President Joe Biden is receiving criticism for his administration’s border policy of separating unaccompanied alien children from adult family members after being apprehended.
USA Today reports that when children arrive at the border with adult family members who are not their parents, they are separated.
This type of policy was the subject of harsh vitriol under the Trump administration, though USA Today points out that children were separated from their actual parents under the previous administration.
Migrant children who arrive with a relative who isn't their mother or father are still being separated from them and held for weeks under the Biden administration, activists and lawyers said.https://t.co/T9G1PqJxfX
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) March 6, 2021
Biden Admin ‘Still Sheltering Children Separated From Close Family Members’
According to USA Today, after minors and children are apprehended by Border Patrol agents, the Biden administration “is still sheltering children separated from close family members.”
This report comes as record numbers of children unaccompanied by a parent are arriving at the southern border.
“A growing wave of unaccompanied children at the border is fast becoming President Joe Biden’s first major immigration challenge,” USA Today notes.
“More than 4,000 migrant children were transferred in January to the custody of the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement, the agency tasked with caring for them once they cross the border – up from 3,330 in December and nearly four times the number that arrived in October, according to agency statistics.”
USA Today reports, “The migrant children often arrive with a grandparent, older sibling or other relative but are separated until federal officials can confirm the accompanying adult is their relative, as required under U.S. law.”
To qualify as a family unit according to current law requires a parent or legal guardian to be present.
MSNBC: Blue Team will save those children separated from families!
Reality: https://t.co/diruoba5wL— Archer 2.0
$15 / hour or bust (@Map4latte) March 6, 2021
“The procedure, which is different from the highly controversial Trump administration policy of separating immigrant parents from their children, is designed to protect minors from human traffickers and grant them legal protections,” the outlet reports.
USA Today notes that children are placed in federal shelters until a family member or sponsor can be vetted and approved.
The Biden administration is still sheltering children separated from close family members in federal facilities for weeks on end — something immigrant advocates and attorneys had hoped the new administration would resolve by now. https://t.co/3L6vbH3E8m
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) March 6, 2021
This Process Can Takes Weeks And Months
The problem is, this process can potentially take months to complete.
Associate director of legal services at the National Immigrant Justice Center, Lisa Koop, told USA Today that this tactic can be harmful to a child being separated from a parent at the border.
“It really does look and feel in many ways like a parent-child separation,” Koop said. “The trauma of the separation is very similar.”
Some on the left, who were highly critical of President Trump’s separation policies, have also dinged Biden.
This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay – no matter the administration or party. https://t.co/AEV7s7QQnB
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 23, 2021
Ocasio-Cortez was referring to the re-opening of what has been dubbed a ‘migrant facility,’ which the White House has defended as necessary.
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