CBS news reports that the number of children separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border has increased despite court orders to end the policy. They say the process of reunification is “chaos” because no records were kept of who the children belonged to, what detention centers the parents were incarcerated in or in what state, & many parents were deported back to their home country without accounting for their children. Many of the children are pre-verbal & unable to help relocate their families.
When immigration authorities should allocate all available personnel to reunification & hire more child welfare specialists to expedite the process, they are instead accelerating ICE raids to arrest & deport undocumented immigrants around the US. The violence & viciousness of this policy must be held to legal criminal account. Every one of these children must be returned to their families safely. That will not happen without massive public demands for action.