In a Twitter thread this Tuesday, journalist Niraj Wariko followed the developments surrounding a group of fathers hoping to be reunited with their immigrant children who were separated at the border.
The children, who are all under 5-years-old, were placed in the care Bethany Christian Services who were expected to transfer them to an ICE facility in Grand Rapids. Wariko at one point in the thread shared video of children under 5 being carried through the “back garage door” of the ICE building.
Most disturbing was Wariko’s account of what happened the parent of one of the children under the care of Bethany Christian Services.
“Just learned that the parent of one of the 8 immigrant separated kids under the age of 5 currently in Michigan with Bethany Christian Services has been deported,” Wariko tweeted. “That child may now be put in long term foster care, said ACLU attorney.”
https://twitter.com/nwarikoo/status/1016729554252107776
In the thread, Wariko linked to his story for the Detroit Free Press. In sum, there were eight immigrant children under the age of 5 who were separated from their parents and taken to Michigan and handed over to Bethany Christian services. Three were reunited with their fathers at the ICE office Tuesday. The status of four others is uncertain.
The future of the child whose parent was deported in uncertain, but as MSNBC’s Chris Hayes points out, the child is essentially now an orphan thanks to the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy.
“Donald Trump has orphaned this child,” Hayes tweeted.
Donald Trump orphaned this child. https://t.co/cIsG4ZKAkE
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) July 10, 2018
According to the New York Times, in a “significant setback” this Monday the Trump administration lost a bid to persuade a federal court to allow long-term detention of migrant families, a significant legal setback to the president’s immigration agenda.
In a ruling that countered nearly every argument posed by the Justice Department, Judge Dolly M. Gee of the Federal District Court in Los Angeles held that there was no basis to amend a longstanding consent decree that requires children to be released to licensed care programs within 20 days. The government said that long-term confinement was the only way to avoid separating families when parents were detained on criminal charges.
Featured image via YouTube
