Advocates worry for migrant children
Trump's plans could break up families
By: Rick Jervis
USA Today
AUSTIN, Texas - Jennifer Walker Gates has had trouble sleeping lately.
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Keeping her up at night are thoughts of how the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump will treat immigrates in the U.S., specifically children.
..... Walker Gates, an Austin, Texas-based immigration attorney who specializes in helping migrant children apply for asylum, said she fears that between Trump's tougher immigrant policies and his party's control of both chambers of Congress, protection for children - both migrants and U.S. citizens - could be severely rolled back.
..... "This is a group of individuals who are incredibly vulnerable and have no power politically," Walker Gates said of children. "We've concerned."
..... As Trump continues to name people to his Cabinet and strategies how to fulfill his tough-on mitigation promises, immigrant advocates and attorneys worry that group will receive an outsize share of the inimitableness kids.
..... Whether a return to family separations at the border or breaking up or deporting mixed-status families in U.S. cites, advocates said the incoming trump administration could unleash a slew of challenges to children in the U.S.
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One of the most controversial practices during Trump's first term was separating families at the border under the administration's "zero tolerance"policy. The separation, designed to deter illegal border crossings, sparked a national backlash as video images of toddlers crying for their parents in holding facilities circulated through the media. the American Civil Liberties Union filed several lawsuits against the government to stop it and Trump later rescinded the practice.
..... A settlement arising form a key lawsuit, Ms. L.v. ICE, prohibits the government form reinstating family separation policies through family separation policies through at least 2031, said Lee Gelernet, an ACLU attorney who led the organization's challenge against family separation and other policies.
...... But the Trump administration will also be responsible for upholding other terms of the settlement, Gelernt said, including allowing parents separated from their children at the border to apply for asylum in the U.S. and facilitating the reunification of an estimated 1,000 families still separated.
..... More than 5,500 families were believed to have been separated at the border in Trump's first term, he said, with approximately 4,000 of them currently eligible for the benefits of the settlement.
..... "We think the settlement is precise and iron-clad," Gelernt said. "We're gong to be vigilant about making sure the settlement is complied with and will be back in court if there's any evidence that the letter and spirit of the settlement are not adhered to."
..... How the Trump administration complies with the terms of the settlement remains a question. A Trump spokeswoman and the Trump transition team did not reply to several request for comment.
..... Tom Homan, an ardent supporter of "zero tolerance" under Trump's first administration who was recently named by Trump to be the new "border czar,' has said in media interviews that a top priority for him would be to save children smuggled into the U.S. by cartels and trafficking rings.
..... "We want to save these children and get them back with their families," he said on Fox News recently.
..... But Homan has also said he continues to support family separations. Asked by a CBS News reporter if the policy should be relaunched in a second Trump term, Homan answered: "It needs to be consider,d absolutely."
..... Homan didn't reply to several email request for comment.
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Immigrant advocates also worry that mass depositor promised by Trump on the campaign trail would lead to families being separated as one or both parents are deported while children, some of them U.S. citizens, stay behind.
..... "the administration's plan for mass deportation will result in an untold number of devastating family separations," said Neha Desai, a children's rights attorney and senior director at the National Center for Youth Law, an Oakland, California-based advocacy group.
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Splitting up families who are deported would leave psychological trauma that could be passed down from one generation to the next, said Charles Nelson, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, who has studied the impact of family separations on children.
..... "The worry here is short-term harm, then long-term harm - and long-term harm could play out in next generations," he said.
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Homan has said he prefers to target those in the U.S. with criminal records first and has signaled that, rather than separating families, Immigration and Customs enforcement agents could deport the entire family.
..... For years, unaccompanied minors arriving at the border were protected under provisos enshrined into U.S. law, such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, which ensures the transfer of unaccompanied minors to the Department of Helaht and human Services, and the Special Immigrate juvenile Status, a way for qualifying immigrate youth to get legal status in the U.S.
..... But the trafficking victims act has come under recent scrutiny by some U.S. lawmakers, who claim mismanagement and unintended loopholes allow traffickers to take advantage of unaccompanied minors through the act, putting them in harm's way.
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Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress could try to repeal the law altogether, stripping away important protections for young migrants, said Gladis Molina, executive director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children's Rights.
..... "Kids will be detained in the custody of U.S. Border Patrol, then exponentially removed and put on charter flights," she said. "They'll have no opportunity to go in front of asylum officers. They'd be treated as grownups."
..... Similarly, Trump's White House could tighten scrutiny to the Special Immigrant Juvenile Status or ask Congress to repeal or drastically alter the protection, making it harder for unaccompanied minors to apply for asylum, said Walker gates, the Austin attorney.
..... "I could see the new administration removing that provision so that fewer children, if any, can access it," she said.