Here is a long thread directly at the intersection of the not-missing 1500 kids and the “new” U.S. policy to separate kids from their parents. It is extremely confusing and I hope this gives you a good background in addition to allowing me space to vent via missive/screed /1
CBP arrests individuals it finds along the border and transfers them to ICE custody for processing, where they begin outright their civil immigration proceedings (leaving out criminal prosecution/Operation Streamline—for now, Sessions seems intent on prosecuting all parents). /2
If CBP encounters an unaccompanied minor, they are then transferred to ORR custody. Thanks to something known as the 1997 Flores settlement, the US has to follow certain minimum standards for detaining minors: if possible, it must release children to a family member/sponsor. /3
If it can’t, ORR assumes responsibility of care (since ’03) and it must find a suitable foster care situation. As I understand it—that’s it. They are not and should not be responsible for keeping tabs on 1500 kids, though it doesn’t surprise me that a Trump agency couldn’t. /4
It bears noting that ORR custody is (1) TEMPORARY (avg. stay 41 days); (2) currently at 91% capacity; and (3) vastly under-equipped to be anything more. Back to the “new” policy of separating families (this has been happening anecdotally for months, maybe years). /5
When CBP arrests a family, the U.S.—since about 2014—sends the family to “family detention centers” in Texas and Pennsylvania. It's honestly sickening that this is our welcome to this country and that these facilities exist. /6
I can assure you these places are torturous: policies include banning mothers and children from sleeping together and turning lights on/off every hour to ensure this + guaranteeing sleep deprivation, this aside from your other standard physical/sexual abuse in ICE custody. /7
I digress, and I leave out whether this practice violates that Flores settlement I mentioned earlier where the U.S. government is bound to provide certain minimum levels of treatment to immigrant minors (short answer: yes). /8
The US now wants to physically separate families by literally tearing away children and sending them into ORR custody. So far at least 700 kids have been moved (separate from the 1500 not-missing kids). I cant emphasize what an egregious fucking human rights abuse this is. /9
Not only is it cruel and completely unnecessary,ORR is VASTLY UNDER-EQUIPPED to house these kids. ORR generally houses late teens: there’s no diapers, there’s no damn pediatricians, there’s barely any books/toys, etc. Children have and *will* die, in addition to the trauma. /10
Because of this totally punitive, racist, unnecessary policy, and the fact that ORR is at 91% capacity, Trump has floated the idea of sending them to military bases! (n.b. this author’s father, a refugee, spent many months at one of these makeshift environments: it’s hell). /11
REMINDER that ad interim, the U.S. is conducting civil immigration proceedings. Because kids can’t mount cogent legal defenses (see, e.g., @iamjohnoliver), family asylum/removal defense claims are conducted together. /12
Now, individual children now may have to challenge their removability individually—that much is not clear but seems likely. What IS clear is the direct possibility that due to the temporary nature of ORR custody, children without other relatives in the U.S. ... /13
... may be sent to foster care EVEN THOUGH their parents are already here in the U.S. That’s not only cruel, it’s asinine. We're causing irreparable, lasting trauma as a matter of national policy. Solely xenophobia and nativism lies at the heart of this policy. /14
One last note: In February, Trump requested to cut ORR’s budget by 21-fucking-percent but then asked for a line-item allotment of $100 million specifically for the purpose of housing children in these separate, makeshift hellholes. Fuck you, Administration. Fin. /15
