Although the mammoth physical wall envisioned by Trump hasn’t gone up the way he imagined, and although no new laws have actually been passed, the unseen shifts in administrative choices have erected an invisible wall against any immigration, legal or otherwise.
There is no safe way to detain children and families. This administration’s attempt to expand family detention is dangerous, and the Children’s Defense Fund will continue to fight its cruelty.
More than a quarter of a million children have at least one parent who is a DACA recipient. Canceling DACA increases the risk of family separation and is in direct contrast to the fundamental promise of the child welfare system that every child should have the opportunity to grow up in a safe, stable and loving family. The Supreme Court must keep this in mind when weighing the arguments it heard yesterday.
The government told a federal court last month that an additional 1,556 immigrant children and parents were separated at the border under the Trump administration’s evil family separation policy. Families belong together—not torn apart at our border, nor separated within our interior communities. Together.