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A mother and daughter reunited at Logan
By adamg on Thu, 07/05/2018 - 10:43pm
CNN posted this video of Angelica Gonzalez-Garcia, a Guatemalan national, being reunited with her 8-year-old daughter at Logan this afternoon, 55 days after they were separated by immigration officials in Arizona - who let Gonzalez-Garcia fly to Massachusetts, where she is now staying in Framingham, but sent her daughter in Harlingen, Texas.
CNN reports:
The reunion was made possible by lawyers from two firms and the ACLU of Massachusetts. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Massachusetts, helped speed up the reunification process.
In a declaration filed as part of a lawsuit by the state of Washington against the federal government over the separations, Gonzalez-Garcia wrote:
On May 10, 2018, the day after our arrest, Officers came into the room and told me that they intended to take my daughter away from me. The Officers told us that the law with minors was "done" and again said 1 was going to be deported. Most devastating of all, the Officers said 1 would never see my daughter again. When the Officers told me this, 1 felt like collapsing and dying. I cannot express the pain and fear I felt at that point. My daughter was only seven years old and she was much too young to be taken from me. When I asked why the Officers said that I had "endangered" her by bringing her here. They told me to sign a consent form to take my daughter, but that it did not matter whether or not I signed, because they were going to take her either way.
The officer came into the cell and called my daughter and me into the big office space. They told me that if I did not sign the paper they would still take my daughter from me, and they also said it would be worst for me. During this same conversation one of the officers asked me "In Guatemala do they celebrate mother's day?" When I answered yes he said, "then Happy Mother's Day" because the next Sunday was Mother's day. I lowered my head so that my daughter would not see the tears forming in my eyes. That particular act of cruelty astonished me then as it does now. I could not understand why they hated me so much, or wanted to hurt me so much.
Her complete statement (11.8M PDF, search for "Exhibit 6").
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Comments
starting to hear some of the stories
We're starting to hear some of the stories of the families seeking asylum. I'd flee too if that sh*t was going down in my neighborhood and government was powerless to stop it and keep me safe. I also didn't know that there is a large native central American population in Guatemala.
Two law firms, ACLU Mass. and a US Congresswomen is what it took to reunite a family that should never have been separated. ACLU national has also sued the govt. to find out the purpose of the zero-tolerance policy that creates unaccompanied minors out of accompanied minors. Although they won't admit it (yet), it appears they're doing it to punish families so people will seek asylum elsewhere. That would be unlawful as it is a right under US and international law. About 3,000 kids were separated from the parent/s.
Sessions answered purpose of zero tolerance policy
https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-sessions-addresses-r...
Sadly, the biased media we have didn't cover what Sessions said except for PBS which ignored everything but a few comments to the Christian audience.
BTW, in Europe after 1 million+ refugees flooded in in 2015 and 2015, countries there built fences which succeeded in greatly reducing refugee numbers and those who drowned trying. Large refugee camps in Greece and Turkey are not nearly as luxurious as Trump's (hotels).
Did the European countries
Did the European countries take children away from from their parents?
Sessions' BS sounds like just what you would expect it to sound.
I actually read Sessions'
I actually read Sessions' speech, and it boils down to, "we are taking their children away as a scare tactic." He lies about the children having great care while they're held (like the one that was returned with lice, unbathed for months?).
He says that illegal immigrants should stay home and apply for asylum from there. Good luck with that! It takes an average of 180 days to apply for asylum and hear back. Hope you and your child don't get killed by the people you're trying to flee from in those months.
This administration sees these people as less than human. As far as I can tell, that's the only way you could separate children and infants from their family, cage them up, and then potentially even deport the parents without them. Whatever, “The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever..." Greeeat, because foster homes have a reputation for being warm and caring, right? Oh wait, according to a 2016 study 75% of children in protective service agencies are neglected, 18% are physically abused, and 8.5% sexually abused.
DOJ still wont admit it in court but everybody knows
The migrant numbers along the
The migrant numbers along the southern border and nowhere near anything worth getting worked up about.
Our response however, should scare the shit out of anyone, because right now the Civil War is back on and the SOuth is winning.
