I will admit I'm kind of stupid, but can someone please tell me...

[LuckyCharms]

exactly why these children are being separated from their parents? What is the reason that Sessions et al is using to justify this?

Here's how I think about this. I really don't care what law is on the books. In a situation like this, we have to be held to a higher standard than a "law".

Instead, we at least have to be held to some kind of moral baseline. Some kind of HUMAN baseline.

These children that are torn from their parents...they will be fucked-up forever. No amount of therapy or pills will be able to rectify this in the future.

If they are using the law as an excuse, then the law needs to be changed. Yesterday.

[cynatnite]

1. Their reasoning is that by going to the border, they broke the law...

hence...children taken away.

Thing is, it's not the law at all and those fuckers know it.

[Sophia4]

2. Sessions. He is doing it out of spite and hate, and he must be stopped.

[grantcart]

3. Deterrence, to stop the next wave

[Aristus]

4. Taking away the children ensures docile and cooperative camp inmates.

Threatening the children enforces compliance.

Sieg Heil!

[anarch]

5. to send a message to anyone thinking of trying to immigrate here

I think someone in the administration even said as much..."zero tolerance," so anyone seeking asylum in the U.S. is automatically prosecuted, which means they separate their kids since they can't put them in the adult prisons.

It's state terror; it will not end well for the U.S.

[exboyfil]

6. ..Is automatically persecuted

That is a better word in this case.

[Lee-Lee]

7. Here is a breakdown

Prior US Policy was that someone coming over with a minor was typically processed for a civil immigration violation and then released on immigration parole to appear for an immigration hearing. That allowed them to care for the children.

The Trump Administration is claiming this policy was bad for two reasons. First that the majority of people released on immigration parole after being caught crossed never show up for their immigration hearings. That’s to be expected as most would be deported after a hearing so in theirnmidn why risk it? Second they claim the policy encourages people to bring children on the dangerous crossings as a way to get immigration parole instead of detention.

So their answer is basically lock up everyone caught crossing and place criminal charges against them instead of just civil immigration violations as a way to deter people from crossing. And if you lock up the Parents or guardians and you don’t have anyone else to release the children to then they go into the system just like the children of anyone else arrested.

Basically they hate the idea of some people slipping trough the cracks in the system and maybe getting to stay here so much they would rather incarcerate every person crossing, including parents, and make life much harder for everyone caught crossing including children.

[DesertRat]

30. No. These are not all people sneaking over the border

Many of the families are asylum seekers.

[handmade34]

8. deterrence and punishment

it is not necessarily law and doesn't need to happen... it can be stopped at any time the DT Administration wants to...

there is no moral baseline/human baseline from the Republicans...

yes, taking children from their parents (especially at such a tenuous time) is emotionally damaging

...and no, you are not stupid, just horrified as most of us are

[madaboutharry]

9. I have concluded that the people implementing this policy

and those people who are actually physically removing the children from their parents are undeniably sadistic and depraved people. Trump, Sessions, and every person in the chain of command down to the individuals grabbing these children from their parents arms are a disgrace to humanity.

[treestar]

10. Sessions thinks that

The news will get out that this happens, and so people will decide not to come. However, he does not understand what they are fleeing.

[Hekate]

11. There is no such law. They lie to blame this on Obama and the Dems. They say it is "Biblical"...

...which is also a lie. The Bible has much to say about treating "the stranger within your gates" as one of your own, "for we were ourselves strangers in Egypt."

People who show up seeking asylum do not sneak across the border, they present themselves at the border in broad daylight. There are international laws and US laws addressing this. It is a lie to say otherwise.

The sole purpose of the current behavior by the US authorities is to terrorize people into not even attempting to seek asylum for any reason whatsoever. It is terrorist behavior by agents if the US government in our names.

NOT IN MY NAME, YOU EVIL BASTARDS!

[syringis]

12. Hi LuckyCharms

Some principles, like Human Rights are universal and above any law, which means they prevail.

What Sessions and his Barbarian aides are doing is unbearable !

It is not my field, but I am almost certain they could have been prosecuted before an international court if the US had signed and ratified the agreements.

The Rome Statute agreements have been signed but not ratified. They will never be because Bush withdrew the signature in 2002.

[peggysue2]

13. It's a deterrent, doncha know?

Which isn't working very well considering there's been a 30% uptick on the number of children in residency, so many that the 100+ temporary housing accommodation sites are maxed out.

So . . . it's off to tent cities they will go. A Children's Camp.

