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Experts Gather to Digest Chaotic Week in Immigration

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In the midst of the Trump administration’s inhumane, immigration insanity, policy and legal experts gathered to discuss the whirlwind of this week’s immigration developments and their implications.

This past week, Trump signed an executive order on family separation that will indefinitely jail families all while Congress continues to scramble for a legislative solution to protect Dreamers and immigrant families.

Kerri Talbot, Legislative Director, The Immigration Hub, said, “It is incredibly unfortunate that the administration is involving kids in a crisis in an attempt to pass anti-immigrant legislation. The Ryan proposal is vehemently opposed by the American Pediatric Society, and simply a non-starter. It requires families with parents to be jailed together – babies and children in jail cells. We should not be choosing one form of child abuse over another.”

Mayra Joachin, Staff Attorney at National Immigration Law Center, said, “The Trump Administration has actively chosen to pursue a purported immigration deterrence tactic at the expense of innocent children. No child should ever be forced to live in a detention facility. Jailing children and their families in places where they are deprived of adequate meals, beds, medical care, or the other age-appropriate services children require will have significant negative physical and emotional effects that can last a lifetime. This Executive Order is cruel, inhumane, and should shock the conscience of anyone who believes in protecting the lives and well-being of children.”

David Leopold, Chair of Immigration Law at Ulmer & Berne, former President of the American Lawyers Immigration Association, said, “Let me be clear: this is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions that was created by President Trump and could be ended by President Trump with a stroke of a pen. And, despite the White House’s claims, the President’s executive order does not end family separation, and it does nothing to reunify the thousands of children with their parents. The executive order is vintage Trump. It’s a futile attempt to shift the blame. We cannot be fooled. President Trump must release these families from custody and reunite these children. Today.”

Ur Jaddou, Director of DHS Watch and former USCIS Chief Counsel, said, “Even before the Trump Administration officially announced its family separation policy, it was taking children from parents and denying such actions.  Then, it announced an official policy change that Trump and his administration later denied having authority to fix, falsely claiming it was the fault of Democrats, the court, and Congress.  Now, Trump is using this self-created crisis to set up a false choice for Americans to choose between ripping kids from parents or indefinitely detaining families.  Except that Trump is, through this executive order, once again attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people by making matters worse – he not only fails to clearly end family separation, but he requires detention of all even without making the Faustian choice to keep families together in detention that he claims to be doing.”