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Torn Apart: Immigration and the American Family

 

We are a compassionate nation. We look back with sadness and horror at parents and children separated in centuries past, and then turn our heads when it happens in our day. The separation of parents and children is not confined to history.

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American history is replete with stories of parents and children forever separated. Slaves were sold as individuals and families were wrenched apart to suit their owner’s needs. The tide of 19th century European immigration brought children to America on their own or parents without their kids hoping that family members would one day follow.

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Immigration is surely a political issue, but it is also a parenting and family issue. According to the Pew Hispanic Center, approximately 17 million people live in families with an undocumented family member. About 4.5 million children who were born in the US have at least one undocumented parent.

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Academics from Harvard and NYU wrote in the New York Times, “The extraordinary acceleration in the dismantling of these families, part of the government’s efforts to meet an annual quota of about 400,000 deportations, has had devastating results. Having a parent ripped away permanently, without warning, is one of the most devastating and traumatic experiences in human development.”

 

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

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Powerful Cartoon Asks Americans To Consider The Potential Of The Children At The Border

Invoking well-known undocumented immigrant and Pulitzer Prize winner Jose Antonio Vargas who came to the U.S. as a child, the cartoon wonders about what could be.

Source: www.buzzfeed.com

 

I will start asking people, “What kind of refugee was your family?”

 

  • War refugee
  • Economic refugee
  • Political refugee
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Eric Garner

 

Eric Garner (1971?-2014), an American street vendor, beloved husband and 43-year-old father of six, became yet another unarmed Black man killed by the New York City police (NYPD) on July 17th 2014. His crime: selling untaxed cigarettes.

 

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The police have taken officers Pantaleo and Justin Damico off the street. They took Pantaleo’s badge and gun. No charges, no arrests.


The hospital takes it a bit more seriously: the four ambulance workers are suspended without pay.


Mayor de Blasio finds the Garner case “very troubling” and promises a “thorough investigation”.

The coroner has yet to report the official cause of death.

There have been at least two protests so far.


Today is his funeral.

 

Click through to read.

 

Source: abagond.wordpress.com

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The Alarming Rise of Migrant Deaths on U.S. Soil—And What to Do About It

 

More migrants’ lives could be saved with a few inexpensive adjustments in water availability, rescue beacons, and search-and-rescue capability. A directive by the Department of Homeland Security for the Border Patrol to establish water drums, particularly alongside rescue beacons, would be an important step to avoid preventable deaths on U.S. soil. Increasing the number of rescue beacons, as well as providing additional funds to expand Border Patrol Search, Trauma, and Rescue Unit teams (BORSTAR), particularly in southwest border sectors with high numbers of migrant deaths, could also help to assist migrants in distress.

Many of the recovered remains of migrants, which now number in the thousands, are unidentified. Local officials in Brooks County, Texas, estimate that the costs of dealing with the unidentified dead, including mortician fees and autopsies, amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. No unified procedure exists to process remains and DNA samples of bodies found in the border region. Many remains have not had their DNA sampled, and there has been no consolidated effort to match the DNA of unidentified remains with family members searching for missing loved ones.

Measures such as the following would greatly contribute to identifying these remains and provide answers to family members of missing migrants about the whereabouts of their loved ones:

  • Providing federal funding to counties and tribal governments for the handling and DNA analysis of migrant remains;
  • Creating a Missing Migrants program within the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs); and
  • Encouraging genetic laboratories receiving federal grant monies to process samples from unidentified remains and compare the resulting genetic profiles against samples from the relatives of missing migrants

Immigration reform legislation currently before the U.S. Senate (S. 744) includes billions of dollars in new funding for border security. It makes no mention, however, of steps to prevent needless deaths of migrants on U.S. soil, or to help cash-strapped counties identify the dead. The current bill offers an important legislative opportunity to stem the rise of this alarming human tragedy on the U.S. side of the border.

 

Click through to read more.

 

 

Source: www.wola.org

 

Texas recently sent 1000 National Guard to the border. That should prevent some deaths. But we need to prevent all the deaths.

 

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Lives in limbo: A guide to who’s waiting for immigration reform

 

Immigration policy is leading to broken families, children in crisis and border deaths.

 

Since border security has increased, deaths of (im)migrants and refugees has escalated.

 

The data: This year, an average of 31,410 captives were held daily in U.S. detention facilities. In 2012, 478,000 foreign nationals were detained — an all-time high. Officially, 2013 saw the second-highest number of migrant remains found on the U.S.-Mexico border.

 

Click through to read more.

 

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

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Congressional Candidate Calls On Fox News Host To Resign Over Racial Slur

 

A congressional candidate in California is urging Fox News host Bob Beckel to resign after Beckel used a racial slur on air last week.

While discussing a report on Chinese hackers delving into U.S. government records on Thursday’s episode of “The Five,” Beckel began ranting about “Chinamen.”

 

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com