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<\/b>For the past month, immigrant rights advocates nationally and in the Bay Area have been predominantly focused on one thing: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents separating refugee children from their parents.<\/p>\n
The separations are a result of changes in immigration policy under the Trump administration, which has decided that families who cross the U.S.-Mexico border somewhere other than a \u201cport of entry\u201d will be automatically detained. Parents who enter the country \u201cillegally\u201d\u2014even those fleeing persecution or seeking asylum\u2014are\u00a0 <\/span>held under federal custody indefinitely, while their children are taken and placed with the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services.<\/p>\n The policy came under heavy scrutiny in June, because about 2,000 of the children were split from their parents between April 18 and May 31, a six-week window out of the several months the policy has been in place, according to Vox Media.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been a continual ritual of the United States,\u201d said Bay Area activist Cheryl Sudduth. \u201cIt goes all the way back to the Dred Scott decision, Plessy v. Ferguson, the Korematsu decision. This is nothing new for the United States, so no one should be surprised that this is what\u2019s happening. They\u2019ve been separating families since the beginning of time.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, the audio recordings of young refugee children sobbing that were released by ProPublica, shocked the the public, sparking outrage that pushed scores of people into action.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Demonstration at <\/b>Richmond detention center <\/b><\/p>\n 65-year-old activist Lorraine Altamirano and other protestors gathered outside of West County Detention Center in Richmond on June 26 to demand that ICE\u2014which has become a symbol of the Trump administration\u2019s hostility toward immigrants\u2014be demolished.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is just over-the-top horrible, I mean horrible. I cannot believe [what is happening],\u201d said Altamirano. \u201cWell no, I can believe, because since November of 2016 we\u2019ve been going way downhill. It is not acceptable. I don\u2019t know what is going to happen after this, and I don\u2019t think we\u2019re done seeing the horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n Cleve Jones, founder of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial, helped organize what was referred to as a \u201cDay of Action,\u201d and was one of the speakers at the demonstration.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here to oppose Trump\u2019s immigration policies,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe\u2019re here because we want the families who were separated at the border to be reunited immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n According to its website, the Contra Costa County Sheriff\u2019s Department has an agreement with ICE to house about 200 federal detainees per day, a contract worth approximately $6 million annually.<\/p>\n The Sheriff\u2019s department has been heavily criticized by the Richmond community for allegedly mistreating inmates, and for withholding access to the facility to prevent oversight by city officials.<\/p>\n \u201cEnough is enough,\u201d said Richmond Vice Mayor Melvin Willis. \u201cWe are not just going to target and criminalize people based on where they were born. That is immoral.\u201d<\/p>\n \n A national day of action<\/strong><\/p>\n BART stations across the Bay Area filled with people carrying posters on June 30, bound\u00a0 <\/span>for the 16th Street Station and a mass demonstration at Dolores Park.<\/p>\n Mothers and fathers brought their children to the event which proceeded down Dolores Street before turning onto Market Street and marching on to City Hall.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s important to explain to your children what is going on right now, but with language that is child friendly,\u201d said Gabrielle Reid, who brought her three young daughters with her.<\/p>\n The girls held hands and signs that that read, \u201cfamilies belong together.\u201d Reid looked at her daughters marching in front of her and said she couldn\u2019t imagine being separated from them for more than a day. \u201cI\u2019d honestly go crazy, I can only imagine what kind of pain that would be.\u201d<\/p>\n Timothy Anderson, another demonstrator explained that his mother had been in a Japanese concentration camp when she was young.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time she spoke about it her eyes would always wander off,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s beginning to show signs of dementia but clearly remembers her time there as being terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n Elizabeth M., 57, and her best friend Nancy W.B., also 57, made their own signs for the march. Elizabeth\u2019s read \u201cShame on Us\u201d in bold red letters.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s time to take accountability of our complacency,\u201d said Elizabeth. \u201cWe allowed all the events that led to this to fly by… This protest is far overdue, we have to start asking us what else can we do, more than just march once something major happens. We gotta be more consistent.\u201d<\/p>\n On of the speakers, Catherine Herrera, from the Ohlone tribe, talked about her trauma as a child when she was separated from her father when she was eight.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when I saw the children being separated, I was triggered like all of you, when we heard the recording of the children crying\u2026 [we] stood up,\u201d said Herrera. \u201cHow could we [separate children]? I know how we could, because it\u2019s been done before. When children are separated from their parents, they\u2019re separated from their culture.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy are we punishing children, why are we punishing victims of violence,\u201d Herrera continued, highlighting the historical injustices committed against Native American people. \u201cWe\u2019ve walked this path before \u2026 This kind of trauma goes to the roots of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Protesters \u2018Occupy ICE\u2019 in San Francisco<\/strong><\/p>\n Following the demonstration at City Hall, people began camping outside of ICE\u2019s San Francisco headquarters. Within a few days, about 20 tents along the block of Washington Street, between Sansome and Battery streets appeared, as part of the \u201cOccupy ICE\u201d movement.