THREAD: How do you respond when a Trump supporter says the administration is simply enforcing the laws? You can’t simply point to a single document and saying “see, it’s right here. They’re lying.” So, here is my attempt.
#FamilesBelongTogether
#FamiliesBelongTogetherAct
#FamilesBelongTogether
#FamiliesBelongTogetherAct
When asked for evidence of policies that require the separation of families, the White House refers to laws determining what happens to unaccompanied immigrant minors.
The thing is, none of the children in question would be deemed unaccompanied if the Trump administration did not decide to prosecute their parents. This is a policy created by Trump administration.
Whenever parents are charged with a federal misdemeanor (yes illegal entry into the US is a misdemeanor), or awaiting trial, they are placed in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Children cannot go to jail, so they are transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement. It has been that way for a long time. DHS called it a long standing policy. This is all true.
Before the Trump administration, immigrants entering illegally as families were rarely, if ever, prosecuted in this way. Instead, immigrants were held in family detention centers until they were sent to appear before an immigration court or deported.
This policy kept children with their families. Because, #FamiliesBelongTogether
Attorney General Sessions announced in April 2018 that DHS would now be referring all illegal border crossings to the Justice Department for prosecution. Facing criminal charges, parents would go to detention centers, leaving their children unaccompanied.
Because they are now unaccompanied minors, they are subject to those laws. The administration (as you’ve likely seen in the video of John Kelly from 2017) has been floating this idea as a deterrent to stop people from seeking asylum or generally crossing the border.
It’s the decision to prosecute parents in this way that is causing these separations. This is a policy put in place by the Trump administration, that could just as easily be removed by the Trump administration.
There is no law or court decision that requires them to desperate families in this way. It is dishonest and misleading for them to say otherwise.
@realDonaldTrump and @SecNielsen are lying to the American people and we must not allow it to continue.
#FamiliesBelongTogether
#FamiliesBelongTogetherAct
#FamilySeparation
#FamiliesBelongTogether
#FamiliesBelongTogetherAct
#FamilySeparation
Kathleen’s tweet belongs here for sure!
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by @kpolanowicz view original on Twitter
And so does Stephen’s
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by @sbbaines view original on Twitter
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