Washington, DC – (TW: Abuse of children) The headlines are shocking enough:
“More Than 900 Children Have Been Expelled Under a Pandemic Border Policy” – The New York Times
“The Trump Administration Is Rushing Deportations of Migrant Children During Coronavirus” – ProPublica and Texas Tribune
“Under Trump policy, U.S. plays custody keep-away with migrant children”- Los Angeles Times
“ICE Attempted to Deport a 14-Year Old Girl From a New York Shelter, Despite the Pandemic” – Documented
But the stories behind them are even more breathtaking.
As the nation remains focused on COVID-19, the U.S. government has aggressively begun to rush the deportations of some of the most vulnerable migrant children in its care to countries where they have been raped, beaten or had a parent killed, according to attorneys, court filings and congressional staff. (ProPublica and Texas Tribune)
The following incidents occurred in recent weeks, during the global coronavirus pandemic:
Ten year-old Gerson was deported to Honduras, alone, after attempting to request asylum in the United States while his mother waited, distressed and panicked, in Mexico. She had sent him forward hoping he had a better chance of gaining safety in the U.S. on his own, and would eventually be allowed to stay with an uncle in Houston. Instead, the young boy was deported in less than a week, “confused about how he had ended up back in the dangerous place he fled.”
A Honduran boy is hiding in a relative’s home after being deported, while his mother remains stuck in Mexico seeking asylum. The pandemic halted travel for her, but not her son’s deportation flight. He is unsafe in Honduras, having been abused for his sexual orientation.
Despite having an adult brother who begged to take care of her in North Carolina, a sixteen year-old girl was deported to Guatemala after being shuttled from hotel to hotel across the United States, in the government’s attempt to keep her away from her lawyers. From the Los Angeles Times:
The 16-year-old had taken three flights in less than two weeks and stayed in a string of strange hotel rooms across the southern United States amid a pandemic in which public health officials recommended limiting travel and sheltering in place.
Her brother was not even allowed to speak with his sister over the phone before she was deported. He wanted to tell her “I miss you a lot.”
Two girls, who fled for their lives after persecution and abuse ages 8 and 11, were nearly deported by themselves to El Salvador, where they have no one, despite the fact that their mother is alive and able to care for them in Houston.
Fourteen year-old Jenny has been living in a New York shelter while her immigration case works its way through the courts. Her father was murdered in Honduras and her mother is stuck in Mexico due to Trump’s crackdown on asylum-seekers. Jenny would have no one to take care of her in Honduras. Yet the government still came to her shelter in May and tried to deport her, until they were blocked by a federal court order.
[I]n late April, ICE began showing up at shelters and deporting the children who were held there. The first reported cases were in Harlingen, Texas, but since then lawyers in New York, Pittsburgh, Houston have all reported instances of children being deported from shelters. Lawyers in Pittsburgh were able to get a federal court to temporarily block the removal, similar to Jenny’s. (Documented)
Jenny was lucky, though. Some children who have had their cases reopened in immigration court were stealthily deported without their attorneys’ knowledge, so that they could not exercise the legal rights they won in court.
As Claudia Cubas with the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition said: “The government is removing very young children to no one. But our courts are in a state of emergency. Our media is COVID-19 all the time. We don’t even have congressional hearings right now in full force. There is less scrutiny.”
“The government’s cruelty toward immigrant children knows no bounds,” said Faith Williams, Associate Director, Government Relations & Advocacy, National Council of Jewish Women, Inc. and Interfaith Immigration Coalition (IIC) Co-Chair. “This country, and our faith communities, rose up mightily before, when Trump’s border policies were ripping migrant children from their families. We must realize that it’s still going on and we have to stop it. Children are being sent to places where they have no one, and they cannot take care of themselves. Congress and the courts must step in immediately to stop this child abuse.”
Added Rev. Terri Hord Owens, General Minister & President, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ): “We’ve said it before and we repeat again now: Family separation is reprehensible. Societies are judged by how we treat the least in our communities, and that also includes the very youngest and the elderly. COVID-19 has laid bare long-existing injustices in our society. We must stand for others as never before, so that we emerge and move forward from this time as a better, more just society.”
For more information on the U.S. government’s immoral exercise of power over children and families seeking safety, read “The Flores Settlement and Family Separation at the Border,” a new paper from the Women’s Refugee Commission.
The Interfaith Immigration Coalition is made up of 55 national, faith-based organizations brought together across many theological traditions with a common call to seek just policies that lift up the God-given dignity of every individual. In partnership, we work to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of all refugees and migrants.
Follow us on Twitter @interfaithimm
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