Many people argue – including here in these pages – that parents always lose custody of their children while in prison.
Murderers and burglars are of course separated from their children while behind bars; why should unauthorized immigrants from Honduras or El Salvador be treated any differently?
But there are several reasons why the analogy doesn’t fit for immigrants currently in detention at our southern border.
First, consider the nature of the offense. Immigration law is nuanced, but generally someone crossing our border without authorization is guilty of a Class B federal misdemeanor – a category of crimes which also includes transporting illegal fireworks or trespassing within a National Park. Does it seem right that a parent hiking into a closed part of Voyageurs National Park deserves to have their children taken away from them?
Second, consider the mitigating circumstances. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 – the laws that describe most of our immigration rules – allows for asylum claims, which many of the affected immigrants have made. Claiming asylum is a legal process, in which judges hear arguments and decide if seekers have a credible fear of their home country.
Under the Barack Obama Administration, many unauthorized immigrants were released with an GPS-enabled ankle monitor while awaiting their hearings. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ended this practice (you might hear it called “catch-and-release”), but in pilot programs,over 98 percent of immigrants returned for their eventual hearing. In our Voyageurs example, does it seem right that a parent accused of trespassing in the National Park deserves to have their children taken away from them while awaiting their day in court?
Finally – and most distressingly – consider the consequences. Reports emerged recently that many separated families may never be successfully reunited. In a call between Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and several state governors, including Oregon’s Jay Inslee, it emerged that poor record-keeping might make reunification impossible for some families.
To comply with a recent court order, children are now being rushed into permanent care. But rather than being reunited with parents who brought them, the department plans to “call it good” if these children can be placed with other family members already in the country, or even into foster care. If a parent were accused of trespassing in Voyageurs, does it seem right that they could lose their children forever?
Does any crime deserve such punishment?