A refuge in time of trouble - Update

Fleeing gang threats of death
against her young son, a mother 
brought her three children from
El Salvador to the U.S.   After 
3000 miles and 3 borders, 
her children were forcibly
taken from her.  It was three
months before they were finally
reunited in Houston. [ref]

Others aren't so lucky.

Headlines for June 2018 - Infants and children are being taken from their parents.  

The problem grows.  Forced separation of children from parents has irreversible impact, of course. Traumatic severity increases with the length of separation and has greater effect on younger children.

Desperate families fleeing for their lives, who've struggle for weeks just to survive, are being harmed further by current policy and practices.  Around 500 children have been forcibly taken from their parents in the last two weeks alone.  

     As of May 2018, DHS reports there are 10,773 unaccompanied children in U.S. detention centers. Even those families arriving legally and requesting asylum have been similarly abused though there are no legal grounds for separating them from their children.  Once separated, children are transferred from DOJ to DHS and processed separately.  There is no organizational support for reunification.
     DOJ reports there are now 76,634 backlogged cases for separated and unaccompanied children.  The numbers are a problem, and understandably, the Border Patrol, ICE, DOJ, and DHS are overwhelmed.  A former Walmart center has been converted to house 1500 boys, tent cities are planned, ....

It's about more than numbers, though; it's about people, children, and unusual cruelty.  
This must change.

And an interesting perspective, there's the problem we see at the border, and then there's the cause ... What are they running from? Is there some way to change things?  

Behind the increasing numbers of refugees:

• Conflicts that cause large refugee outflows, like Somalia and Afghanistan – now in their third and fourth decade respectively, are lasting longer.
• Dramatic new or reignited conflicts and situations of insecurity are occurring more frequently. While today’s largest is Syria, wars have broken out in the past five years in South Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Ukraine, and the Central African Republic.  Hundreds of thousands have fled widespread gang violence in Central America, from the world’s most murderous countries.
• The rate at which solutions are being found for refugees and internally displaced people has trended downward since the end of the Cold War, leaving a growing number with no place to turn.

18 JUN:  Children arriving at our border are already traumatized by having to flee their homes and the life they knew. Now, they've endured the dangerous 2000+ mile journey, and they've faced things no child should see. They come to us to beg for help. For those then forcibly taken from their parents, the trauma continues and deepens. I cannot imagine so abusing a child, or a parent for that matter. Let's not treat them like pawns in a political contest.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called on the president last week to use his executive authority to end the policy, emphasizing that no legislative action was needed.

"President Trump could stop this policy with a phone call," Graham said on Friday. "I'll go tell him. If you don't like families' being separated, you can tell DHS: 'Stop doing it.'"

20 JUN:  An executive order has ended the forcible separation of children from parents, but 'zero tolerance' remains in effect.  Refugees are still being treated as criminals.

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Part I

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