This article has three parts, a simple explanation of what’s coming up from the government, a listing of San Diego responses to Trump’s immigration policies over the next 10 days, and an analysis of what’s likely going to happen on the legal and political fronts in the coming days.
I cobbled these sections together from other people’s work to make the situation more understandable for our readers.
You need to know the only things changed today were the details. Your voice is needed more than ever to stop these abominations.
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Here are the facts thus far:
- Families will not be immediately separated, but they will be held in detention together.
- Crossing the border ‘illegally’ will no longer be deemed a civil violation. People will be charged with a criminal violation.
- Because it’s now a criminal violation, parents will now be charged criminally. At that point, their children will be forcibly taken.
- The order says families will be expedited through the process. This means the removal of their children will also be expedited.
There will still be a need for tent camps and tender age facilities. This order is about optics for Trump, not keeping families together. The details are hidden in the fine print.
Understand that this order is the result of pressure we and others have exerted. We made this change. But this is not the solution.
Trump anticipates this action will temper our moral outrage. Don’t let that happen. This is not close to enough. This is not a victory for families crossing the border.
(h/t to Facebook user Barbara Bennett at Nonpartisan Coalition for Change, from whom I recopied most of these words.)
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Via Pamela at Indivisible and the ACLU, here’s the latest information on upcoming protests:
Indivisible groups and coalition partners across the San Diego region are mobilizing in protest of the Trump Administration’s Zero Tolerance Policy, which forcibly removes migrant children from their parents’ custody at the US/Mexico border. Activists are demanding the immediate reunification of parents with 2,300 children and accountability for these human rights violations.
WEDNESDAY JUNE 20
10 AM – 2 PM; 3 – 6 PM
Rally Poster-Making Workshop
2258 Island Avenue San Diego
Border Angels hosts a gathering to make posters supporting migrant families for this weekend’s protests.
FRIDAY JUNE 22
11 AM
Keep Families Together With Senator Kamala Harris
Otay Mesa Detention Facility, 7488 Calzada De La Fuente
This Friday, US Senator Kamala Harris will be visiting the Otay Mesa Detention Facility to see firsthand what is happening at our border. Join the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and Senator Harris this Friday in kicking off a series of local actions to speak up against this inhumane practice and demand that Trump stop separating families. Senator Harris has been an outspoken advocate against family separation but she needs our help in pushing against this atrocious practice.
3:00 – 4:30 PM
“Keep Families Together” Nurse-In
880 Front Street San Diego 92101
Hosted by Independent Indivisible and Together We Will, nursing mothers and their infants will gather with families and other supporters in opposition to the Trump policy of removing migrant children from parents seeking asylum in the United States. Speakers include a nursing mother, a pediatrician and a faith leader. Family friendly event will engage children in song. Event inspired by the reported removal by US border agents of a Honduran infant from her mother while nursing in a detention room in Texas.
6:30 PM
Interfaith Service and Call to Action
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church 2020 Alaquinas Drive, San Ysidro 92173
San Diego Organizing Group, an affiliate of Faith In Action, kicks off a weekend of action with prayers for migrant families and for the soul of our nation.
SATURDAY JUNE 23
10 AM – 12:30 PM
Let Our Children Go!
Interfaith Training and Orientation for Day of Action
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church 2020 Alaquinas Drive, San Ysidro 92173
San Diego Organizing Group, an affiliate of Faith In Action, will prepare activists to protest.
10 AM – 12 PM
Families Belong Together March
San Diego Civic Center 202 C Street San Diego 92101
San Diego Indivisible hosts a rally against the Trump Administration’s family separation policies. Protesters will march 3 blocks from the civic center to the local headquarters of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the federal building. This event is endorsed by San Diego ACLU, California Teachers Association, local border organizations, Democratic clubs and local unions. Indigenous dancers will do a cleansing ceremony.
10 – 11 AM
North County Families Belong Together Rally
Westfield North County Mall, Overpass at Via Rancho Parkway
272 E Via Rancho Parkway Escondido 92025
Indivisible groups in North County host a rally in support of migrant families and in opposition to the Trump policy of family separation and warehousing of immigrant children.
7 PM
Let Our Children Go!
Interfaith Vigil at Family Separation Zone
San Diego Organizing Group, an affiliate of Faith In Action, will hold a vigil at the border.
SATURDAY JUNE 30
11 AM – 2 PM
Families Belong Together Rally
Waterfront Park 1600 Pacific Highway San Diego
Possible rally in support of a national day of action to oppose Trump’s immigration policies that separate children from parents at our border, deny security to DACA recipients and use ICE to intimidate immigrants. The national march in Washington DC is hosted by Move On, ACLU and other partners. (Local host and details are unclear at this time.)
11 AM
Families Belong Together Rally
Swami’s 1298 S Coast Highway 101 Encinitas 92024
Local activists host a North County rally in support of the national day of action. (Local host and details are unclear at this time.)
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Trump just set in motion another slow-rolling humanitarian and political disaster
By Kerry Eleveld / Daily Kos
Right as Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that clearly intends to allow indefinite jailings of entire families, he boasted of his new initiative: “Ok, you’re going to have a lot of happy people.” Not to shock anyone here, but Trump lied. Or should we say, he made a false claim that significantly overestimated the worth of his own actions?
Tragically, this national nightmare is nowhere near over for a very long list of reasons. Think about it like Trump’s original Muslim ban, which was truly remarkable for how poorly conceived and executed it was and—even after the administration reworked it two more times—remains tied up in litigation today.
Unfortunately, Trump’s colossal family separation failure is going to take many many months—if not years—of cleanup even as the administration tries to implement a new policy that is minimally more humane at best and equally as under-resourced and ill-conceived as the first effort.
Let’s touch on a just a few of the upcoming challenges:
1) When Attorney General Jeff Sessions and DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen began implementing their separation horrors, they put in place no mechanism whatsoever for tracking the separated children and reuniting them with their families. That contention was reaffirmed in the press call immediately following Trump’s EO signing.
Per DOJ press call and convos with HHS, DHS: No one seems to have a plan for reuniting these 2300 kids with their parents
— Julia E. Ainsley (@JuliaEAinsley) June 20, 2018
The United States government now has thousands of orphaned children in its custody and absolutely no roadmap—let alone proper documentation—for reunifying these kids with their parents. Think about the jailed “tender age” kids—many of them can’t even speak. How the hell is the government going to find their parents?
This will involve months and even years of agony for parents and children alike. And it’s a f*cking outrage.
2) The administration’s new policy is sure to end up in court, even Republican lawmakers are admitting it—as is the Justice Department.
Gene Hamilton, Counselor to The Attorney General, says DOJ is seeking modification of Flores settlement: “So that we can detain beyond 20 days the entire family unit together”
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) June 20, 2018
In other words, in contravention of the 2016 Flores consent decree, the Trump administration will seek to indefinitely jail families for more than 20 days.
The pictures of thousands of people, including kids with eyes puffy from crying, aren’t going anywhere.
3) The federal government will now be in a mad dash to set up “tent cities” across the U.S. to house these detained families. In fact, Trump’s executive order instructs the Department of Defense to create space for keeping these families together, so the internment camps will likely be erected on federal military bases across the southern border.
The optics of this, not to mention the tragic human toll, are going to continue to be absolutely horrendous.
Tom Fengler says
Valuable information.