Is This America's Border Policy?

WAMU 88.5

Published June 18, 2018 at 10:06 AM EDT

A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas.

The United States is separating children from their families at the border.

President Trump is blaming Democrats for this, a claim PolitiFact has rated”false.”

The Trump administration may believe that Democrats are responsible for policies that encourage illegal border crossing, but we found no law mandating that children be separated from their parents.

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The Homeland Security Department’s longstanding policy is to separate children from their custodians when they are referred for criminal prosecution. Trump’s administration has decided to prosecute all illegal crossings. Families were rarely prosecuted under previous administrations.

And The Daily Beast is reporting that intelligence and defense contractors are benefiting from this policy. One corporation, Virginia-based MVM, has listed jobs for child-care workers “in anticipation of a contract award.” But the company’s record certainly isn’t pristine. Betsey Woodruff and Spencer Ackerman write:

In 2008, MVM lost a lucrative contract with the Central Intelligence Agency in Iraq for, The Wall Street Journal reported, “failing to provide enough armed guards.” It also faced internal allegations that its guards in Iraq, which worked for both the CIA and the National Security Agency, “were procuring and possessing unauthorized weapons and explosives,” according to a since-dismissed lawsuit from an Army Special Forces veteran employee who unsuccessfully claimed wrongful termination after blowing the whistle.

President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s controversial immigration policy continues to cause outrage among parents, psychologists and concerned citizens. What’s the purpose of these highly controversial policies at the border? Will there be any successful opposition to it in Congress?

We’ve done several shows in the past few months on immigration. Here’s our show about applying for asylum. We did another segment on #WhereAreTheChildren. Back in March, we covered DACA, and that’s a show which includes listener stories about how the program has affected their lives. Send us your questions for this conversation.

GUESTS

Priscilla Alvarez, Assistant editor, The Atlantic; @priscialva

Michael Miller, Local enterprise reporter, The Washington Post

Sister Norma Pimentel, Executive Director, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley

For more, visit https://the1a.org.