At this point one is cured of fear with Donald Trump’s rudeness. But their degree of cruelty is shocking even by their standards, especially when that cruelty is directed at children.
It is heartbreaking to see the images and hear the testimonies of children traumatized by violent ICE and CBP operations across the country where their parents have been arrested or deported, or where they themselves have been detained, as the case of the boy Liam Conejo Ramos who, according to his parents, lives in constant fear that ICE will return to take him and his family.
Or children who languish in detention centers alone or with their families torn from their normal lives because their parents with no criminal history were detained even though they are not a priority for deportation. And citizen children deported with their parents to countries they do not know and in the middle of cancer treatments. “Romeo” was deported from Louisiana to Honduras at age 4 with his mother in the midst of her kidney cancer treatment. Another Texas citizen girl was deported to Mexico while battling a brain tumor.
Last week, Trump administration canceled $11 million contract with Catholic Charities to house and care for migrant minors who enter the United States alone.
The cancellation comes in the midst of Trump’s war of words against Pope Leo XIV for his declared opposition to the US-Israel conflict against Iran. The Department of Health, to which the Office of Refugee Resettlement, responsible for making payments to Catholic Charities, is attached, denies that the cancellation of funds is due to Trump’s dispute with the Pope.
They say it responds to a significant reduction in cases of migrant minors arriving alone in the United States.
But even if they are fewer, they still need the services that will cease in three months.
The Archbishop of Miami, Thomas Wenski, told the Miami Herald that “it is true that the number of unaccompanied minors entering the country has decreased. But it is disconcerting that the United States government decides to close a program that it could hardly replicate—at the level of competence and excellence that Catholic Charities has achieved—if, in the future, new waves of unaccompanied minors reached our shores.”
The stability of these minors who have already suffered trauma in the process of arriving alone in this country is one of the main concerns.
He New Herald reported that “there are still children in the care of Catholic Charities in Miami and elsewhere. It is not clear how many there are, where they are outside of South Florida or where they will go.”
And although the Trump administration tries to “moderate” anti-immigrant rhetoric, nothing changes. Arrests and deportations continue, especially of people without criminal records, especially now that the government has made official its goal of deporting one million immigrants annually.
Another thing that has not changed, and that works against Trump and the Republicans, is Americans’ rejection of their immigration strategy. They continue to consider her aggressive and excessive.
A POLITICO poll, conducted April 11-14, found that “half of Americans — including a quarter of his 2024 voters — said Trump’s campaign of mass deportations, including the widespread deployment of ICE agents, is too aggressive.”
And rightly so, as the operations became increasingly violent to the point of resulting in the shooting deaths of two American citizens at the hands of immigration agents in Minnesota. Aside from being violent, the arrests are indiscriminate as the use of racial profiling results in the arrest of citizens and authorized residents.
Among Latinos, the rejection has been evident. 67% disapprove of the president’s work on immigrationaccording to a new survey by Third Scheme and UnidosUS, eroding Trump’s gains among that sector of the electorate.
Another Somos Votantes poll in eight states found that “by a margin of 62% to 28%, Latino voters intending to vote in those states are more inclined to support a candidate who defends ‘ICE reform to establish stricter accountability and oversight measures.’”
But Republicans want to allocate more funds to ICE and CBP without the accountability and oversight reforms Democrats demand. And they want to do it through the budget reconciliation process that is approved by a simple majority.
That is, they want to continue financing chaos and abuse, demonstrating insensitivity with serious humanitarian consequences and possible electoral consequences for Trump and the Republicans.
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