Report: U.S. Citizen Children Separated From Parents

 

ProPublica has a detailed and disturbing report that indicates the deranged and cruel Malignant Fascist's immigration crackdown has detained the parents of over 11,000 children who are U.S. citizens.  Their report starts with a heartbreaking story:

"The baby needed somewhere to go. So in the frantic hours before officers took her parents away to immigration detention, her mom turned to their pastor and his wife. As squad cars waited outside the family’s Lakeland, Florida, trailer home, she gave them a crash course in how to care for the 4-month-old.

Briany, with her plump cheeks and full head of dark hair, wasn’t normally this fussy. But it was late that January night — around midnight — and she was still hungry. Her mom, Doris Flores, had tried nursing her to calm her down. It didn’t work. When she brought Briany to her breast, the milk wouldn’t come. Flores thought it had to do with the panic that set in after the officers arrested the baby’s father and told her she was next. 

The baby also drank formula. The pastor and his wife, who’d never had children of their own, should take her bottles and the yellow cans of formula, too, and follow the instructions on the label. They should use distilled water, never from the tap. Briany drank 5 ounces at each feeding. She needed to eat every two to two-and-a-half hours.

She was almost due for her next round of vaccinations. She was getting big enough for Size 3 diapers. What made her happiest was to be held in someone’s arms.

The Rev. Israel Vázquez, 58, soft-spoken with close-cropped hair, had held Briany before, when he formally presented the baby to God in a ceremony at his Pentecostal church in Lakeland. If he and his wife, a fellow pastor at the church, didn’t take the girls in, they would have to go into foster care. 'What else could we do?' he said."  (our emphasis)

This scene is played out many times each day, as U.S. born children -- many infants like the Flores' daughter -- are separated from their parents, who are then detained and likely deported.  The MF's deportation drive has accelerated greatly from previous Administrations and native born children bear the brunt of the cruelty.  Here are highlights from the report, but it's important to read ProPublica's entire investigative report":

• More Moms Deported: An exclusive data analysis found Trump has deported moms of U.S. citizens at four times the rate of his predecessor.
• Left Stranded: Because American-born kids can’t legally join their parents in immigration detention, some end up with friends or strangers when their parents are detained or deported.
• New Directive: Trump administration officials revised a document advising how ICE officers should interact with parents, removing the word “humane.” 

 It's an abomination and a disgrace to scar these children and their families for life.

(photo: American Immigration Council)