rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/end-family-separation-policy?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-end-family-separation-policy' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> Madrid Resistance https://actionnetwork.org/users/concerned-us-citizens-residing-in-spain/profile https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/097/715/normal/IMG-20180604-WA0005.jpg As US citizens living in Spain, we are profoundly concerned about the Trump Administration's hard-line immigrantion policies and are espeically disturbed by the "deterrent" policy of separating children from parents crossing the US border without documentation. We, as well as other US citizens living around the world, want to make our concerns and wishes known to our ambassador in this country. We demand and end to all inhumane and discriminatory immigration policies, regardless of which administration enacted them. We demand and end to any policy that separates children from their families, and the inmediate reunification of separated children with their families. Recent timeline and links: In January 2018: More than 200 child welfare and juvenile justice organizations signed a letter to the DHS urging it to halt plans to separate immigrant children from their parents. It read, in part: "The psychological distress, anxiety, and depression associated with separation of a parent would follow the children well after the immediate period of separation -- even after the eventual reunification with a parent or other family." In February 2018 ACLU filed a lawsuit for a Congolese woman who was separated from her daughter upon seeking asylum (MsL vs ICE. https://www.aclu.org/cases/ms-l-v-ice) and this lawsuit now includes hundreds of heart-breaking stories and is a class-action lawsuit against the government of the U.S. Also in February 2018, 71 Democratic lawmakers signed a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen stating that they were “deeply disturbed” by the increasing practice of separating families, which “suggests a lack of understanding about the violence many families are fleeing in their home countries.” On May 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Justice Department would begin prosecuting every person who crossed the Southwest border illegally — or at least attempt to prosecute “100 percent” — even if some of them could or should be treated as asylum seekers. On May 11: Chief of Staff John Kelly responded in an interview by NPR: “Even though people say that’s cruel and heartless to take a mother away from her children? “I wouldn't put it quite that way. The children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever.” On May 16 Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) questioned Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about the administration's policy of separating kids from their parents and Senator Harris concluded. “Her answers were beyond insufficient.” Also on May 16 President Trump at a “roundtable” meeting about immigration told California sheriffs that immigrants are “animals”. On May 22 Claudia Patricia Gómez Gonzales, a 20-year-old Maya-Mam indigenous woman seeking an education in the U.S., was shot dead in the head by Border Protection (CBP) agent in the town Rio Bravo,Texas.   On May 26 on MSNBC with Chris Hayes, Lee Gelernt, Deputy Director of Immigration Rights, ACLU: “This is unprecedented. This is the worst thing I’ve seen in 25+ years of doing civil rights work…Mothers describing kids screaming mommy, mommy, 5 yrs old, 6 yrs old, and younger, and they are ripped away.  I really feel like these policy debates are becoming so abstract. If the policymakers could sit in those ICE offices down there at the border for a day and watch these little kids begging not to be taken away. They’re already traumatized by having to flee their countries, and then they are taken away. The medical evidence is overwhelming that we may be doing permanent trauma to these kids.” And on the same MSNBC program, Laura St John/Florence Project: “What’s happening right now is really unprecedented…What we’ve seen in AZ since January over 200 cases of parents being separated from their children and some of these children are very young. We’ve actually seen children who are 2 years old regularly and just last week we saw a 53 week old infant in court without a parent…The number of people we’ve seen being separated is like nothing I’ve seen before, and I’ve been doing immigration work for a decade in AZ.  I think what is happening now is absolutely inhumane and unjustifiable.” On May 29 in the Sacramento Bee, Sasha Abramsky: http://www.sacbee.com/article212128019.html  “Last month, The New York Times reported that more than 700 children have been taken in this way, and the roundup is intensifying. Immigrant-rights attorneys I spoke with believe another 658 children were taken in this way in one thirteen day period in May alone. This hideous administration has even mused about opening up disused military facilities to warehouse these unfortunate children. These acts are taking America into the darkest, most anti-democratic, and cruelest moment in its modern history.” On May 31 MSNBC with Chris Hayes: A DHS official testified that 658 migrant children were taken from adults from May 6 to May 19, an average of about 50 children daily. https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/dhs-official-658-children-taken-from-adults-at-border-1245015619748 https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/end-family-separation-policy