today.
On June 26, Sabraw had ordered the government to reunite children under 5 with their parents within two weeks, and all other separated children under the age of 18 — a total of about 2,500 — within 30 days.
Sabraw criticized the government’s lack of progress in reuniting children — only 57 children under 5 were reunited while 45 were deemed “ineligible” — and issued a schedule to report on progress for reunification. The original July 26 deadline for all reunifications remains in place.
In addition to the 45 children under 5 years old whom HHS deemed “ineligible” for reunification, the agency says that about 2,500 children ages 5 and older remain separated from their parents. Thousands of mental-health professionals and hundreds of organizations have decried the separations, calling attention to the long-term damage to children’s physical and mental health traumatic separation causes.
And last month, more than 50 law enforcement leaders signed a letter urging congressional leadership to consider alternatives to family detention (ATDs) after the administration suggested detention in place of separation. ATDs have proved to be effective, more humane and more cost-effective than separation or detention. The Trump administration announced last week that it would release hundreds of migrant families in the U.S. with electronic monitoring through ankle bracelets.
New Asylum Guidance Turns Away Survivors of Gang Violence, Domestic Abuse
The Department of Homeland Security has issued new guidance on asylum policy that further limits asylum eligibility and could result in thousands of asylum seekers being turned away at the border.
The new guidance, issued Wednesday, directs U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services categorically to deny asylum for all asylum seekers alleging gang violence or domestic violence as the basis for their claim. It applies to asylum seekers arriving at the U.S. border and refugees waiting abroad to be resettled.
At a time when U.S. refugee admissions are at a historic low, advocates have called the changes “aggressive, unfair and unnecessary” and say it represents “a death sentence with no due process for traumatized immigrants who are seeking safety.”
LEGISLATIVE BULLETIN
Summary of immigration legislation introduced and government reports on immigration: https://immigrationforum.org/article/legislative-bulletin-friday-july-13-2018/
MUST READS:
NEW YORK TIMES: Cleaning Toilets, Following Rules: A Migrant Child’s Days in Detention
By Dan Barry, Miriam Jordan, Annie Correal and Manny Fernandez
July 14, 2018
Do not misbehave. Do not sit on the floor. Do not share your food. Do not use nicknames. Also, it is best not to cry. Doing so might hurt your case.
Lights out by 9 p.m. and lights on at dawn, after which make your bed according to the step-by-step instructions posted on the wall. Wash and mop the bathroom, scrubbing the sinks and toilets. Then it is time to form a line for the walk to breakfast.
“You had to get in line for everything,” recalled Leticia, a girl from Guatemala. Read more
WALL STREET JOURNAL: After Immigrant Families Are Reunited, Scars of Separation Remain
By Arian Campo-Flores and Melanie Grayce West
July 15, 2018
In the days after Ever Reyes Mejía was reunited with his 3-year-old son last Tuesday, the young father tried to make their lives seem normal again.
The two kicked around a soccer ball and played with toy cars while staying at a volunteer’s home in Detroit. Mr. Reyes Mejía wrapped his son in tight embraces, promising he would never be alone again.
Father and son were separated three months ago at a Texas migrant-detention center; the boy was sent to an agency in Michigan while Mr. Reyes Mejía was sent to another Texas facility.
Now, Mr. Reyes Mejía said, his son isn’t the same. He doesn’t speak much. He wants to be constantly close to his father and worries every time Mr. Reyes Mejía steps away.
“His personality has changed,” Mr. Reyes Mejía said. “Inside, he carries like a sadness.” Read more
HOUSTON CHRONICLE (Grieder Column): Donald Trump might change American culture – but immigration won’t
By Erica Grieder
July 14, 2018
Donald Trump’s character flaws are his own, of course, and they’re not shared by many of the Americans who voted for him. But the president really does have many flaws, and they were on display this past week.
After leaving the NATO summit in Belgium, the president made his first official state visit to the United Kingdom, where leaders like Prime Minister Theresa May were in the midst of fraught negotiations over whether, and how, to leave the European Union.
Trump promptly gave an interview to a tabloid, The Sun, in which he accused May of bungling “Brexit” so badly that she had possibly scuttled Britain’s chances for a free-trade agreement with the United States. Read more
CNN.COM (Joseph Op-Ed): France’s World Cup win is a victory for immigrants everywhere
By Peniel Joseph
July 16, 2018
France’s electrifying 4-2 World Cup win over Croatia represents a victory for Africa and immigrants everywhere.
The team’s success is particularly noteworthy because of the way in which anti-immigrant sentiment, especially against migrants with African roots, has roiled French society over the past two decades. In 2005, racial and urban unrest gripped suburban housing projects outside of Paris in the wake of the death of two teenagers who were electrocuted in a substation after being chased by police. And just last month, riots erupted in the French city of Nantes, two hours outside of Paris, after a young Guinean immigrant was shot and killed after being stopped by the police. Read more