As you have probably heard by now, to much fanfare, President Trump has signed an Executive Order reversing his own policy of separating children from their families when crossing the border from Mexico. This is insufficient. The EO was actually drafted by DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
What was not as widely announced are the parts of the order that are as bad, if not worse:
Families arrested from now on will be kept together in so-called “Detention Centers”. At first, similar to the ones currently housing over 2000 children. The EO directs the Department of Homeland Security to contract with the Pentagon to start holding these families on military bases. And there are no plans to re-unite families already separarted.
Let me repeat that last bit:
There are no plans to re-unite families already separated.
Nation wide protests and demonstrations against the family separation policy are still happening. If you were planning on attending one, keep that plan. If you have a Senator or Congressperson who has not committed to supporting an existing bill or to write one to make a law to fix this, call or write them. Here in Maine, that would be Republican Senator Susan Collins and Republican Congressman (CD2) Bruce Poliquin – Independant Senator Angus King has already signed on to Senator Finestein’s bill, and Deomcratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree has already co-sponsored the House version.
You can find demonstration events co-sponsored by MoveOn.org here: https://act.moveon.org/event/families-belong-together/search/
You can find out how to contact your US Senator here: https://www.senate.gov/reference/common/faq/How_to_correspond_senators.htm
You can find ou how to contact your US Congressperson here: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
Do not assume this is over, it is not. Do not become complacent. We only got this much becuase of the pressure being applied to the Senate and Congress. We MUST keep it up.