At this point, one is cured of horror with the rudeness of Donald Trump. 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 in the case of the child Liam Rabbit Ramoswho, according to his parents, lives in constant fear that ICE will return to take him and his family.
Or the children who languish in detention centers alone or with their families, torn from their celebrated lives because their parents, with no criminal history, were detained, although they are not a priority for deportation. and the citizen children deported with their parents to countries they do not know and in the midst 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, the Trump administration canceled an $11 million contract with Catholic Charities to house and care for migrant minors entering the United States alone.
The cancellation occurs in the middle of the 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 to the United States.
But even if they are fewer, they still need the services that will cease in three months.
Miami Archbishop 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 would decide 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 those minors who have already suffered traumas in the process of arriving alone in this country It is one of the main concerns.
El Nuevo 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 Trump administration tries to “moderate” anti-immigrant rhetoricnothing changes. Arrests and deportations continue, especially of people without a prison record, 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. Apart from violent, the arrests are indiscriminateas 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 immigration, according to a new poll from Third Formulation 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 reforms demanded by Democrats on accountability and oversight. And they want to do it through the budget reconciliation process that is approved by an easy majority.
That is, they want to continue financing the chaos and abuses, demonstrating a insensitivity with serious humanitarian consequences and possible electoral consequences for Trump and the Republicans.
Keep reading:
- ICE has detained more than 6,200 children in the Trump era; warn of psychological damage
- They investigate alleged sexual abuse of a migrant girl while she was in federal custody
- Pediatricians demand DHS release immigrant children detained by ICE
