By Dan Murphy
The public outcry against President Donald Trump, and the Justice Department’s decision to
separate migrant families illegally crossing the border, has resulted in a wide array of protests
and calls for the policy to stop (which it has). In Westchester, residents have been rallying against Trump and the policy, but have also been supporting those migrant children that are temporarily housed here.
Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a lifelong advocate for children and families, summed up the argument against separating migrant children from their families, before Trump issued an executive order ending the policy of separating families.
“Here in New York, we have a special connection to the American Dream,” she said. “Lady Liberty stands in New York Harbor, she still lifts her torch beside the golden door, and she reminds us of how many immigrants over the centuries found refuge in the United States, including those fleeing from violence and persecution, but also those looking to work hard so that their children might have a better life. That’s the America we believe in, but it’s not the America we’ve been living in.
“Instead, we’ve been bombarded with images and sounds that leave us enraged and horrified. Children torn from their parents,” continued Paulin. “Toddlers and innocent youth wailing for their mothers and fathers. Young boys sleeping on mats on the floor surrounded by wire mesh, like prisoners. Young girls being flown thousands of miles under cover of darkness. Anguished parents who have accepted punishment and deportation back to the violent lands they fled from now realizing there is no plan and no timetable for them to see their children again.
According to the assemblywoman, the Trump administration was under no legal obligation to create such chaos and cruelty.
“The president is neither faithfully executing the laws nor moving the debate forward on the complicated and multifaceted problems with our immigration system by using the most innocent and vulnerable as hostages to bad faith political gamesmanship,” she said. “It is disingenuous to say the only solution to tearing apart families is to keep those families imprisoned together indefinitely. As an American, it offends me. As a mother and a grandmother, it breaks my heart.
“I join my colleagues in the Assembly majority in calling on President Trump to rescind this inhumane and unethical policy immediately, and to verify that his administration will return the 2,300 children in custody that his policy has already ripped out of the arms of their parents. It must end, and it must end today.”
Of the 2,500 children separated from their families near the border, 2,000 still remain without their parents at the time we write this story. Three Democratic members of Congress that represent Westchester appeared outside Rising Ground in Yonkers, which is housing migrant children, to try and call for the children to immediately be reunited with the families.
“Unsurprisingly, the Trump administration has refused to provide members of Congress with information,” said Congressman Eliot Engel. “We tried to go through official channels to visit the children being held here today, but we have been rebuffed by officials at the Department of Health and Human Services.”
Another facility in Westchester, Lincolndale in Somers, is also housing migrant children.
“We are the representatives of the people who pay the bills for this policy, and we have a right to go in there and see what the hell’s going on,” said Congressman Sean Maloney. “This is not some black site; this is not some prison in some foreign country. This is a taxpayer-funded facility in the United States, and members of Congress should be able to go in there and tell the rest of you what’s going on.”
Also in attendance was County Executive George Latimer, who commented on one man holding up a “Make America Great” sign.
“I know we got a guy holding up ‘Make America Great,’” he said. “You know something? I want to make America great more than you do. I want to make America great based on the Declaration of Independence – all men and women, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness; not the pursuit of anger and the pursuit of prejudice.”
Mt. Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas added: “Yeah, the parents have responsibility. They’re fleeing a situation where they’re being oppressed, where they’re being targeted, where they’re being basically victims of hate. Here’s the deal – if we’re going to make America great again, it does not involve losing our humanity. That’s it.”
Congresswoman Nita Lowey said the administration’s use of children as “sacrificial pawns is a moral outrage that has already cost lasting trauma from which many children may never recover.”
The current policy has U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees returning those who cross the border illegally, unless they ask for asylum. If asylum is requested, those family members can remain in the U.S. pending a hearing before a U.S. Immigration Magistrate.
The change in the policy came when the Justice Department, under Trump, separated children from families crossing the border. Both the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services now state that they have a process to ensure that family members know the location of their children and have regular communication after separation to ensure that adults who are subject to deportation are reunited with their children for the purposes of deportation.
The Westchester community also joined together to make donations to the four organizations housing migrant children. In addition to Lincolndale and Rising Ground, Children’s Village in Dobbs Ferry and Abbot House in Irvington are also housing some migrant children. (childrensvillage.org, .lincolnhall.org).
The AFYA foundation in Yonkers is helping to try and get those supplies to the children. The Afya Foundation is located at 140 Saw Mill River Road in Yonkers. They can be reached at 914-920-5081, or online at afyafoundation.org.
Other locations are asking for financial contributions that can be made on their websites, including the Abbot House in Irvington www.abbotthouse.net
Protests in White Plains against the policy continue. The Westchester Women’s Agenda and WESPAC held rallies in White Plains is support of the children and against the separation policy.
WESPAC welcomed a Caravan for Family Reunification at the Federal Courthouse in White Plains.
“We are organizing a day-long vigil in solidarity with the HVCC Caravan to D.C. and as a means to collectively express our outrage regarding the human rights violations that are taking place at the border (United Nations Convenant on the Rights of the Child) and here in Westchester County (children losing parents in ICE raids,” wrote Nada Khader Wespac director. “We are living in intense times.
