It’s pretty terrible to be working to halt the deportation of children to harm, on the same day that the government announces a task force to evaluate how this government harmed children.
Remember tonight @ 5PM when the Government is announcing measures for a humane immigration system for children & asylum seekers - they will also be grabbing children from detention cntrs & sending them to staging areas to be put on death flights. That’s no way to #defendfamilies
@amnesty and @humanrights1st in collaboration with basically every group that works for humanity are against these unlawful removals and are dedicated for children to have full and fair access to protection and, hey, perhaps a judge.
More things that YOU can do are to come. But for now. Uplift, be loud and understand that good intentions will not protect these children nor will it protect the hundreds of black immigrants and children also being rushed out by a rogue agency. @DHSgov you can right these wrongs.
The lack of consent is immeasurable in immigration detention. Often it is detention staff who know the diagnosis and speak directly to medical practitioners - not detainees. Detainees often do not know why they are ill or what medicines they are taking.
Detainees are often not spoken to in their language - especially when off site accompanied by detention staff. Detainees make complaints but cannot actively participate in their care and are routinely refused care that will result in multiple trips offsite.
Knowledge & consent is doubly hard for parents WITH their children in detention. Parents often do not know why their children are not well, what their children are sick with, or what medicine they are taking. Parents cannot make informed decisions about their children's care.
Myself, @AmyMaldonadoLaw, @HMAesq, @Allandaros, and @ColumbiaLaw's Elora Mukherjee sue on behalf of 126 detained mothers and kids subjected to impossible standards/procedures while seeking protection.
No child should be deported when there is a 49% chance they’ll die. #asylumban
The #AsylumBan is bad enough. But the admin is attaching policies and practices to the Ban to make it impossible to pass even a simple threshhold fear screening - even if you are a child.
Let me reiterate. This is not even to be granted asylum. This is asking to be allowed to see a Judge.
There are now three (or more) layers of review for positive decisions referring cases to Judges. Zero review for cases barred from seeing judges.
I have to admit, I was very surprised to see so much outrage about what happened to our 10 year old client and her dad yesterday after I posed a question (mainly for my immig attorney friends). But perhaps we live in an immigration bubble where horrible things happen every day.1/
I know for sure that I am desensitized to many horrible things as a result, as our primary job is to help detained kids and their parents, to keep them from dying and to get them free. We hear terrible things, and battle a system that wants to send them back to terrible things 2/
But do realize that immigrant children are threatened all the time with separation. Parents are threatened all the time with losing their children. This is not something new but it is much worse. It’s a consistent threat made against children and parents in the immig. system. 3/