Time for Action: #EndFamilySeparation

Recently, we've discussed the Trump administration's new policy of separating families entering the U.S., either illegally or in search of asylum, and given a brief explanation of the rank barbarism of the policy for the ethically challenged.

Here, we make an effort to present solutions.

One obvious solution is to pledge to campaign and vote for Democrats in November. And while that is a necessary course of action, it is hardly sufficient. For one thing, the Democrats' record on immigration issues isn't all that great, so simply marking the line marked 'D' won't guarantee results. We need to push Democrats, both incumbents and challengers, to adopt pro-immigrant policies. For another, the election is still more than 5 months away, which means that a Democratic Congress is at least 7 months away, and even then they'll only be able to check Trump's abuses (hopefully) rather than enacting their own legislation.

Families are being torn apart NOW. We can't wait that long to act.

I'm certainly not the best resource for this kind of information, but here's my best shot:

1. Contact your legislators, whether they are Republicans, Democrats, or Zoroastrians. As noted above, not all Democrats are good on immigration policy; they need to be pushed. As for Republicans, their death-grip embrace of Trump is all poll-driven. If they receive enough constituent calls (especially from Republican constituents), they'll turn around. Plus given the current push to force a DACA vote in the House, we shouldn't assume that all Republicans are as bad on immigration as Trump.
2. Donate time, money, or both to groups fighting the administration's policy, or fighting for immigrants' rights. There are many such organizations, so choosing just one can be a bit overwhelming. The ACLU has a long and distinguished history of winning victories for civil rights of all kinds, and they're on the case here. The same is true of the Southern Poverty Law Center. For organizations specifically focused on immigration, I believe that the Informed Immigrant is a solid site, which hosts a search engine you can use to find local organizations where you can donate. (UPDATE: The following organizations have been recommended since this post originally went up: Innovation Law Lab, the CARA Pro Bono Project, the Florence Immigration and Refugee Rights Project, and the Texas Civil Rights Project.  My donation went to this last organization, because it is highly rated by Charity Navigator, and because a wonderful woman named Kendyl Hanks (@HanksKendyl) has promised to match donations made to TCRP if you DM her your confirmation.  Her offer may have expired by the time you read this).
3. Two other organizations which seem good --- but caveat emptor, I've spent literally minutes researching them --- are The Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights and The National Immigrant Justice Center.
4. Democrats in my local congressional district have some other suggestions, as does politicalcharge.org.
5. MoveOn is organizing a national day of action on June 30.  Check for an event in your area.  If there isn't one, come back later to see if someone organized one --- or organize one yourself!

Finally --- this is a horrific situation, and there's no question Trump, Sessions, ICE and CBP all bear responsibility for it. But this isn't and shouldn't become a political cudgel. For one thing, Obama's hands are far from clean when it comes to immoral immigration policy. For another, this is a national disgrace which requires a unified, national response. And we can't work together to end the injustices of the immigration system --- all of them, whether it's Obama or Trump who's responsible --- if we insist on pointing fingers at each other.

This atrocity is the defining issue of our time. The way we respond as a nation will define America for the next generation.

Things Everyone Knows: Ripping Families Apart is Wrong

Earlier today, I wrote about the Trump administration's latest policy shift that attempts to limit illegal immigration; namely, taking children away from parents who come to America illegally, or even those who (legally) come to America seeking asylum.

Naturally, I thought it goes without saying that such a policy is morally bankrupt in all circumstances, but reality soon asserted itself.  Of course there is a small but determined group of dead-enders who steadfastly support the policy, on the grounds that anyone who comes to America illegally must suffer the consequences, even if that means the loss of their children.  So for the benefit of those who need the clarification, I'll explain why this policy is deeply immoral.

The most obvious reason is that even if the parents may have broken the law, the child has not. So separating a child from her parent not only punishes the child for a crime she didn't commit, her punishment may be much harsher than the one the parent suffers, given that as of this writing, roughly 20% of all children in the hands of federal sponsors simply vanish, many of them likely into the hands of human traffickers.

So yes, destroying the life of an innocent child is immoral. Do I really need to continue?

The next most obvious problem with the idea that 'criminals deserve what they get' is that quite often, the parent giving up her child is also innocent. As Chris Hayes reported, this policy targets asylum-seekers as well as illegal immigrants, even though it is not illegal to come the U.S. seeking asylum.

So yes, destroying the lives of an innocent child AND his mother is immoral. Shall I go on?

Fine. Now I've never met you, so I don't know what religious beliefs you might have, if any. So I'll simply point out that most (if not all) of the world's religions teach kindness and generosity toward immigrants, not authoritarian horror. For example:

• If you're Christian: "When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. (Leviticus 19:33-34)"
• If you're Jewish, then the above Leviticus quote applies equally to you, but there's also this: "whether we decide as Americans through the political process to open our arms or arm the gates, as Jews the message is clear: those struggling to leave the place of their birth and find freedom and security and opportunity in a new land are human beings. There is no 'us' and 'them.' They are God’s children. They are our brothers and sisters."
• If you're Muslim: The people of Madinah would later be given the title of “The Helpers” because, ultimately as the verse from the Holy Quran states, they welcomed the men and women of Mecca into their city and their homes. They shared their food and sustenance. They gave and gave, even from what they themselves wanted to partake from. They sacrificed, and as a community they prospered.
• And if you're none of these things, or simply believe the U.S. Constitution should settle the matter, there's the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, in which category the destruction of families clearly applies. Sara Ramey, Executive Director of the Migrant Center for Human Rights, gives a more detailed constitutional argument against the policy.

