How far is President Donald Trump going to go until he’s finally satisfied? This past week, Trump deported two mothers, one of whom is pregnant, alongside their three children, including a four-year-old with stage four cancer.
A common argument is that the mothers had wanted their children to come with them, but they shouldn’t have been put in that situation in the first place. What were they supposed to do? Leave the kids behind, leaving them in the hands of the U.S. government?
The child with cancer not only seemingly had no opportunity to consult with doctors before the family’s deportation to Honduras, but according to the family’s lawyer, they also don’t have the proper medication for their condition.
This situation is absolutely horrendous for both families and a prime example of the failure of the American government and system to protect families regardless of their status as immigrants. The mothers were here illegally if the government is to be believed, but the children were U.S. citizens. The government put the mothers in an impossible situation. To either leave their children in the political battlefield that is the U.S. or take them to Honduras and uproot them from their home in America.
“Having a US citizen child does not make you immune from our laws,” boldly stated White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Tom Homan, aka the border czar in the words of Trump.
Funny how they so routinely enforce the law when it comes to immigration and deportation, but when it comes to the freedom of the press and students’ rights on campus, they don’t seem to care for the law at all.
Tell me, Homan, is it illegal to write an opinion piece? The Trump administration sure seems to think so.
It also shows a sheer lack of humanity from our government. How anybody greenlit the idea of sending two families, that include both a pregnant mother and a child with cancer, away from their homes and to Honduras without proper medication is beyond me.
It doesn’t take a lot to realize that many of these people are coming from difficult situations back home and to realize that they came to America for a better life, one that American officials are surely failing to provide them.
According to the BBC, “Homan said deporting families together was better than separating them.”
I don’t know, it feels like not deporting them at all would be even better.
Furthermore, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, one of the families “was detained on 24 April, when ICE refused to respond to their attorneys’ and family members’ requests to contact them.”
It’s bad enough that the mothers were forcibly deported, but the immigration officials going so far as to cut them off from their other family members is a new low. Would a simple phone call cause any harm?
Whether ICE admits it or not, they are actively seeking to cut off and destroy the homes that people have made for themselves here in America. There’s only so far that hiding behind the excuse of “but I was just doing my job” can get you after all.
How anyone could think they’re the good guy when Trump refers to their position as that of the “border czar” is beyond me, but Homan is free to feel however he wants about it.
Chloe Erno can be contacted at