<\/p>\n A sign at the entrance of the camp read, \u201cWelcome. But not cops\u201d while masked occupiers stood by the opposite entrance closed off by wood pallets. In the middle of the encampment hung a banner with the message \u201cAbolish Borders.\u201d<\/p>\n Juan Prieto, a 26-year-old undocumented immigrant, was one of the people at the occupy camp. He said he was there because he wants ICE abolished, and he believes the movement needs to be led by undocumented people.<\/p>\n \u201cFor us, \u2018abolishment\u2019 means we get rid of the system, and free all the people that are currently being detained. We don\u2019t mean replicating it,\u201d Prieto said. \u201cWhat we truly mean is we get rid of detention centers, we get rid of enforcement agencies that brutalizes our community, and we replace it with a compassionable alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n San Francisco Police Department raided the camp in the early morning of July 9 (one week after it had been built) and arrested 39 protesters. A spokesperson from the police told the San Francisco Chronicle that the raid was launched in response to community complaints about \u201cpublic urination, cooking with open flames, excessive noise and disturbing the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n What happens now<\/b><\/p>\n The president did eventually bow to political pressure at the end of June, signing an executive order to keep families together. But there are grave concerns about the psychological effects this trauma has had on the children.<\/p>\n In March of last year, 184 organizations working with immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers and children, wrote a letter to U.S. Department of Homeland Security expressing their \u201cprofound opposition\u201d to the then proposal to separate migrant families. The letter states that \u201cFamily unity is recognized as a fundamental human right, enshrined in international law,\u201d and \u201cseparating children from their parents is cruel, traumatizing all those involved.\u201d<\/p>\n San Diego Federal Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the U.S. government to reunite children under 5 with their parents within 14 days (and within 30 days for older children), but that deadline lapsed on Tuesday, July 10.<\/p>\n When asked about missing the deadline, the president responded: \u201cWell, I have a solution: Tell people not to come to our country illegally. That\u2019s the solution: Don\u2019t come to our country illegally. Come like other people do\u2014come legally. I\u2019m saying this very simply, \u2018We have laws, we have borders. Don\u2019t come to our country illegally.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Currently, multiple agencies\u00a0 <\/span>are working to reunite the families. But, while family separations have been suspended, the zero-tolerance policy implemented in April is still in place. More civil actions by immigrant rights advocates are expected to follow, as are more legal challenges to the president\u2019s \u00a0<\/span>tolerance policy.<\/p>\n [su_box title=”Timeline of Trump Administration Immigration Policies “]<\/p>\n March 2017 \u2014 Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly confirms that the department considers to separate parents from their children at the US-Mexico border. Kelly backs off after criticism from human-rights activists. (CNN)<\/p>\n August 2017 \u2014 Possible new ways to separate families resurfaces, as the Department of Homeland Security meets to discuss strategies to toughen immigration policies. (The New Yorker reports)<\/p>\n October 2017 \u2014 The Trump administration increases prosecutions of people who have \u201cillegally\u201d entered the country.<\/p>\n April 2018 \u2014 In early April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions presents his zero-tolerance policy, which \u201cprohibits both attempted illegal entry and illegal entry into the United States by an alien,\u201d according to the Department of Justice. The policy includes asylum-seekers with children.<\/p>\n \u201cI warn you: illegally entering this country will not be rewarded, but will instead be met with the full prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice\u201d<\/em> \u2014 Sessions.<\/p>\n April 2018 \u2014 In late April, the New York Times reports that over 700 children have been separated from their parents since increased prosecutions began in October 2017.<\/p>\n June 2018 \u2014 Almost 2,000 families were separated at the southern border, from October 2016-February 2018. (Reuters)<\/p>\n June 2018 \u2014 It is reported that during a six-week window, from mid-April to the end of May 2018, over 2000 children were separated from their families\u2014more than the number of children during the 17-month period. (Time)<\/p>\n June 2018 \u2014 Trump signs an executive order to stop the separation of families. Despite the new policies, thousands of children are still split from their parents, and families who now cross the border are held together, although laws says the government cannot detain these children for more than 20 days. (New York Times) [\/su_box]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [su_carousel source=”media: 38424,38425,38426,38427,38428,38429,38430,38431,38432,38398,38399,38400,38401,38402,38403,38404,38405,38406,38407,38408,38409,38410,38411,38412,38413,38414,38415,38416,38417,38418,38419,38420,38421,38422,38423,38433,38434,38435″ limit=”65″ link=”lightbox” width=”800″ height=”540″ responsive=”no” items=”1″] For the past month, immigrant rights advocates nationally and in the Bay Area have been predominantly focused on one thing: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents separating refugee children from their parents. The separations are a result of changes in immigration policy under the Trump […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":38414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3929],"tags":[5663,7853,11849],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-38397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-ice-en","tag-immigration-and-customs-enforcement-en","tag-trump","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n