There’s been a lot of heat but very little light the past couple of days because – the children!!!!! I’m sure you have all seen the photos of children in “cages”, or chain link holding facilities. Here’s one from four years ago:

The huge outcry today is because of politics, not primarily a tender concern for children. Anybody who believes otherwise is living in fairy land, or grossly ignorant of the facts.

Here is an article dated January 25, 2016. Barack Obama was POTUS. Instead of holding children in custody, HHS released children to adults who abused them.

AP INVESTIGATION: Feds’ failures imperil migrant children

Without enough beds to house the record numbers of young arrivals, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lowered its safety standards during border surges in the last three years to swiftly move children out of government shelters and into sponsors’ homes. The procedures were increasingly relaxed as the number of young migrants rose in response to spiraling gang and drug violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, according to emails, agency memos and operations manuals obtained by AP, some under the Freedom of Information Act.

First, the government stopped fingerprinting most adults seeking to claim the children. In April 2014, the agency stopped requiring original copies of birth certificates to prove most sponsors’ identities. The next month, it decided not to complete forms that request sponsors’ personal and identifying information before sending many of the children to sponsors’ homes. Then, it eliminated FBI criminal history checks for many sponsors.

Since the rule changes, the AP has identified more than two dozen children who were placed with sponsors who subjected them to sexual abuse, labor trafficking, or severe abuse and neglect.

“This is clearly the tip of the iceberg,” said Jacqueline Bhabha, research director at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University. “We would never release domestic children to private settings with as little scrutiny.”

Advocates say it is hard to gauge the total number of children exposed to dangerous conditions among the more than 89,000 placed with sponsors since October 2013 because many of the migrants designated for follow-up were nowhere to be found when social workers tried to reach them.

I am sharing with you some of what I have learned over the past 24 hours about this matter. I hope that it helps you to understand the situation (other than that this is a political issue).

First, here is the official statement from DHS about facts and myths surrounding the issue of children traveling with families being separated from their parents.

Myth vs. Fact: DHS Zero-Tolerance Policy

It states, in part:

Fact

DHS does not have a blanket policy of separating families at the border.   However, DHS does have a responsibility to protect all minors in our custody.  This means DHS will separate adults and minors under certain circumstances.  These circumstances include: 1) when DHS is unable to determine the familial relationship, 2) when DHS determines that a child may be at risk with the parent or legal guardian, or 3) when the parent or legal guardian is referred for criminal prosecution. 

• Familial Relationship – If there is reason to question the claimed familial relationship between an adult and child, it is not appropriate to detain adults and children together.
• Human Trafficking and Smuggling – If there is reason to suspect the purported parent or legal guardian of human trafficking or smuggling, DHS detains the adult in an appropriate, secure detection facility, separate from the minor.  DHS continues to see instances and intelligence reports indicating minors are trafficked by unrelated adults, posing as a “family” in an effort to avoid detention.
• Safety Risk – If there is reason to suspect the purported parent or legal guardian poses a safety risk to the child (e.g. suspected child abuse), it is not appropriate to maintain the adult and child together.
• Criminal Prosecution – If an adult is referred for criminal prosecution, the adult will be transferred to U.S. Marshals Service custody and any children will be classified as an unaccompanied alien child and transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services custody.

In recent months, DHS has seen a staggering increase in the number of illegal aliens using children to pose as family units to gain entry into the United States. From October 2017 to February 2018, there was a 315 percent increase in the number of cases of adults with minors fraudulently posing as “family units” to gain entry.

Investor’s Business Daily

Department of Homeland Security said on Friday that 1,995 children had been separated from their illegal border crossing parents from mid-April through May. That number included, DHS said, cases where the adults were arrested for illegal entry, immigration violations, or possible criminal conduct.

First, it’s important to note that many of the “separations” don’t last long at all.

As Rich Lowry explains in a detailed article in National Review, “when a migrant is prosecuted for illegal entry, he or she is taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals,” in which case, as when other adults are incarcerated in the U.S., they are separated from their children.

Lowry notes that “The criminal proceedings are exceptionally short, assuming there is no aggravating factor such as a prior illegal entry or another crime. Migrants generally plead guilty, and then are sentenced to time served, typically all in the same day.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that Rio Grande Valley border agents prosecuted 568 adults and separated 1,174 children since the administration announced its “zero tolerance” policy in early April. However, it only took a matter of hours to reunite more than a third of these children with their parents.

Lowry notes that “The criminal proceedings are exceptionally short, assuming there is no aggravating factor such as a prior illegal entry or another crime. Migrants generally plead guilty, and then are sentenced to time served, typically all in the same day.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that Rio Grande Valley border agents prosecuted 568 adults and separated 1,174 children since the administration announced its “zero tolerance” policy in early April. However, it only took a matter of hours to reunite more than a third of these children with their parents.

THIS NEXT PART IS VERY IMPORTANT

Most of the concern about family separations centers on the administration’s handling of asylum seekers who’ve crossed the border illegally.

In the past, the practice has been to simply detain these families for a short time in an ICE facility. But rather than return for their asylum hearing, many just disappeared into the country.

Under the “zero tolerance” policy, Trump has tried to put an end to this “catch and release” policy, by arresting every adult caught illegally crossing the border.

If parents choose to seek asylum, they can end up separated from their children for months while the asylum process plays out.

The administration is right to point out, however, that there is a legal process for seeking asylum that won’t involve facing such a choice — just show up at a port of entry to make the asylum claim.

“As I have said many times before, if you are seeking asylum for your family, there is no reason to break the law and illegally cross between ports of entry,” Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted over the weekend.

Critics complain that the legal process just takes too long, as a way to justify illegal border crossings. But illegal border crossers are not only jumping the line. Under the old system they could vastly increase their chances of staying in the country — with or without gaining asylum status.

Another fact conveniently overlooked amid all the hysteria is that just because a group claims to be a family, doesn’t mean it’s true. The Department of Homeland Security says that from October 2017 to February 2018 it saw “a 315% increase in the number of cases with minors fraudulently posing as ‘family units’ to gain entry.”

Presumably that’s because they think posing as a family will improve their chances of avoiding deportation. Whatever the reason, those children’s separation from their parents occurred long before the border patrol showed up.

Another point – about which I have had a lot of trouble finding information – is the change in the law governing how long the government may hold children in “unlicensed facilities” and how said children must be treated (provision of food, water, heat/AC, information etc), and that seems to be divided into two parts. The first deals with a legal decision called the Flores Settlement, which took place in 1997. The second is changes/additions made to the original settlement in 2016 by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. This document explains both pretty well, although I admit that I really don’t understand it completely:

United States Court Of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

The conclusion is that accompanied minors separated from their parents are to be treated the same way as unaccompanied minors, and that release of accompanying parents is not required. Apparently, this eliminated the use of family detention centers when the adults were detained for illegal entry.

This site provides links to related legal documents:

Documents Relating to Flores v. Reno Settlement Agreement on Minors in Immigration Custody

I welcome any and all facts anyone has to add!