The scope of the Trump admin.'s COVID policy of expelling migrant children, without affording them humanitarian protections enshrined in US law, was revealed Friday.
8,800 minors apprehended without adult family members have been expelled since March. 1/
cbsnews.com/news/8800-migr…
In addition to 8,800 unaccompanied minors, 7,600 members of migrant families with children were also expelled by border officials.
In total, 159,000 expulsions have been carried under this indefinite pandemic policy, which was authorized by CDC Director Robert Redfield. 2/
How big of a shift is this? US law allows border-crossers to fight their deportation by requesting asylum.
The Trump admin. has worked to restrict asylum for 3 + years, arguing it is abused. But it has never been able to summarily expel migrants—let alone children—until now. 3/
Migrant kids have extra legal safeguards.
A Bush-era law requires officials to transfer most unaccompanied children to the US refugee agency, which works to release them to US sponsors / family members
Unlike adults, they can request asylum via a non-adversarial process. 4/
In addition to asylum, migrant children can obtain US refuge through visas for neglected, abused or abandoned minors.
All minors—both unaccompanied & those with parents—are protected under the Flores court settlement. Families are not supposed to be detained for 20 + days. 5/
The Trump admin (and to some extent, the Obama admin) has argued these safeguards encourage unauthorized migration, particularly from Central America.
Advocates say these asylum and anti-trafficking protections are critical for migrants fleeing violence, especially children. 6/
Now, citing the need to contain coronavirus, the Trump admin. has been able to suspend these safeguards for most. It argues they're superseded by public health law during a pandemic.
Despite authorizing it, the CDC has said little about this policy and faced little scrutiny. 7/
The Trump admin. is telling federal courts that allowing migrant children to stay in the US while their cases are adjudicated would overburden US refugee agency shelters and ICE family detention centers, making it harder to contain the coronavirus inside these facilities. 8/
Advocates like @L_Toczylowski say there are safe ways to allow children to seek US refuge.
"To find out that our gov't has literally taken children who are seeking protection and sent them back to the very places they fled in such high numbers really took my breath away." 9/
In 1 month, a CDC rule will take effect codifying its authority to give US immigration officials the power to bypass protections for asylum-seekers and migrant children during a pandemic.
Keep following @CBSNews. We'll continue to cover this policy. end/
cbsnews.com/news/8800-migr…
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