Tag: Trump separation of families

Pope criticizes Trump administration policy on migrant family separation

The following article by Philip Puellella was posted on the Reuters website June 20, 2018:

Credit: Tony Gentile, Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis has criticized the Trump administration’s policy of separating migrant families at the Mexican border, saying populism is not the answer to the world’s immigration problems.

Speaking to Reuters, the Pope said he supported recent statements by U.S. Catholic bishops who called the separation of children from their parents “contrary to our Catholic values” and “immoral”.

“It’s not easy, but populism is not the solution,” Francis said on Sunday night. Continue reading “Pope criticizes Trump administration policy on migrant family separation”

More than 600 members of Jeff Sessions’ church just charged him with violating church rules

The following article by Daniel Burke was posted on the CNN website June 19, 2018:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions Credit:
Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

More than 600 members of the United Methodist Church have issued a formal complaint against Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a fellow church member, charging that his “zero tolerance” policy on immigration violates church rules and may constitute child abuse

The complaint charges Sessions with violating the United Methodist Church’s Book of Discipline, its code of laws and social principles. The charges could lead to a church trial, though few expect that to happen to the attorney general, the country’s top lawman

Instead, the 640 Methodists charging Sessions, who include both clergy and lay members, have asked for a “reconciling process that will help this longtime member … step back from his harmful actions and work to repair the damage he is currently causing to immigrants, particularly families and children.” The complaint is addressed to the pastors at two churches Sessions attends, in Mobile, Alabama, and Clarendon, Virginia. It charges Sessions with violating church rules or principles on child abuse, immorality, racial discrimination and “dissemination of doctrines” contrary to those of the United Methodist Church. Continue reading “More than 600 members of Jeff Sessions’ church just charged him with violating church rules”

Ann Coulter calls children separated from families at border “child actors” and begs Trump: “Don’t fall for the actor children”

The following article from the Media Matters Staff was posted on their website June 18, 2018:

Conservative author Ann Coulter claimed children being separated from their parents at the border by the Trump administration’s new “zero tolerance” policy on unauthorized immigration are faking their emotional trauma. According to news reports, the children can suffer from “toxic stress” caused by the separation.

Coulter appeared on the June 17 edition of Fox News’ The Next Revolution and attempted to directly address President Donald Trump, who routinely watches Fox News. She stated: “These child actors weeping and crying on all the other networks 24/7 right now — do not fall for it, Mr. President. I get very nervous about the president getting his news from TV.” Coulter added: “Don’t fall for the actor children.”

Coulter’s language echoes that of fringe and conspiracy theorist media figures like Alex Jones who routinelyaccuse school shooting survivors of being “crisis actors.”

Laura Bush: Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart’

The following commentary by former First Lady Laura Bush was posted on the Washington Post website June 17, 2018:

ProPublica obtained audio from inside a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, where children can be heard wailing as they ask for their family members. (ProPublica)

On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents. In the six weeks between April 19 and May 31, the Department of Homeland Security has sent nearly 2,000 children to mass detention centers or foster care. More than 100 of these children are younger than 4 years old. The reason for these separations is a zero-tolerance policy for their parents, who are accused of illegally crossing our borders. Continue reading “Laura Bush: Separating children from their parents at the border ‘breaks my heart’”

The order Trump holds in contempt was once America’s proudest creation

The following commentary by Johnathan Fenby was posted on the Guardian website June 17, 2018:

Seventy years ago, as a new major book suggests, America helped rebuild Europe and assumed the role of global peacemaker

Donald Trump: ‘He sets a pattern of reaching for his six-gun regardless of others.’ Credit: Brendan Smialowski, AFP Getty Images

Behind the Twitter storms and hyperbolic self-promotion, Donald Trump is nothing if not consistent in his approach to the world. A single aim runs through his international policy – to liberate himself and his country from constraints and to leave it free to pursue whatever he determines to be its destiny.

Thus, this month, he has rounded on allies in the G7 and formed a “partnership for peace” with Kim Jong-un. His complaints about how America has been ripped off may not be unjustified, as when they target China’s commercial behaviour or the low European contribution to defence. But in the broad sweep of the president’s view of the world, that is becoming rather beside the point as he sets a pattern of reaching for his six gun regardless of others, proclaiming victory come what may and gingering up his electoral base. The rest of the world has only been able to stand by, trying to absorb each bump as if they were isolated incidents. Trump’s shock-jock style obscures the way in which the global order of the past seven decades is being shifted amid the constant agitation from the White House and Air Force One. Continue reading “The order Trump holds in contempt was once America’s proudest creation”

Reporters fact-check Trump on family separation to his face, Trump keeps lying anyway

The following article by Rebekah Entralgo was posted on the ThinkProgress website June 15, 2018:

“I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats need to change their law.”

President Trump answers questions from the media. Credit: Mark Wilson, Getty Images

Speaking with a gaggle of reporters on the White House lawn Friday, President Donald Trump once again blamed Democrats for his administration’s policy of separating families.

“I hate the children being taken away. The Democrats have to change their law. That’s their law […] The children, the children can be taken care of quickly, beautifully and immediately. The Democrats forced that law upon our nation. I hate to see separation of parents and children.” Continue reading “Reporters fact-check Trump on family separation to his face, Trump keeps lying anyway”

Trump Has Quietly Cut Legal Aid for Migrant Kids Separated from Parents

The following article by Meredith Hoffman was posted on the Vice website ay 31, 2018:

A program that provides help to unaccompanied minors was slashed just as the government has instituted policies that split kids from parents.

When the Trump administration announced this month it would criminally prosecute everyone who crossed the border illegally, which meant jailing immigrant parents and separating them from their children, it effectively manufactured a whole new group of unaccompanied minors who now must navigate the complicated US immigration system by themselves. In less than two weeks, 658 kids were divided from their mothers and fathers—and the policy is still ramping up.

Meanwhile, the government has just quietly shut off a legal lifeline for this very population, putting them at an even higher risk of deportation. The Office of Refugee Resettlement, a federal program that for over a decade has funded organizations representing unaccompanied minors in immigration court while those children live with adult relatives or guardians, told the groups to stop taking new cases just days after the family separation policy began, multiple sources from nonprofit groups funded by ORR told me. Continue reading “Trump Has Quietly Cut Legal Aid for Migrant Kids Separated from Parents”