This is completely terrible. Trump's ICE squads are sending separated under-5 children back to countries of origin without telling the kids' families. This week, U.S. Immigration officials sent a 4-year-old separated child from the U.S. to Guatemala City, an extremely dangerous place, without even telling her relatives in Guatemala that she was coming home.
Excerpt from Huffington Post's Angelina Chapin:
On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sent a 4-year-old separated child from the U.S. to Guatemala City without telling her family she was coming home.
When Karla, a pseudonym HuffPost is using to protect the child's identity, arrived in Guatemala, no one came to pick her up at a reunification center near the airport.
Instead of reuniting with her deported father, whom she hadn't seen since they crossed the U.S. border together six months ago, the child spent yet another night in a government-run shelter, according to Kids In Need of Defense, an organization helping the U.S. government to reunify families.
"Just imagining this 4-year-old going back [home] after months and months of separation … and then her dad didn't show up after all of this," said Lisa Frydman, KIND's director of regional and policy initiatives. "The trauma level is unimaginable."
Legal and immigration experts say ICE is sending children back to Central America without properly notifying parents of their travel plans. The Department of Justice recently said ICE is only handling only "a relatively small number" of repatriation cases, but advocates say even a handful of situations in which parents aren't given the proper notice to pick up their children is a major cause for concern.
"This case was an example of a complete failure," Frydman said of Karla and her father. "It's totally preventable and completely in the U.S. government's control."
Read: "ICE Is Sending Separated Children Home With No One To Pick Them Up"
Beyond cruel. Abhorrent and disgusting.
We must stop this, America.
[Three migrant minors who had been separated from their family on the U.S. border play in a welcome room upon arrival at La Aurora airport in Guatemala City on Aug. 7.]
