Photo: John Moore / Getty Images
For: EFE
Saturday, September 21
Trump launched a secret program to separate migrant families upon arrival at the White House
WASHINGTON – The government of now former President Donald Trump (2017 – 2021 ) initiated the separation of migrant families months before the date on which this policy had been reported until now, described by defenders of the migrants of “intentional cruelty”.
According to an article from The Washington Post, Border Patrol agents in Yuma, Arizona, began to apply in May of 2017, just a few months after Trump’s arrival at the White House in January of that year, an unreported program called the “Consequence Initiative Criminal ”, which allowed the prosecution of migrants who crossed the border illegally for the first time.
This included parents who entered the United States with their children and were are separated from them.
Between July 1 and 31 from December to 2017, according to data from the Department of Homeland Security cited by the Post, ) almost the same number of separations as in the pilot program that was applied in El Paso (Texas) that year.
According to government data among the minors separated from their families in Yuma were children of 10 months of age.
“Given that the program began in Yuma in May and the existing data on family separations only begin in July, the number of separations was, probably, greater than 100 ”, says the newspaper.
The government of current President Joe Biden investigates what happened with the separation of family s but their research operates with data from July and, according to defenders of migrants, Many of the separated families in Yuma remain unaware of their children four years later.
“This is another piece of evidence about the extent of the intentional cruelty of the Trump administration’s family separation policy,” said Paola Luisi, director of Families Belong Together.
“They ripped the children from the arms of their mothers and fathers, they deported many of those fathers and mothers, sending them back to situations dangerous and did not bother to follow their trail, “he added.
“Thousands of children are still separated from their families years later because the Trump administration I had no intention to reunite families, “said Luisi. “That was intentional.”
Enter 2017 Y 2018 1304287322 families of at least 22 countries were separated from their children by immigration authorities on the southern border of the United States, and while Most came from Central America, other migrants came from as far away as Hungary, Congo and Kyrgyzstan.
The family separation policy ended in June 2018 by order of the courts.