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lomikriel
@lomikriel
, 14 tweets, 9 min read Read on Twitter
I’ll be @sxsw speaking about uncovering family separation 6 months before the admin announced it, with @PolkAwards winner @gingerthomp1 (she of the tape,) @NewYorker immigration master of prose @JonathanBlitzer & moderated by inimitable @ajcorchado. Join!
schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP…
Here are my stories from 2017, back when the administration still denied this was a thing. (We now know it was a pilot program in El Paso and the @aclu is now fighting to get "thousands" like these separated families in the class.)
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Blanca's husband was gunned down by gangs & she was targeted too. She was separated from her kid in Oct '17, despite asking for asylum, and only released after @aldea_pjc got involved once our story ran. (The other parents were deported w/o their kids)
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
.@gingerthomp1 obtained a copy of this devastating tape of separated children crying for their parents in @CBP detention. It was the first the public had heard from the children themselves, and it was horrifying (give it a listen.)
propublica.org/article/childr…
She was the first to report that parents are being separated from their kids after the policy "ended" because @CBP alleges dubious gang claims, an issue that is ongoing (and that seems in particular to be happening in McAllen)
(houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…)

propublica.org/article/border…
Here is @JonathanBlitzer about how the government had NO PLAN to reunite separated families.
"Just knowing the whereabouts of a child is a start. 'I have a master’s degree, and I’m fluent in English. And it takes me days to figure one of these cases out.”
newyorker.com/news/news-desk…
Here is his story on a separated family being reunited, and the trauma that has been caused:
newyorker.com/news/dispatch/…
and @JonathanBlitzer on whether anyone will ever be held accountable:

newyorker.com/news/daily-com…
And here is @ajcorchado, long-time Mexico City and border correspondent for @dallasnews and author of "Homelands," see review:

washingtonpost.com/outlook/a-pers…
Here is the first story, in May 2017, about a parent deported without his kid, an 18 month old toddler, and how they almost didn't get reunited, were it not for the public defender.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
And here is my most recent, about an asylum-seeking mom detained for 9 months and barely evading deportation and @JonathanBlitzer on such "unaccountables" (houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…)
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
Finally, here is what it was like in the frenzy (chron.com/news/houston-t…) and an excellent excerpt from @ajcorchado's new book Homelands

dallasnews.com/arts/books/201…
Honored and grateful to be in such incredible company and hope you can join us in two weeks! schedule.sxsw.com/2019/events/PP…
Oops meant to link another @JonathanBlitzer story on the "uncounted" earlier, newyorker.com/news/dispatch/…, and finally (yes, really) also so excited to see immigration GURU & total BADASS @DLind who will be presenting @sxsw as well! Excited to catch up with all this brilliance. Ven!
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More from @lomikriel see all

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lomikriel
@lomikriel
ICYMI:

“We don’t know exactly how many children were separated and there’s no question (the government’s) complete lack of tracking makes it complicated and is outrageous, irresponsible, and frankly, criminally negligent.”

houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t… via @houstonchron
The government maintained it had no choice but to separate parents and children because the adults were charged with a crime and kids aren’t allowed in prison.
The logic never made much sense because most parents got time served so could immediately have been reunited.
But in Caal’s case, and untold other indigenous parents, she never was charged with a crime, perhaps because of her language ability.
So there appeared no reason to separate them at all.
Read 5 tweets
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lomikriel
@lomikriel
Local journalists are paid less & get fewer benefits than expat correspondents once did --often little above the prevailing wage, which might be as low as $900 a month. Such low pay comes despite the higher risks borne by AP’s local journalists
cjr.org/business_of_ne… via @cjr
“I told people I was a reporter by Twitter. If something was happening in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, or in Kampala, or Somalia, I wasn’t there and had no way to get there. I frequently found myself digging through Twitter for photos or underground sources or reporting leads."
Accurate look at the changing way of foreign reporting in the past decade. Terrifying thought that more and more many are 'reporters by Twitter,' and that foreign news covered less and less, meaning we know less and less of the world around us.
Read 4 tweets
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lomikriel
@lomikriel
Friends! Make sure to listen to @DriverWrites on @TheTakeaway tomorrow to hear what is happening with the real border crisis in Piedras Negras. Here is my story for a primer, and hers will follow and surely be great:
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…
One of the biggest issues is that both Piedras Negras and Juarez, where unofficial Remain in Mexico and family separation pilots have both rolled out, respectively, are very remote and hard to get to with few media orgs and advocacy groups on both sides.
It doesn't seem like a coincidence.
Read 3 tweets

