Utica “Families Belong Together” Local Rally to Keep Immigrant Children With Their Parents/GuardiansAt 5 p.m. June 14, communities across the United States will march or rally to raise awareness of and publicly protest the federal government’s practice of indefinitely separating immigrant children from their parents under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.
In Utica, a rally will be held from 5 to 6:30 p.m. on the Oneida Square roundabout on Genesee Street.
Since the White House administration publicly announced the “zero tolerance” policy May 7, 2018, Immigration Control Enforcement has significantly increased the practice of separating families. From May 6 through 19, 658 children (including infants) have been separated from 638 adults; however, the incidence of separating undocumented immigrants and asylum-seekers has been occurring since last year.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions explains the new abhorrent policy as a form of deterrent to prevent future asylum-seekers from entering the U.S. The traumatic harm being done to these children is intentional. This administration is carrying out human rights abuses as a matter of policy. It violates International Human Rights Law and the U.S. Constitution.
The Supreme Court held in 2000’s Zadvydas v. Davis that due process rights (Fifth Amendment) apply to undocumented immigrants. The U.N. has publicly condemned this new policy.
Many of these families are fleeing violence or war-torn countries, seeking asylum and have committed no crimes. In many cases where undocumented parents are separated from their children, arrested and completed serving time, they are deported back to their country of origin without their children. Currently ICE does not have a process for reunifying detained children back with their families.
“Separating children from their parents contradicts everything we stand for as pediatricians – protecting and promoting children’s health,” said American Academy of Pediatrics President Colleen Kraft, MD, MBA, FAAP. “In fact, highly stressful experiences, like family separation, can cause irreparable harm, disrupting a child’s brain architecture and affecting his or her short- and long-term health. This type of prolonged exposure to serious stress – known as toxic stress – can carry lifelong consequences for children.”
Our rally #familiesbelongtogether is an invitation for all who know what is right and humane to publicly denounce and condemn this policy which cruelly separates children from their guardians without justifiable cause. This policy is abhorrent, unethical, immoral, illegal and destructive. We, the American people, denounce this policy and refuse to let it continue in our name. It must stop now.
Indivisible Mohawk Valley and Central NY Citizen Action are grassroots groups working to improve lives in the Mohawk Valley.
#familiesbelongtogether