MOST RADICAL U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY

Jun 26, 2018 Editorial

President Donald Trump has publicly stated that immigrants who enter the United States illegally should be sent back to where they came from immediately without any judicial process. It is one of the most draconian laws ever adopted against immigrants by any American president in U.S. history.
As Trump puts it, “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no judges or court cases send them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and law and order. Most children come without parents.”
This seems to be in direct contradiction to the Statue of Liberty and the message it proclaims, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
It is important to know that U.S. immigration law provides certain rights for undocumented immigrants arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. In most cases, they are allowed a full hearing before an immigration judge to determine whether they are truly asylum seekers, refugees and are allowed to stay or be deported. All other U.S. Presidents have respected this process of giving immigrants a fair hearing under U.S. law.
President Trump’s policy on migration crackdown is contrary to ethical and moral standards and the United Nations Convention on the rights and protection of children. Regardless of their parents’ actions, children should not be made to suffer.
Within the U.S., there has been rising political pressure on the Trump Administration over the status of the separated children, some as young as a few months old, being housed in U.S. government facilities and private day care centres with no clear information on how they will be reunited with their parents.
It is heartbreaking for most Americans, including many in the Trump Administration to see children who have ended up locked in cages, like wild animals, removed from the care of their parents with little or no hope for what lies ahead. Certainly, those children will grow up with a bitter understanding of the world around them.
The world has been watching the deep pain and suffering of how some families who have made their way from several Central American countries as well as Mexico into the U.S. have been caught up in politics. They have found themselves detained and their children separated from them by the authorities.
The situation reached boiling point with claims and counter-claims as to who was responsible for the actions, and whether or not the people who put the children at risk have any say in how they will be reunited. U.S immigration officials say more than 2,500 children have been taken from some 2,000 parents since May.
International politics also got hot as Britain’s Prime Minster Theresa May; her Canadian counter-part, Justin Trudeau; French President, Emmanuel Macron; and even Pope Francis have criticized President Trump for his zero tolerance policy on illegal immigrants and the separation of children from their parents.
Such controversies are not unusual for the Trump Administration. However, the U.S. has made it clear that it is opposed to what may seem to be others interfering in the internal affairs of the country. Immigration and national security issues, which are touchy subjects right now are indeed internal issues.
However, public outcry and mounting pressure from members of his Republican Party has forced President Trump to reverse his policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the border.
The U.S. House of Representatives will also be voting on legislation to keep immigrant families together.

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