FROM THE INTERCEPT
"FEDERAL MAGISTRATE JUDGE Ronald G. Morgan is in his 60s, with a bright-pink face and a crisp, friendly manner — though lately he has been making disconcerting little mistakes in court...during a morning session I attended in early May, he announced that he’d just dealt with 35 defendants — all at one time — when the actual number was 40. And after the proceedings, he forgot to pronounce their guilt. Marshals had already led them out, so Morgan sheepishly had to call the 40 defendants back to the courtroom to correct his error.
These days, he seems distracted and troubled.
That is understandable. In late April [2018], magistrates’ courts in Brownsville suddenly turned into “zero tolerance” factories for criminalizing migrants, many of whom have no prior criminal record. Many are from murderously violent countries in Central America and have fled to the U.S. seeking asylum, and they often arrive with children in tow.
It used to be rare to charge migrants seeking asylum with crimes. If they did so, they were put into detention with their children while they pursued their claims. Or they were released with supervision — along with their children. The best interests of the children were considered paramount, and those interests including keeping families together.
But now, in federal courts like Morgan’s, not only are parents finding themselves charged with the crime of “illegal entry,” but the government is breaking up families, sending children to detention centers, often hundreds of miles from their mothers and fathers, or to distant foster homes.
These family separations had been occurring intermittently since last fall [2017], and mass trials have been occurring off and on since “Operation Streamline” was first introduced in 2005.
But on May 7, [2018] Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the U.S. government will prosecute “100 percent of illegal southwest border crossings.” He added that people who were “smuggling a child” will be prosecuted “and that child will be separated from you as required by law.”
In practice, this means that even parents fleeing violence to protect their young children will be deemed smugglers — that is, criminals.
Sessions’s announcement came just two weeks after an official with the Department of Health and Human Services told Congress that the agency had lost track of 1,475 unaccompanied migrant children it had placed with sponsors..."
READ MORE: https://theintercept.com/2018/05/29/zero-tolerance-border-policy-immigration-mass-trials-children/
I can't find all the articles I read yesterday. But I read about one woman's child being taken from her while she was breastfeeding her. I've also read that United States officials sometimes make legal-kidnapping of the children more peaceful by saying they were taking the children away temporarily, only to give them a bath
As disgustingly racist and sexist as this country has been in the last few decades at varying points, this is getting hella-scary.
Yesterday, I read about a republican bill that is being put together to stop this madness. Today I read that the Orange Devil has already said he won't sign it. At least Vice President Pence has stopped calling this hellhound a Christian when he give speeches. Now he says Piece-Of-Garbage-In-Chief is sympathetic to Christians.
And I'm reading that up to 1/3rd of White Christians have finally lost sympathy for Trump. All I can say to that is, "It's about time" and hope that I won't be saying "too little, too late" in the very near future.
The Ex-Walmart where children
are being housed 22 out of 24 hours per day
https://amp.businessinsider.com/migrant-kids-detention-center-pictures-details-us-mexico-border-casa-padre-2018-6
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/11/17443198/children-immigrant-families-separated-parents
https://www.vox.com/2018/6/11/17443198/children-immigrant-families-separated-parents
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