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welcomewithdignity
Coalition Implores Biden to Act as Abbott's 'Campaign of Cruelty' Separates Families
"We urge the Biden administration to immediately reunite separated families and launch an investigation into Texas' Operation Lone Star," said #WelcomeWithDignity's campaign manager.
Aug 07, 2023
The #WelcomeWithDignity campaign for asylum rights on Monday condemned what it called Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's "unconscionable" decision to "repeat one of the most horrific and cruel practices of the Trump administration" by separating migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Houston Chroniclereported last week that officials from the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) have separated at least 26 families by arresting fathers on trespassing charges and transferring relatives including small children to U.S. Border Patrol custody.
DPS spokesman Travis Considine confirmed that "there have been instances in which DPS has arrested male migrants" traveling with their families, but that "children and mothers were never separated" as they were turned over to Border Patrol agents.
"With Texas troopers separating families at the border, the world can now see that Governor Abbott's cruelty knows no bounds."
"We were already shocked and appalled by the razor wire and buoy barriers, denial of water, and pushbacks of children into the river," #WelcomeWithDignity campaign manager Melina Roche said in a statement, referring to the floating border barrier installed in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass and reports that Texas state troopers have been ordered to push migrant children back into the river and deny asylum-seekers water amid a deadly heatwave.
"With Texas troopers separating families at the border, the world can now see that Governor Abbott's cruelty knows no bounds," Roche added. "The governor will continue to punish families for seeking safety unless the federal government intervenes. We urge the Biden administration to immediately reunite separated families and launch an investigation into Texas' Operation Lone Star."
The #WelcomeWithDignity coalition said its members are "appalled" that the Biden administration "hasn't put a stop to Gov. Abbott's campaign of cruelty."
While Biden has ended some of the more egregious human rights violations perpetrated against migrants during former President Donald Trump's tenure, his administration has come under fire for
continuing and expanding Trump-era policies like Title 42—a public health order that both presidents invoked to deport around two million asylum-seekers under the pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic—and new asylum restrictions to replace Title 42 after its expiration in May. Last month, a federal court blocked Biden's new policy.
Kristin Etter, an attorney and special project director at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, called Abbott's policy "nothing short of state-sanctioned family separation."
Danilo Zack, acting director of policy and advocacy at Church World Service, said that "child-parent separation has profound and devastating consequences, and these actions recall the appalling scenes of the Trump-era zero-tolerance policy."
Zack was referring to Trump's internationally condemned crackdown on undocumented migrants including people legally seeking asylum, during which around 4,000 children were seized from their families and sent to locations around the country. With recordkeeping of the minors' identities and locations "patchwork at best," according to the Department of Homeland Security, nearly 1 in 4 of the separated children were yet to be reunited with their relatives as of earlier this year.
As public outrage mounted in the face of stories like a breastfeeding baby being torn away from her mother and a father driven to suicide after being separated from his wife and child, the Trump administration reluctantly rolled back the policy in June 2018.
Experts said family separation deeply traumatized parents and children, who were often told by U.S. officials that they would never see each other again. Some may indeed never be reunited. Numerous children were given to U.S. families, who sometimes petition for permanent custody.
"During the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy, I witnessed how family separation inflicts lasting trauma on the parents and children who were cruelly torn apart," Katharina Obser, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice program at the Women's Refugee Commission, said in a
statement Monday.
"It is unconscionable that this horrific practice is added onto a long list of cruel practices already taking place under Gov. Abbott's Operation Lone Star—including using razor wire and large buoys to block the Rio Grande shore," Obser added. "When people are fleeing to save their lives, attempts at deterrence only place vulnerable people in more danger and anguish, rather than stop their need to seek safety."
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Campaign Demands Justice for 8-Year-Old Girl Who Died in US Border Patrol Custody
"It is atrocious that yet another family has to mourn their child because of our collective inability to fix our broken immigration system," lamented one activist in response to the death of Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez.
May 22, 2023
A coalition of migrant advocacy groups on Monday mourned and demanded justice for an 8-year-old Central American girl who died in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody earlier this month.
The #WelcomeWithDignity campaign for asylum rights remembered Anadith Tanay Reyes Álvarez, an 8-year-old girl who came to the United States with her Honduran parents, following her death on May 17 after CBP agents "neglected to heed her parent's requests for medical assistance," according to the coalition.
"Anadith deserves to be alive today," said #WelcomeWithDignity interim campaign manager Bilal Askaryar. "Border Patrol staff ignored the minimum safeguards for protecting the lives in their custody."
