Separated: Inside an American Tragedy
I read it in part for my job with USCRI. Journalist Jacob Soboroff documents the policy and impact on families – those separated and his own. Yesterday, I heard a report that there are still 628 kids yet to be united. So the subject is still important, but there are many important topics and we can’t take on everything.
It is a great book if you want to know more about the subject. But you may have worked to stop the practice or otherwise know enough about this subject with all the other good work you are doing. We need to use our time and energy wisely in these times. Frankly the recent books I’ve read are wearing me down and I don’t want others to feel the same. Perhaps a switch to Harry Potter is in order.
Background
First, some background. There was much ado about Obama’s term and he certainly did things that I’m not happy about. Yes, there were separations under his administration when there was a legitimate concern for the safety of the child and a need to take the adult into custody to protect public safety. It happen in a limited number of cases with safeguards. Obama’s immigration practice was far from ideal, but there is no comparison with Trump’s inhumane actions.
He criminalized the legal and international right of asking for asylum and then used that as an excuse for harsh separation and inhuman confinement to deter others fleeing persecution and death.
The cruel policies and practices against men, women, children, and babies were a direct violation of the US. Constitution, federal statutes, and regulations. He ignored our international responsibilities and demonstrated a lack of basic humanity towards those in need. The stain on our country and the damage to our brothers and sisters, particularly young people, are significant and lasting.
Policies and actions in 2017 – 2019
Trump, Miller and others created a policy and practice implemented in a way described by Federal Judge Sabraw in 2018 as “likely to be ‘so egregious, so outrageous, that it may fairly be said to shock the contemporary conscience’ interfere with right ‘implicit in the concept of ordered liberty’, and is so ‘brutal’ and ‘offensive’ that is [does] not comport with traditional ideas of fair play and decency.” (Quote from from the book.)
There were many dedicated career civil servants who tried to prevent the policy before it started, safeguard the children during, and track the separations to enable reunification after. Much of the good and the bad is documented in the book with a journalist’s attention to facts and details.
The political appointees at a high level and enforcement agents at ground level decided that America should be remembered for child abuse, torture, and death in a fight to keep our country white. First done secretly in 2017 before the policy was signed, then as a matter of policy in 2018, and continued in 2019 after the policy was “ended”.
The policy and its implementation were to treat children and parents as horribly as possible. Tearing them apart without proper documentation, not caring if they were ever reunited. The goal was to make our country so unwelcoming and barbaric as to pale the desperate and deadly conditions in their own countries.
The free press helped uncover their lies and actions. Tearing families apart was a bridge to far for many. People protesting, the ACLU and others were critical to ending the policy and reuniting families.
The heroic work of ACLU lawyers, dedicated government employees and others toiled countless hours to reunite the children with parents. Some reunification work remains.
Think as a parent what it would feel like if some country did this to you and your child.
Think back to elementary school or earlier and consider what it would have felt like as a child to make a dangerous trip dreaming of freedom and safety. Then you arrive in a nightmare of separation from your parent and long months of confinement possibly caged without toothbrushes, soap, clean clothes, or decent food. Imagine you were a toddler and left to cry because the president said adults at the facility could not pick you up. Maybe you were older and sexual assaulted. Perhaps you saw another kid die in the camp. Would you think they were lucky to be free of the torment.
Although I will not be working directly with refugees I am taking training that covers helping children who have experienced trauma. These children will struggle with mental and physical challenges in the short term and may for the rest of their lives.
Physicians for Human Rights said our “government's forcible separation of asylum-seeking families constitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”, and meets their criteria for torture. (Quote from book)
We did this. We can’t change the past. History has recorded what we did and waits to judge our response.
What can we do
Donate to the ACLU or organizations that support asylum seekers and refugees.
Subscribe to a news source that practices journalist excellence.
Defend our humanity and the principles of our country by saying something when people in our country are attacked for their origin, race, or another trait.
Encourage and volunteer with your church or organization to help asylees and other newcomers.
Seek out and support local businesses run by or employing asylees and other newcomers.
Find out about and help with classes supporting integration into our communities and country.
But really, do whatever your heart is calling you to do to improve things for others and for the planet.
Love always,
John
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