The whole situation is inhumane and immoral. This is being done in our name, on our soil.

Frankly, there isn't a punishment harsh enough or long enough for the enablers of this policy. Journalists yesterday were advised to smile at the children because the kids felt like animals at the zoo.

Unspeakable and grotesque!

[LuckyCharms]

14. Thank you for your input, everyone. n/t

[Tommy_Carcetti]

16. Umm....no. Nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

18. People are taken away from their kids.

Their kids are not taken from them.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

20. You're throwing additional facts in the situation.

You claimed previously that if someone is arrested—I would presume for even a minor offense—that person automatically loses custody of their children.

So if someone shoplifts or gets a DUI, they lose custody of their children?

While that might be a consideration if it becomes a repeating problem, it’s not automatic. Social Services would be absolutely overwhelmed by the case load if everyone who ever got arrested lost custody of their children.

Now you’re throwing in additional facts, like both parents getting arrested.

[GulfCoast66]

33. But their children are placed in foster homes at worse

Not for profit concentration camps!

Good grief. It’s not fucking complicated.

[LuckyCharms]

25. What do you mean?

[Takket]

23. apparently the bible says to

and bible quotes are now sufficient justification for national policy, instead of the Constitution and the laws derived from it.

Also, Sessions is a hate filled fuck face who is enjoying making these people suffer to "punish" them for crossing the border. He is a sadistic terrorist monster.

[wellst0nev0ter]

34. Yeah, the slave bible

Yes, it was a thing

[Leith]

24. They Are Doing It Out of Sheer Bad-Tempered Spite

They're sadists. It makes them giggle.

[Lifelong Protester]

26. NOT IN MY NAME!!

[Shrike47]

27. Because the children cannot be held in jail with the parents, theoretically the gov't finds care.

Donald and Melania decide to rob a bank and take Barron along. They get caught, arrested and put in jail. Normally, the police call Children’s Services. CS talks to the parents and the kid if he’s old enough: “any relatives who could take Barron while you’re in jail?” “No, they are all liars and thieves except the daughter who is too young to care for Barron.”

If CS can’t dig up a relative, they place the child in temporary foster care and file a petition with the court asking for temporary custody because there is no fit and available adult to care for Barron. In my state, there is an almost immediate hearing, the parents are transported to court if at all possible, everybody, including Barron, gets an attorney. CS usually gets temporary custody and places the child in a suitable foster home (while beating the bushes for relatives; there aren’t enough foster homes.)

The kid’s attorney visits the child in the foster home and around here, calls a hearing if he/she thinks the home is unfit. The parents attorneys confer with CS and obtain information about what’s going on which they can share with the parents.

These children being seized at the border are getting none of this and, as far as I can see, no due process, no advocacy, no protection. And their parents don’t know where they are. It’s appalling.

[J_William_Ryan]

28. Actually, Sessions et al are in violation of the law.

Refugees have the right to apply for asylum and remain in the United States pending the outcome of that application – absent punitive measures against them, such as taking from them their children.

The Trump ‘administration’ is doing this as a ‘deterrent’ to refugees coming to the United States; Sessions believes – incorrectly – that refugees won’t attempt to enter the country if there’s a possibility of losing their children.

[Cha]

29. My thoughts as I posted this..

'Where's my mom?' cries girl as immigrant kids separated from parents arrive in Michigan

snip//

Separated from her parents at the southern border, a 9-year-old girl from Guatemala who recently arrived in Michigan often cries out in Spanish: "Where's my mom? When can I talk to my mom? When can I see my mom?"

Her cries of pain are echoed across the United States with a growing number of immigrant children being ripped by U.S. officials from their parents after they cross the border illegally in hopes of getting asylum

snip//

"These kids have been through really hell on Earth, and now they're separated from their parents," said Chris Palusky, CEO and President of Bethany Christian Services, which has offices across Michigan and works in 36 states.

"They're confused, they're scared, and they want to be with their family. They're acting out; they've been through some of the worst trauma and they're continuing to go through more trauma because they're separated from their family unit."

More..
https://www.wzzm13.com/article/news/local/michigan/wheres-my-mom-cries-girl-as-immigrant-kids-separated-from-parents-arrive-in-michigan/69-562855678

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=10734177

[dlk]

31. It is Nothing More than Pure, Unadulterated Sadism

[onecaliberal]

32. To deter the brown people from coming to the United States.

He doesn’t care if they’re lives are in danger. Talk about a special place in hell.