“Part of the reason for the proposal is to deter mothers from migrating to the United States with their children, said the officials, who have been briefed on the proposal.”
So, the goal is to frighten away refugees from poverty, corrupt governments and drug cartels by threatening to take their children away?
"The journey north is a dangerous one with too many situations where children - brought by parents, relatives or smugglers - are often exploited, abused or may even lose their lives.
So, our fundamentally racist immigration policy and militarization of the border is being exploited by criminals and rather than change that policy we just double-down on human misery?
“With safety in mind, the Department of Homeland Security continually explores options that may discourage those from even beginning the journey,”
So, the goal being to make the United States to look as corrupt, repressive and unjust as the country they are feeling from?
The whole “Won’t someone think of the children?!?” cover this proposal hides behind is only to make more palatable a mean-spirited and vindictive proposal that is founded on a series false assumptions and false choices.
One, that the Trump/Bannon nationalist ideology of “blood and soil” which is at the root of the anti-immigrant push in this country has any moral foundation at all. Remember, we are talking about regions of this country that were seized as a result of invasion and granted in a treaty (Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo) signed under duress – a moot point to be sure at this point in history but it should inspire some humility about how we react when Mexicans decide to cross the border.
Two, that these people are threats that need to be rounded up, detained and deported is founded on lies about the criminality of these refugees who are in the vast majority entrepreneurial, hard-working, devout Catholics who are willing to do the nasty jobs no one else wants.
Three, that rather than improve the condition of detention centers to make them more hospitable for families, those families should be broken up.
Four, that a parent who seeks to remove their family from miserable conditions is judged as unfit when throughout history we have applauded people who have tried to flee with their families from dictators (Hey! The Sound of Music! Julie Andrews!)
Five, that separating a child from a parent is for the child’s own good when in reality such actions are only taken in the most extreme cases, not in this case where the crime is the moral equivalent of jaywalking to avoid a building on fire.
Six, the US government can make a decent policy around this when it has a pretty bad record of taking children away from minority groups as a whole and should be avoided at all costs: (http://www.nmai.si.edu/education/codetalkers/html/chapter3.html).
Seven, etc, etc, etc…
