Today the President signed an Executive Order purporting to correct the family separation crisis that his administration created. Here are the five main reasons that the Executive Order is flawed and has the potential to create even more harm for families and children:
- It contains no plan to reunite the children taken from their parents over the last three months under the administration’s zero-tolerance policy. Over 2,000 children are still alone and scared.
- The Trump Administration plans to seek a modification of a court settlement called Flores v. Sessions. This settlement agreement sets the bar for how the government must treat children who are in the government’s custody. This is an attempt to roll back protections of children.
- The Executive Order seeks to detain families for a prolonged time. This Executive Order will leave families stuck in detention facilities at the mercy of a broken system.
- It is likely that the family detention centers will be on military bases, as the Executive Order calls for the Secretary of Defense to use existing, or create new, family shelters. A military base is a cruel place to hold parents and children seeking refuge in the United States.
- The Trump Administration wants families detained under this Executive Order to have their cases heard on an expedited basis. This means that families will have little time to find an attorney to help them fight their deportation. Access to counsel in detention is essential in these cases and the Executive Order guts this access.
Many of the children recently separated are detained in government facilities in the DC region. CAIR Coalition continues to help them through this traumatic time. Please Donate now to support our work
