{"id":17642,"date":"2020-10-23T14:13:34","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T20:13:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=17642"},"modified":"2020-10-23T14:13:34","modified_gmt":"2020-10-23T20:13:34","slug":"545-separated-kids-why-thats-not-what-it-seems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2020\/10\/545-separated-kids-why-thats-not-what-it-seems.html","title":{"rendered":"545 separated kids? Why that’s not what it seems"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

If Donald Trump was trying to make corruption charges stick on Biden (the media\u2019s refusal to report on the story means they won\u2019t) in last night\u2019s debate, Biden was trying every bit as much to drill home the point that 545 children who were separated from their parents at the border, have not been reunited.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, according to an ACLU court filing, as reported by ABC News<\/a>, the group working to match up children and families was unable to find<\/em> the parents of those 545 children who are presently \u201cliving with sponsors\u201d in the United States.<\/p>\n

Now, this is a subgroup of the 5,500 families who were initially separated; ABC reports that \u201ca\u00a0court-appointed \u2018steering committee\u2019 has tried to locate the families of 1,030 children,\u201d but doesn\u2019t explain the present circumstances of the remaining 4,470 children (or families \u2013 the numbers are unclear on the counts when families arrived with more than one child).\u00a0 Have these already been reunited, and the 1,030 were the remaining cases?\u00a0 One presumes that\u2019s so or the others would be mentioned.<\/p>\n

In any event, of that 1,030, 485 parents were already found in their home countries.\u00a0 ABC News reports that<\/p>\n

\u201cThe simple fact is this: after contact has been made with the parents to reunite them with their children, many parents have refused,\u201d [Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Chase] Jennings said in a statement provided to ABC News. \u201cIn the current litigation, for example, out of the parents of 485 children whom Plaintiffs\u2019 counsel has been able to contact, they have yet to identify a single family that wants their child reunited with them in their country of origin. The result is that the children remain in the U.S. while the parents remain in their home country.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which already suggests that the cases of the remaining 545 are less worrisome.\u00a0 How likely is it that in the first subgroup, no one would be willing to reunify, but in the second group, parents are longing to have their children returned to them in their home countries?\u00a0 What\u2019s more, the report specifies that the children are \u201cliving with sponsors,\u201d rather than with foster-families or in group homes; that suggests that these are not strangers but relatives who qualified to be caregivers by means of having the legal status that the parents did not.\u00a0 In fact, I would not be surprised if some of these parents were deliberately avoiding<\/em> contact in the belief that this would increase their child\u2019s likelihood of being able to stay in the United States, and if they were actually in contact with the family-member sponsors.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that this will be true of every such family, and a Washington Post<\/em> article<\/a> provides more details that indicate that to at least some degree it\u2019s not that the parents are unfindable, but that this is still a work-in-progress, as human rights activists are engaged in the work of travelling to remote villages, and that this work is stymied by the pandemic\u2019s restrictions \u2014 though at the same time, the Post<\/em> article notes that parents are not necessarily co-operative, though that\u2019s blamed on \u201csuspicion and trauma\u201d even though you\u2019d think they\u2019d be eager for someone to bring news of a separated child.<\/p>\n

Now, I know it sounds like I\u2019m belittling the problem.\u00a0 But what strikes me is this:\u00a0 secure in our homes in the United States, I think we are too ready to perceive circumstances of people outside our cultural norms and expectations, as if they corresponded to our own.\u00a0 How could a parent possibly be willing to be separated from their child?\u00a0 Surely this can only be the result of a grave injustice perpetrated by the system!\u00a0 But it seems to me equally likely that the pragmatic reality of life in poverty, the hope to improve one\u2019s lot (or that of one\u2019s children), the prevalence of substantial periods of separation due to migrant work, and the expectation that a relative can be a proper caregiver all factor in.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Image:\u00a0 yeah, I know, no kids in cages.\u00a0https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File%3A100203houston_lg.jpg; By U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), www.ice.gov. Please credit by saying \u201cPhoto Courtesy of ICE\u201d. [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Donald Trump was trying to make corruption charges stick on Biden (the media\u2019s refusal to report on the story means they won\u2019t) in last night\u2019s debate, Biden was trying every bit as much to drill home the point that 545 children who were separated from their parents at the border, have not been reunited.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[463],"class_list":["post-17642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-illegal-immigration"],"yoast_head":"\n545 separated kids? 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