The nation and world have been horrified by the cruel and vicious way the Trump administration treated asylum-seeking families. These policies cause deep and lasting trauma to children and parents who come to our country seeking help and escape from violence and natural disasters. It is important to not only acknowledge the cruel policy that led to the separation of families, including breastfeeding mothers and their infant children, but to commit ourselves as a nation that our government agencies will never repeat the horrific practice of separating families.
We urge the federal government to never use this cruel policy of family separation and end the continued endangerment of parents and children through the use of Migrant Protection Protocol and Title 42. Both of which have resulted in thousands of reports of kidnappings and violent attacks against migrants in Mexico and improperly turning away people seeking safety and protection in the U.S.
To ensure that family separation and these consequent policies are never used again we, the moms of America, urge the Biden administration to take the following steps:
- Expand the definition of family to include close relatives, and caregivers, who may be traveling with immigrant children in lieu of their parents;
- Reunify all families and bring them back to the U.S. if they’ve been deported;
- Provide immediate protections from detention and deportation, and support a pathway to citizenship for separated families;
- Make systemic changes to ensure an end to family separations, including ending the use of the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) and Title 42;
- Pursue accountability.