Sessions and his ilk firmly believe in dividing us between those who are protected by the law but not bound to it, and those who are bound to the law but not protected by it.
THese migrants are obviously in the latter set already, but every single one of us risks winding up in the same situation as them if we let Sessions continue.
The scaremongering against these people should be enough to make obvious that their arrival in the US is our Reichstag fire.
Although they won't admit it
Pretty sure they admitted this, dude. I think it was Sessions? Definitely somebody talked about this as a deterrent.
well the Trump administation has every stance on the issue
Well, in classic politician spin, they both admitted and denied it. At different points they said they started doing it to deter immigrants, that it was the democrats who made the law to separate families, that there was no policy to separate families, and that the administration was against separating families.
So, basically, whoever comes to them and complains they are wrong, they can just saw, look at our buffet of answers, choose the one that makes you happy while we do what we want.
huh?
"I also didn't know that there is a large native central American population in Guatemala."
Did you believe Guatemala is a nation of immigrants? Guatemalans are not typically caucasian.
about 38.9% Indigenous
Indigenous community in Guatemala is about 38.9% of the population.
It is amazing to me, perhaps
It is amazing to me, perhaps it should not be, how quickly government workers with no direct personal involvement with these families become cruel. This is how historically horrible things happen.
Please don't paint all
Please don't paint all government workers with the same brush. Many of us, hired under Obama, are in the tricky position of fighting attempts by the administration to destabilize and tear apart our agencies while also trying to provide as many services to the public as we can for as long as we still have jobs.
CBT, ICE - these agencies are unique, in that they self-select for cruel people and wannabe tough guys who either couldn't hack it or didn't have the guts to join the actual Services. Bullies and powerhungry jerks, and with the explosion of hiring under 45 these guys knew exactly what they were signing up for an are relishing the opportunity to be assholes to those they consider subhuman.
which is why we cannot stand
which is why we cannot stand by the side lines and allow it to happen. People that kept quite are no better than the Nazi's doing the work. Yes, it's scary but imagine the other 2300 kids who have no idea where there parents are. This isn't who we are.
the subjects of the experiement were smart college students
Stanford prison study
When Trump
in an interview with Chris Matthews states that there has to be some kind of punishment for abortion, he is showing the perverse operations of his own mind resulting from some heretofore not identified defect in his own emotional development. That's what causes all of these attacks on the most vulnerable, here: immigrant families and children. The Law and Order set who support this behavior either don't know better or sadly, and this is more likely, share in the same perverse opposition to vulnerability toward themselves and others. At most, they feel blameful. Empathy for someone not in their immediate family or circle is a real stretch, and what's left of their cognitive capacities after that goes to the chorus of identity politics. Rumor has it that ICE employees are outside Chelsea public schools daily to observe and as it was told to me in some cases abduct parents who are bringing their children to school. Law and order my ass
Gov’t employees
“Just following orders...”
Maybe...
... but if the kind of absolutely gratuitous cruelty described in this story is a result of actual orders rather than the act of a pathological bully, the problem is even worse than we might have thought.
ACLU
Never was a big fan of the ACLU in my younger days but as I grow older and wiser I have learned to appreciate the great work their lawyers do on behalf of all of us.
Truly sad what's happening to those kids
Not a fan of DB but it's the only place I could find this link:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/watch-immigrant-kids-forced-to-defend-them...
Amazing how we've nearly lost all compassion for 'others' and the total disregard for decency and life. And I'm not only referring to this issue.
Emotions aside, this was stupid.
It is very expensive and unhealthy to remove children from their parents. The children become the responsible of the government without any documented medical history.
Wasn't one of the reasons that trump wants us to hate "illegals" that they use up millions of taxpayer's money in social services? It costs more than 500 dollars a day to care for children in a shelter.
Now, the children are spread out all over the country. What the heck did they think was going to happen? If trump hadn't stopped it when he did, we could be looking at trillions in expenses. We will be very lucky if this doesn't kill one or more of these children.
What the heck did they think was going to happen?
They didn't care what happened. They still don't care what happens. I would have a lot more respect for the Trump-led R's if they could just be honest about their intentions.