Friends, the family separation + family detention ramp up is best explained by the Overton window concept. Make things really really horrible and then the just horrible will seem OK. #EndFamilyDetention
The #SingleStagingArea explicitly includes the idea of detaining the families together. Please listen to the advocates and communities who have been fighting to keep families together AND reunifying families for years. We’re not new at this.
If you are new to these issues, please pay attention to who is pushing the ideas. People who have an intimate knowledge of the history and booby traps of the system or people who just noticed?
It is not safe to create a national publicly available database of families. Advocates *do* have databases that we share. They aren’t public. They can’t be. It would be unsafe for clients. Families are fleeing violence from gangs, women from abusers.
Putting names and photos online makes it easier for people to be targeted by traffickers and the people they are fleeing.
The orgs doing this work desperately want families back together. We also know this is a system that does not move fast and people can be easily exploited by fast seemingly easy solutions. We wish there was an easy solution.
There isn’t. The process means visiting parents and children in detention centers and getting them released one by one. There is lots of work happening. But it is inside detention centers. It is confidential. #FamiliesBelongTogther and they will be.
