Magazine, Immigration, Pasadena now
Three members of the House — including Pasadena congresswomen Judy Chu and L.A. area congresswomen Karen Bass plus Rep. Jim Langevin of Rhode Island — accused the Trump Administration today of waging a war on immigrants, perpetrating an atrocity and willfully inflicting permanent psychological damage on unaccompanied children fleeing violence in their homelands by expelling them at the border without affording them due process.
Chu said: “Once again, this administration is endangering children as part of its war on immigrants. Lacking a real immigration policy, this administration is instead making a show of detaining and deporting children who are fleeing violence or abuse without due process as is required. Worse, there is ample evidence that the Trump Administration’s disregard for child welfare is harming development, retraumatizing children seeking asylum, and in some cases, even resulting in their deaths.
“If this policy is being done with an eye towards the law and child welfare, then DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) should be able to demonstrate that by responding to our requests … However, as with the earlier separation of immigrant families and subsequent imprisonment of immigrant children, all evidence indicates that this policy is another way to spread fear of immigrants and is harming children — perhaps for life. That is why we demand that this administration must immediately abandon this cruel policy, stick to the requirements in the Flores Agreement, and allow these children a fair screening to assess their claim for asylum. Child abuse must not be the policy of the United States.”