So --- hang on to your Hammurabi-like desire to punish immigrants, asylum-seekers and their children if you must. But please don't pretend that fairness, justice or the Constitution have anything to do with your deeply immoral belief.

First They Came for the Immigrants . . .

The Trump administration is a very effective scandal-generator. Ironically, because there is at least one new scandal each day, no single scandal has really taken root. The media and the public have shifted their attention from one scandal to the next to the next, and in so doing, the Trump administration has kept its head above water, like a rock skipping across a pond.

That really needs to stop now.

A "zero-tolerance" policy toward people who enter the United States illegally may cause families to be separated while parents are prosecuted, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday.

. . .

"We don't want to separate families, but we don't want families to come to the border illegally and attempt to enter into this country improperly," Sessions said. "The parents are subject to prosecution while children may not be. So, if we do our duty and prosecute those cases, then children inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions."

This new policy has had predictably disastrous results. Take the time to watch the whole clip:

A brief flavor of what's going on:

Children as young as 18 months are being “ripped out of the arms of their mother,” Hayes reported, adding it was for a very specific reason: “to punish the immigrants,” many of whom he said were “often seeking asylum”.

It's worth noting here that when someone comes to America from another country seeking asylum, they are not breaking the law. This distinction appears to be lost on ICE, a rogue agency with a lot of other issues, which separate the children from their parents anyway.

The good news here is that a lot of people were rightly outraged by the new policy, which seems like something only an authoritarian dictator would implement. For his part, Trump responded to the outrage by --- blaming the Democrats:

Put pressure on the Democrats to end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S. Catch and Release, Lottery and Chain must also go with it and we MUST continue building the WALL! DEMOCRATS ARE PROTECTING MS-13 THUGS.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2018

But of course, this is typical Trump misdirection and lying. As Chris Hayes noted in the film clip above, this policy is new with the Trump administration, and unprecedented. In particular, Trump himself pushed for the policy, raising speculation that Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen might resign over it:

One persistent issue has been Mr. Trump’s belief that Ms. Nielsen and other officials in the department were resisting his direction that parents be separated from their children when families cross illegally into the United States, several officials said. The president and his aides in the White House had been pushing a family separation policy for weeks as a way of deterring families from trying to cross the border illegally.

This policy isn't a Democratic policy, and it's no accident. This policy is consistent with Trump's anti-immigrant views, and also with his pattern of nominating outright racists for government posts, including most recently, Ronald Mortensen, who among other things believes that all immigrants commit multiple crimes after arriving in the U.S., and that all DACA participants are criminals.

Mr. Mortensen has been nominated as the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration. It would be funny if it weren't destroying families. Meanwhile, the Trump administration doesn't seem to care:

John Kelly acknowledged in a recent interview with NPR that family separation “could be a tough deterrent” to illegal immigration. In that same interview, the White House chief of staff argued that it wasn’t cruel and heartless to take children like Jose away from their parents because, “The children will be taken care of – put into foster care or whatever.”

"Whatever". No big deal. Just a child, perhaps an infant, in a strange country, taken from the only parent they've ever known, to be separated from them indefinitely.

Whatever.

I make no secret that I believe Donald Trump is a horrible president and a horrible human, and that impeachment is the nicest thing that he deserves. This isn't about politics, and it shouldn't be. It's about those families.

You can hate illegal immigrants. You can even hate asylum seekers. But America should never, EVER be a country that tears families apart. That's not making America great. That's making America fascist --- U.S. Customs and Border Protection even makes the parents wear yellow wristbands in custody.

This isn't America.

So I hope everyone reading this --- no matter whether they're Republican, Democrat, independent or Zoroastrian --- will speak out against this immoral policy, and urge others to do the same. Here are some ways to do that:

1. Always, always, always let your elected representatives know your thoughts and feelings.
2. There are organizations out there fighting this policy in the courts. The ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center are two of my favorites. You can give them money, or contact them about other ways to help.
3. Informed Immigrant keeps a list of organizations which might be in need of volunteers. You search to see whether there are any in your area (I have not done this yet myself, but I plan to).
4. Look for the #WhereAreTheChildren hashtag on Twitter.

This is it, folks. When the history of the Trump administration is written 20 years from now, THIS will be at the center of it, and our response as a nation will define how history views us as a nation.

Choose wisely.

UPDATE: This shouldn't surprise me, but it did. Some folks on social media --- hardcore supporters of Emporer Biggott P. McTreason, no doubt, argue that if people come to the U.S. illegally, they deserve whatever happens to them. Even if that means never seeing their children again. In case it's not obvious why this view is horribly, horribly wrong (or if you just want to see the reasons summarized nicely all in one place), look here.