DURING COVID-19 THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS USING #COVID19 AS A PRETEXT TO CONTINUE FAMILY SEPARATION IN AT LEAST FOUR WAYS:
DURING COVID-19 THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS USING #COVID19 AS A PRETEXT TO CONTINUE FAMILY SEPARATION IN AT LEAST FOUR WAYS:
BREAKING UP FAMILIES IN DETENTION
Rather than release asylum-seeking families on parole to pursue their claims, the Trump Administration is using COVID-19 to force parents into an evil and impossible choice: give up your child indefinitely, or stay in jail with them, putting everyone at risk from COVID-19.
DEPORTING CHILDREN AWAY FROM THEIR FAMILIES
To keep their children alive, asylum-seeking parents have been forced to send their children into the U.S. alone while remaining in makeshift refugee camps at the border. Now, the Administration is trying to deport these children without due process as they attempt to claim asylum. Some of these children have parents and other family members in the United States.
EXPELLING CHILDREN AT THE BORDER
Since shutting down the border in April 2020, the Trump Administration has used CDC guidelines to justify rapidly expelling over 2,000 children who fled their countries seeking protection in the United States alone. Hundreds of kids fleeing their countries in search of protection have been sent back to those countries without a caretaker or any confirmation that their parent or any family remains to receive them and safely take care of them.
BREAKING UP FAMILIES IN DETENTION
DEPORTING CHILDREN AWAY FROM THEIR FAMILIES
EXPELLING CHILDREN AT THE BORDER
LEAVING FATHERS BEHIND
Rather than release asylum-seeking families on parole to pursue their claims, the Trump Administration is using COVID-19 to force parents into an evil and impossible choice: give up your child indefinitely, or stay in jail with them, putting everyone at risk from COVID-19
To keep their children alive, asylum-seeking parents have been forced to send their children into the U.S. alone while remaining in makeshift refugee camps at the border. Now, the Administration is trying to deport these children without due process as they attempt to claim asylum. Some of these children have parents and other family members in the United States.
Since shutting down the border in April 2020, the Trump Administration has used CDC guidelines to justify rapidly expelling over 2,000 children who fled their countries seeking protection in the United States alone. Hundreds of kids fleeing their countries in search of protection have been sent back to those countries without a caretaker or any confirmation that their parent or any family remains to receive them and safely take care of them.
Many fathers travel with their partners and children seeking protection, but the administration is separating them from their children, allowing some women in alone and forcing their partners to remain in dangerous border camps. These fathers sacrificed their ability to see their children born and support their spouses in order to provide safety, and because of the Remain in Mexico policy and expulsions, they may never meet their child in person or see their family again. In addition, Black asylum-seeking fathers and families from the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa and elsewhere face additional separations because of “safe third-country agreements” that can result in being expelled to Central American countries deemed as “safe” to receive asylum seekers upon reaching the US/Mexico border.
LEAVING FATHERS BEHIND
Many fathers travel with their pregnant partners and children seeking protection, but the administration is separating them from their children, allowing some women in alone and forcing their partners to remain in dangerous border camps. These fathers sacrificed their ability to see their children born and support their spouses in order to provide safety, and because of the Remain in Mexico policy and expulsions, they may never meet their child in person or see their family again. In addition, Black asylum-seeking fathers and families from the Caribbean and the continent of Africa face additional separations because of “safe third-country agreements” that can result in being expelled to Central American countries deemed as “safe” to receive asylum seekers upon reaching the US/Mexico border.
The Trump Administration is using the COVID-19 pandemic to systematically eliminate access to asylum and separate children of asylum seekers from their parents. Separating, detaining, and deporting children in violation of their human rights is always wrong, inhumane, and in the middle of a pandemic also puts everyone at risk. Family separation, detention, and deportation must be stopped.
The United States’ history of family separation as a way of denying rights and exerting power stretches all the way back to its inception. Right now, while the world continues to confront anti-Blackness and courageous Black organizers make the call to defend Black life, we want to highlight that millions of Black families have been separated since the founding of this country. The Equal Justice Initiative estimates that roughly half of people who were enslaved were separated from their families and one in four people sold were children. This is in no way an effort to equate to the singularly horrific and violent nature of American slavery to now. As organizers we recognize our responsibility to better root our efforts to reunite families in an awareness that family separation as a tool of dehumanization has long been the American way. Until we confront it, it will not stop. Whether it be Native American children kidnapped from their families, Black children sold and ripped from their enslaved mothers and fathers, or the millions of children whose parents are caged in our mass incarceration and immigrant prison systems, the devastating impacts of family separation are chilling and live on in communities for generations. We must break this cycle.
In the week leading up to this Father’s Day, June 21, we honor families and paternal bonds, as well as the influence of fathers in society by elevating the stories of Black and Brown asylum-seeking fathers who are experiencing or have experienced family separation during COVID-19.
Families crossing our border looking for the American Dream have instead found a perpetual nightmare. Hundreds of their children, some as young as 18 months, are being separated from their parents. Often, the children have no idea where their parents are or when they will see them again.
Friday, June 19 is Juneteenth, celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. To mark this day, the #PowerOfAFathersLove coalition asks partners to use their digital space in support of organizers leading in the efforts to defend Black lives. We also encourage partners to honor George Floyd as a loving father to his daughter Gianna throughout this week.
Above all, we vow to keep up the fight for a more just and equitable society, one where families aren’t forced apart and All Black Lives Matter.
PARTNERS
SUPPORT FATHERS
The #PowerOfAFathersLove coalition is a campaign of advocates, legal and direct service providers, and litigators working together to reunify families who have been separated by the cruel immigration system.