"Anadith's parents should be preoccupied with helping their 8-year-old daughter prepare for her new life in the United States and making the journey to meet her aunt in New York," Askaryar added. "Instead, they are grieving an unspeakable tragedy and trying to raise money to take Anadith's body to their new home with them."
\u201cNew details regarding the preventable death of an 8-year-old girl in CBP custody last week show that the child\u2019s mother repeatedly asked agents to take her daughter to the hospital, but her pleas were ignored. Anadith had a history of heart problems and sickle cell anemia.\ud83e\uddf5\ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udffe\u201d— The Young Center (@The Young Center) 1684623052
Reyes, who suffered a congenital heart condition and sickle cell anemia, was a Panamanian citizen who traveled with her Honduran parents and her two older siblings to the southern U.S. border at Brownsville, Texas. The family was detained by CBP agents on May 9 and held for more than a week.
On May 14, Reyes' mother Mabel Álvarez took the child to a treatment area after she complained of abdominal pain, nasal congestion, and a cough, CBP said. Reyes tested positive for Influenza and was given medications including Tamiflu and Zofran. CBP said she was also given acetaminophen and ibuprofen.
Reyes and her family were then transported to a CBP facility in Harlingen, Texas, which is "designated for cases requiring medical isolation for individuals diagnosed with or closely exposed to communicable diseases," according to the agency.
Medical records show that Álvarez took Reyes to the Harlingen station's medical facility three times on May 17. On the last visit, Reyes appeared to be having a seizure. After her body went limp and she began bleeding from the mouth, medical staff started CPR and CBP had the girl rushed to Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen. She was pronounced dead less than an hour later.
"They killed my daughter, because she was nearly a day-and-a-half without being able to breathe," Álvarez claimed in an interview with the New York Daily News. "She cried and begged for her life and they ignored her. They didn't do anything for her."
"They never listened to me just because I am an immigrant," Álvarez said in a separate interview with Noticias Telemundo. "We want this not to go unpunished. We don't want this to happen to any other child."
\u201cHumanitarian reception for asylum seeking families, not jail/detention/custody, is what most countries offer with far less resources to those seeking protection. This was preventable. These policies are reprehensible and must end. #RestoreAsylum #WelcomeWithDignity @POTUS\u201d— Christina Asencio (@Christina Asencio) 1684642426
#WelcomeWith Dignity members from numerous advocacy groups joined Reyes' family in demanding justice.
"We are heartbroken to learn of another child's tragic death in government custody. No child should be locked in a jail, no matter where they were born," said Jennifer Anzardo Valdes, deputy director at Americans for Immigrant Justice.
"There is a long andwell-documented history of systemic abuse and mistreatment of children in CBP custody," she added. "In a landscape barren of rights for unaccompanied children, babies, and children coming to the United States with their parents, it is imperative that these vulnerable individuals are greeted with compassion and respect as they seek refuge and a better life in the United States. How many more children must die for CBP to effectuate change?"
Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director at America's Voice, said that "it is atrocious that yet another family has to mourn their child because of our collective inability to fix our broken immigration system."
"Our hearts are with her family, and tens of thousands of other families whose pursuit of a better life ends in tragedy," she added. "The CBP needs to learn from this tragedy and take the necessary steps to ensure it doesn't happen again."
\u201cCBP is an agency that should have nothing to do with children. No child should ever die in government custody again, and no parent should have their pleas for help be ignored as they watch their child's condition worsen. \n\nOur hearts go out to Anadith's family and loved ones.\u201d— Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project (@Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project) 1684790817
Reyes is the first known migrant child to die in CBP custody during the Biden administration. At least two other Honduran minors—17-year-old Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza and a 4-year-old "medically fragile" girl—have died in U.S. custody in recent weeks.
The children's deaths come as the Biden administration rolls out controversial migrant policies following the expiration of Title 42, which was invoked by both Biden and his predecessor, former President Donald Trump, in order to deport millions of asylum-seekers under the pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"It is cruel that another set of parents had to beg the CBP for medical help for their child and then watch her die because of CBP negligence," argued Ronnate Asirwatham, director of government relations for #WelcomeWithDignity member Catholic Social Justice. "We call on the Biden administration to end this cruelty and to swiftly end the practice of long-term CBP custody for immigrants."
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Migrant Defenders Slam Biden for 'Reckless' Deployment of 1,500 Troops to Southern Border
"If this were Trump, we would all be losing our shit but since it is a Democrat, it's just a meh," said one critic.