Related threads

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amna
@IAmAmnaNawaz
House Judiciary Cmte holds 10am hearing on the Trump administration's #FamilySeparation policy. Officials from Border Patrol, ICE, DOJ's immigration courts, & HHS - including Scott Lloyd, who used to oversee the care/custody of migrant kids, will testify. Follow here for updates
From 2017-2018 Lloyd ran the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in HHS. ORR is responsible for the care of unaccompanied children in US custody. His tenure @ ORR overlapped with the Trump administration's Zero Tolerance/Family Separation policy.
Before working for ORR, Lloyd worked for an anti-abortion organization. During his time at ORR, he blocked multiple abortion requests from young women in his custody, including one minor who was raped. A federal judge overruled him.
thehill.com/policy/healthc…
Read 108 tweets
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Claudia Tristán
@tristan_claudia
Up until three weeks ago I was a #border/ #immigration reporter working in #ElPaso. Let me tell you why President Trump’s visit to the #Borderland is so problematic. Follow this thread for more.
Honestly, @DrToddACurry put it best. #ElPaso has been the President’s “petri dish” for #immigration policies. Let’s take a look shall we?
Starting Sept.2017 @LasAmericasIAC starts reporting parent/children separation, despite legal documents showing relation. There was little I, as a journalist, could do when both parent & child were out of reach for interview & @ICEgov wasn’t talking.
cbs4local.com/news/local/exp…
Read 23 tweets
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Linda KWS
@LindaKWS1
UN Human Rights commissioner regarding US immigration policies:

"The thought that any State would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable."

🇺🇸👇
The @UNHumanRights spoke out early last year about Session, republican GOP and Trump's inhumane policy of separating families..
The Trump administration stopped cooperating with UN investigations into human rights violations in America theguardian.com/law/2019/jan/0…
Read 39 tweets
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Philip Wolgin
@pwolgin
A few other thoughts on the EO Trump just signed:

- Trump is doubling down on the zero tolerance policy of prosecuting asylum seekers.
- Rather than end separation, the EO will mean kids as young as infants are incarcerated, in jail-like facilities.

#immigration
- Incarcerating children is inhumane. The @AmerAcadPeds says that DHS "facilities do not meet the basic standards for the care of children in residential settings."

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/…
- Aside from being inhumane, family incarceration is insanely costly. ~$320 per person, per day. Alternatives to detention cost a fraction of that.

The Family Case Management Program cost only $36 p/d, per family.

theatlantic.com/news/archive/2…
Read 6 tweets
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Greg Sarafan, Esq
@GSarafan
As a fmr immigration attorney let me be unambiguously clear. Crossing a boarder to claim asylum is *not* a crime; no under US or international law. Any child separated from a parent under that pretext is done so in direct contravention to the laws of the USA. ⚖ THREAD Pls RT.
If you came to the US without permission to apply for asylum, youmetjod of entry, whether legal or illegal *should* in no way effect your application process. Illegal entry is not a ground of inadmissibility for asylum applicants.
Unlike many other categories of applicants for immigration benefits, ppl seeking asylum in the US are not barred by having made an illegal entry; for example, sneaked across the U.S. border or overstaying a valid visa (one of the top ways people are in the country illegall).
Read 35 tweets

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