Dennis Chinoy on the separation of children at the US border

Why has the highest law-enforcement official in the U.S. intervened to disqualify refugee status for desperate migrants, mostly women and children, who are fleeing physical and sexual violence at home? It seems (Jeff) Sessions has lost patience with clogging up the immigration system with people he regards basically as lawbreakers: “Saying a few simple words — claiming a fear of return — is now transforming a straightforward arrest for illegal entry and immediate return into a prolonged legal process,” he complained.

 

Those few simple words “Help me, I fear being raped or killed if returned to my country” are ones to which immigration judges must now turn a deaf ear.

 

The United States is the only country in the world that has not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (the company we keep — South Sudan and Somalia were the two other previous hold-outs).

 

Since we are not bound by these international norms of humanitarian behavior, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents have no obligation to provide a “best interest determination” to children at our borders. So with each passing week, administration officials are taking a peculiar version of “American exceptionalism” to new and disgraceful depths. What Homeland Security chief John Kelly denied was happening in March has three months later become established, publicized, calculated policy: Separating children from their parents at the border.

 

 

READ THE REST OF HIS ARTICLE HERE

 

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