May 02, 2023
Human rights defenders on Tuesday condemned the Defense Department's plan to deploy 1,500 active duty soldiers to the southern border for "non-law enforcement duties," with numerous activists urging the Biden administration to instead address the root causes of migration and improve the process for people seeking asylum in the United States.
Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said Tuesday that U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin III approved a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) request for an additional 1,500 troops to bolster Customs and Border Protection (CBP) efforts along the southwestern border with Mexico for 90 days. There are already 2,500 troops deployed on the border.
According to a DHS statement, the 1,500 soldiers "will be performing non-law enforcement duties such as ground-based detection and monitoring, data entry, and warehouse support."
\u201cWe strongly condemn the Biden administration's plan to further militarize the U.S. southern border. We demand a human rights based approach to forced #migration that addresses the root causes of migration and upholds human dignity. https://t.co/Qeam6ecFsK\u201d— Presente.Org (@Presente.Org) 1683050928
U.S. troops "have never, and will not, perform law enforcement activities or interact with migrants or other individuals in DHS custody," the agency added. "This support will free up DHS law enforcement personnel to perform their critical law enforcement missions."
The deployment comes ahead of the planned May 11 termination of Title 42, a public health order invoked by the Trump and Biden administrations to deport more than 2.7 million asylum-seekers under pretext of the Covid-19 pandemic.
"The administration has had months to prepare for a return to normal asylum processing when TItle 42 ends," Bilal Askaryar, interim manager of the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign for migrant rights, said in a statement.
"Instead of sending U.S. troops to intimidate people seeking safety and attempt to satisfy his critics, President [Joe] Biden should send funding to local communities eager to welcome their new neighbors," Askaryar argued.
\u201cPeople fleeing violence and persecution to seek safety in the U.S. deserve to be met with compassion \u2013 not military troops.\n\nIt's past time that Biden focused on creating a robust and humane system to screen and welcome people in search of safety. https://t.co/7M0GZeQovd\u201d— ACLU (@ACLU) 1683061627
Laurie Ball Cooper, U.S. legal director at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP), said that "sending troops to the border sends the wrong message."
"The Biden administration is playing into the hands of anti-immigrant zealots who are attempting to politicize and demonize the processing of asylum-seekers at the border," she added.
Tuesday's announcement comes just days after the Biden administration released a plan to expand refugee resettlement and family reunification parole in the Americas, with migrant rights activists welcoming some aspects of the policy while warning that provisions restricting the rights of asylum-seekers undermined the effort.
\u201cBiden to deploy 1,500 active-duty soldiers to southern border, supplementing the 2,500 National Guard troops and 19,000 Border Patrol agents already there.\n\nMilitarized border enforcement has killed over 1500 migrants on U.S. soil since Biden took office \u2014 an all-time record.\u201d— Max Granger (@Max Granger) 1683047666
The U.S. will open immigration processing centers throughout Latin America, while expanding access to CBP One, a mobile app through which asylum-seekers can theoretically schedule an appointment to present themselves at a port of entry.
However, the app has been plagued by glitches—including difficulty recognizing the faces of would-be applicants with darker skin—that have rendered it inaccessible to many asylum-seekers. On Sunday, John Oliver, host of HBO's "Last Week Tonight," denigrated the app as "asylum Ticketmaster."
Furthermore, the Biden administration has proposed a rule that would require migrants to seek asylum in the first country they enter after leaving their homeland and criminalize those who fail to do so before presenting themselves at a U.S. port of entry—a clear violation of international law similar to the openly xenophobic policies of former President Donald Trump.
In response to Tuesday's announcement, Julio Ricardo Varela, president of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Futuro Media Group, tweeted, "If this were Trump, we would all be losing our shit but since it is a Democrat, it's just a meh."
\u201c"The southern border is already highly militarized. Deploying more troops is a reckless political ploy that serves only to legitimize racist and xenophobic fear-mongering," says Andrea Carcamo, Policy Director of Freedom for Immigrants.\u201d— Freedom for Immigrants (@Freedom for Immigrants) 1683054893
Other migrant advocates connected the dots between decades of destabilizing U.S. policy and action in Latin America—including supporting a genocidal regime in Guatemala and right-wing dictatorship during El Salvador's civil war—with mass migration.
Instead of deploying troops, the Biden administration "must restore the right to asylum and prioritize addressing the factors causing people to flee to the U.S., such as the growing authoritarian governments in Central America, endemic corruption, an exclusive economic model, and poverty," said Vicki Gass, executive director of the Latin America Working Group.
"Until these are addressed, people will continue to look for a better way of life," Gass added. "A military solution is not the answer."
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