Donald Trump’s former presidential campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has refused to apologize for dismissing the separation of a mother from her daughter with Down Syndrome.
In response to a panelist on Fox News mentioning the separation last night, Lewandowski responded: “womp womp,” suggesting the separation was not that serious of a situation.
The next morning on Fox News, he was asked whether he wanted to apologize.
“An apology? I owe an apology to the children whose parents are putting them in a position that is forcing them to be separated,” he said.
US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) confirmed on Wednesday that it separated a child with Down Syndrome from her mother earlier this month.
The agency said in a statement that this was not a result of the “zero tolerance” policy that results in family separation, but because the mother was being held as a witness in a “smuggling incident.”
The mother was traveling with her five children, three of whom were US citizens, in a car driven by another US citizen, when the group was stopped, according to CBP. The agency said the three children with citizenship were released to an aunt in the US.
“The mother was not prosecuted, but is instead being held as a material witness to support the prosecution of the smuggler, which precipitated the separation of the two other children, both Mexican citizens,” the statement said.
Jon Passantino (@passantino).@Zac_Petkanas says on Fox News a 10-year-old girl with Down Syndrome was separated from her mother at the border.
June 19, 2018
Corey Lewandowski responds: "Womp womp." pic.twitter.com/cZMXWmwbjw
Former immigration official: “Permanent separation. It happens”
Advocates and attorneys are extremely concerned that there is no system for families to be reunited.
John Sandweg, who led the immigration enforcement agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), from 2013 to 2014, has told reporters he expects hundreds of separated children will never be reunited with their parents.
“Permanent separation. It happens,” Sandweg told NBC News.
Separated adults are quickly being sent to immigration court, where they could be deported. Children, meanwhile, are low priority for immigration courts and may have to wait years before their case is heard.
“You could easily end up in a situation where the gap between a parent’s deportation and a child’s deportation is years,” Sandweg said.
Kids in Need of Defense (Kind), which has been working with separated children, told the Guardian one of their tactics for reuniting parents and children is putting educated guesses into the case tracking system in the hopes it would lead them to parents they were seeking.
“You just play around: maybe the child’s number ends in five, so the adult’s number could end in six,” said Megan McKenna, Kind’s senior director of communications and community engagement. “So you put that in the system and see if you get a hit. Or it could be the other way around.”
That tactic has worked a few times, but is not a solution.
Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal)He says that during his time at ICE there were rare cases where children could not be reunited with their parents. Separation becomes permanent. This was *before* Trump’s policy that has so far separated 2300+ children from their parents.
June 19, 2018
Donald Trump continues to blame Democrats for the family separation practice he implemented.
He is also mischaracterizing party position’s on immigration laws. People from both parties oppose family separation and the Democrats do not support open borders.
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)It’s the Democrats fault, they won’t give us the votes needed to pass good immigration legislation. They want open borders, which breeds horrible crime. Republicans want security. But I am working on something - it never ends!
June 20, 2018
A few minutes after sending that Tweet, Trump retweeted his son Eric Trump, who wrote: “It is hard to believe that the historic North Korea / Kim Jong Un summit was exactly one week ago. Truly amazing to see the lengths the left / the media will go through to change the narrative.”
Nationwide day of action slated for 30 June
Small protests have dotted the US in recent weeks as the impact of the family separation policy became clear. More demonstrations are planned, including a nationwide day of action on 30 June.
Opposition to the Trump administration policy has also resulted in Facebook’s largest fundraiser, with people across the globe contributing more than $7.5m in four days to an immigration non-profit, Raices. “We’ve been occasionally crying around the office all day when we check the fundraising totals … There are terrible things happening in the world. And there are many people who are deciding not to look away but to do something,” wrote Raices on Facebook.
Local efforts have also sprung up across the country, including in New York City, where a public Google doc titled: Family Separation - What Can I Do is circulating.
Last night, protesters brought their frustrations to Kirstjen Nielsen, the head of the homeland security department, which is overseeing family separations. Nielsen was eating in a Washington DC Mexican restaurant when people began shouting at her.
“How can you enjoy a Mexican dinner as you’re deporting and imprisoning tens of thousands of people that come here seeking asylum in the United States?” one person yelled.
Updated
The Trump administration is defending family separation by saying it is enforcement of a law and claiming the only way to end the practice is through Congress.
Neither of those statements are true.
The Trump administration in April announced a “zero-tolerance” policy, stating “our goal is to prosecute every case that is brought to us”. Under the Trump administration’s new enforcement policy, every migrant who crosses the border illegally – even those seeking asylum in the US – is subject to criminal prosecution.
Immigration rights groups had been warning about family separation since last year, when they documented hundreds of cases of US immigration authorities separating parents and children at the border.
How the practice has developed since then is explained in this Q&A:
As Donald Trump’s administration continues to separate children, including babies and toddlers, from their parents, citizens and politicians are increasing pressure on the government to end the practice of family separation.
Trump has so far declined to end family separations on his own and instead last night backed a plan for Congress to end the practice through legislation.
We’ll be providing live updates today on efforts to end family separation, analysis on the chaotic implementation of the practice and dispatches from the border and the shelters where children are being held.
