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  • 2018-06-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Are More Than 10,000 Children in U.S. Detention Centers? (en)
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  • On 29 May 2018 the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a significant increase in the number of unaccompanied children held in U.S. government detention centers compared to the prior month, as reported by the Washington Post: This increase in detentions follows a 6 April 2018 Department of Justice announcement that the Trump administration would be taking a new zero tolerance policy regarding border crossings that explicitly include child separation. This policy has been controversial both for the child separation issue as well as its assertion that it requires the Department of Justice to prosecute 100 percent of border crossing cases, which would deny a person’s right to request asylum. Standing next to a segment the border called Friendship Park on 8 May 2018, Sessions said: While the data reported by HHS in late May do not tell us what percentage of currently detained children arrived with parents from whom they were subsequently separated, we do know that child separation at the southern border has been increasing under the Trump administration as part of an overarching stance on immigration in general. Even prior to the zero tolerance policy, the Trump administration — which has floated the use of child separation as a deterrent to border crossings since at least March 2017 — has been separating children caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border from their parents in higher number than had been disclosed, as reported by the New York Times in April 2018: The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), run by HHS, aims to place children detained into foster homes — those of family members residing in the United States or in homes located by or run by non-governmental agencies. This serves, ideally, to reduce the numbers of children in immigration detention facilities. But, in addition to the increased the number of unaccompanied children in need of settlement resulting from the Trump’s administration zero tolerance policy, some have argued that the administration has also reduced the ability for the government to find places to settle these children at all thanks to an recent ORR program known as the Community Safety Initiative. The program, which is intended to equip [unaccompanied alien children] with the tools they need to stay safe from gangs like MS-13 and to ensure that the [unaccompanied alien children] we release from our care do not pose a danger to our communities, includes a controversial Memorandum of Agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, signed in April 2018, allowing for enhanced information sharing between two organizations. Advocates say this could be having a chilling effect on the resettlement program, as reported by the Washington Post: The Trump administration has used the capabilities of the Office of Refugee Resettlement as a way to justify their controversial policy of separating children from their families. In an interview with NPR, President Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly argued that separating children from parents wasn’t cruel and heartless because the children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever. With over 10,000 children crowded into detention centers, including a temporary facility on loan from the Department of Labor set up to handle this most recent surge, it is unclear if Kelly’s assertion is actually representative of the reality on the ground. (en)
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