Wednesday Reading on Trump's Nativist Abuses

[Content Note: Nativism; child abuse.]

Let's start with some moderately good news, for a change...

Isaac Stanley-Becker at the Washington Post: Federal Judge Enjoins Separation of Migrant Children, Orders Family Reunification.

A federal judge in San Diego on Tuesday barred the separation of migrant children from their parents and required immigration officials to reunify within 30 days families that have been divided as a result of a zero-tolerance policy enforced by the Trump administration.

Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California granted a preliminary injunction sought by the American Civil Liberties Union. He said all children must be reunited with their families within 30 days, allowing just 14 days for the return of children under 5 to their parents. He also ordered that parents be allowed to speak by phone with their children within 10 days.

...The government had urged Sabraw not to grant the nationwide injunction, saying the president's order, which followed days of bipartisan outcry, had resolved the concerns animating the suit.

The court said it did not. Instead it found that the zero-tolerance policy, begun in early May, along with the executive order and a subsequent fact sheet issued by the Department of Homeland Security outlining the process of removal, marked a sharp departure from "measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution." It faulted the Trump administration for "a chaotic circumstance of the Government's own making."

The judge stated bluntly: "The unfortunate reality is that under the present system, migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property."

This is good news only insofar as it was absolutely the right decision. The problem is that the Trump Regime has no plan for reunifying families and also no inclination to comply with the judge's order. If they had any respect for the law at all, the president wouldn't have spent the last few days bloviating about denying due process to immigrants.

And to that very point...

Sarah D. Wire and Jazmine Ulloa at the LA Times: Trump Administration Says It Won't Return Children to Immigrant Parents in Custody. "Earlier Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, testifying on Capitol Hill, said the only way parents can quickly be reunited with their children is to drop their claims for asylum in the United States and agree to be deported. If parents pursue asylum claims, administration officials planned to hold them in custody until hearings are complete — a process that can take months and in some instances years because of a backlog of several hundred thousand cases. And while that process takes place and the parents are in custody, their children would not be returned to them, Azar said, citing current rules that allow children to be held in immigrant detention for no more than 20 days."

That was just hours before Judge Sabraw's ruling. Ostensibly, the ruling should override that position, but, again, this is an administration that has repeatedly demonstrated contempt for the law.

Michael Hardy at the Daily Beast: Border Agent Threatened to Put Immigrant's Daughter Up for Adoption, ACLU Says. "A Guatemalan woman was told her daughter would be sent to live with an American family if she didn't agree for them both to be deported, according to her attorney. ...'We've heard of the history of CBP officers using lies and misinformation to pressure people into signing voluntary departures,' [Edgar Saldivar, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Texas] said. 'But in this specific context, where they're threatening to take a child away and adopting them out to an American family, that was something I had not heard before.'"

Tiye Rose at Colorlines: This Undocumented Mom Is Taking Sanctuary at an NYC Church to Fight Her Deportation. "The southern border isn't the only theater of immigration-based family separation. ...Debora Berenice Barrios-Vasquez is the mother of a 10- and a 2-year-old. She works at a nonprofit for underserved people in New York City, is a labor union member, is active in her church, and plans to study Information and Technology at a local community college. Barrios-Vasquez is also an undocumented immigrant facing deportation to Guatemala. To stay connected with her young children, who are both U.S. citizens, the 13-year resident of New York City has taken sanctuary with her youngest at Saint Paul & Saint Andrew United Methodist Church in Manhattan."

David Nakamura at the Washington Post: Travel-Ban Ruling Could Embolden Trump in Remaking the U.S. Immigration System. "Trump's victory Tuesday in the Supreme Court's ratification of his travel ban marked a milestone in his attempt to paint broad swaths of immigrants as dangerous — a rhetorical strategy that has underpinned the administration's sweeping efforts to unilaterally curtail immigration. ...Critics expressed fears that the court's ruling would embolden Trump to further test the limits of his statutory authority to enforce border-control laws without explicit approval from lawmakers. ...'Who's going to be next?' asked Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), whose state brought the case against the travel ban. 'Is the president going to issue an executive order against Mexicans? Is he going to issue an executive order against people from Honduras? Guatemala? What's next?'"

An excellent and chilling question.

In case you missed it late yesterday, from me: Two Ominous Signs of the Trump Regime's Expanding Authoritarianism. "Surely I'm not the only person who understands that government agents physically harming and detaining people who are trying to help the scapegoated population is both very familiar and very dangerous. Responding to this nightmare with 'civility' is not only insufficient; it's to be an accomplice to expanding malice."

And finally, care of catherine lizette gonzalez at Colorlines: How You Can Support Detained Immigrant Families. "From volunteering to organizing to donating, here are actionable steps you can take to support immigrants and asylum-seekers being prosecuted and detained by the United States government."

As always, please feel welcome and encouraged to share additional links in comments.