Snap Out of It: We Aren't 'Rewarding' Separated Families

[babylonsister]

Snap Out of It: We Aren’t ‘Rewarding’ Separated Families
COMPENSATION
Too many Americans seem more concerned with dollars and cents than with cruelty and incompetence.
Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Updated Nov. 17, 2021 5:25AM ET / Published Nov. 17, 2021 4:58AM ET

snip//

What offends me—and what should damn well offend us all—is the idea that it’s the dollars and cents, rather than the cruelty and incompetence, that’s sent many of our countrymen into a rage.

Thousands of migrant families—including some from Central America seeking refugee status—were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, and their kids taken from them and put in cages. No lawyers, no hearing, no immigration judge. Just a snatch and grab.

When critics reflexively insist that all these people came here “illegally,” they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.

The process of applying for asylum is 100 percent legal. Whether the Trump administration gave those claims a hearing or not is irrelevant. We don’t know if these people were legal or illegal, undocumented or refugees. We’ll never know.

snip//

In many cases—as many as 5,500 instances, according to the ACLU—the parent was deported and the child stayed in the U.S., either in detention facilities or placed in foster care to be raised by strangers. There have also been ghastly reports of children sexually assaulted while in custody, including by guards working for the U.S. taxpayer. Even today, under the Biden administration, thousands of children remain in detention facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

This horror show is happening on our dime. Sleep with that, America.

more...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/snap-out-of-it-we-arent-rewarding-separated-families?ref=home

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Ask any objecting MAGAt if someone could hide his/her kid away for two years & how much compensation

would be appropriate for them?

Then ask them if the asylum seeker is a human being.

[secondwind]

13. Indeed!!!!!

[multigraincracker]

2. I think they all disappeared into a republican

pizza parlor basement. You know they are doing whatever they blame others for.

[secondwind]

12. I can still remember the story of the two little boys, both under a year old, flown to

Betsy DeVos' home state... in the DEAD OF NIGHT. To be picked up and placed into "good Christian homes"... never to be connected with their parents, family, etc.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Beyond foster care.

Some deported parents had their parental rights terminated by courts and their children adopted. (The courts accepted the charade that their parents had "abandoned" them when in fact, they were deported.) Families were destroyed.

The psychic horror of leaving brutality and death behind, only to face a return without their children is unconscionable.

[A HERETIC I AM]

6. Greatest country in the world, and all

[Walleye]

4. Republicans are celebrating selfishness.Americans can be horrible people

[LastDemocratInSC]

5. One of the fundamental concepts of money

is that it's an instrument of justice.

[harumph]

9. That's a good "theory" but when $ is allocated

in an inequitable and haphazard way, people are going to be
mad.

Speaking (generally) to the "instrument of justice" theory... whenever a cop does something terrible, we tend to shout "I hope the department
gets sued into the ground!" but it never happens b/c the self insuring municipalities cover the cost - to the detriment of the citizenry.
I don't find financial penalties have any effect whatsoever on police behavior - b/c the cops themselves don't pay.

In the case of the asylum seekers, I agree there should be some kind of compensation and it should be capped. I'm going to say that
excessive financial distributions will actually encourage more to seek asylum despite the risks. I know that is a terribly unpopular view here - but you have to understand the conditions where many of the immigrants are coming from.

Flame away.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

7. Seen quite a bit of pushback right here on DU, myself.

[GoCubsGo]

8. Not only is it not a "reward,"

it's a settlement that will prevent them from suing for even higher damage. And, these families have every right to sue the shit out of us. If it were up to me, the "Family Values" party would be held liable for the compensation, since their people perpetrated this mess. Take it out of their coffers.

[tanyev]

10. That's interesting. Ruben Navarrette, 2014:

Just a few hours before Obama’s retreat, I was having breakfast in Southern California with one of the leaders of a prominent grassroots immigrant rights organization. He wanted me to connect his group with Republicans who support immigration reform because it might pressure Obama to act.

I can do one better. Want to get comprehensive immigration reform? Elect a Republican president.

Congress passes laws, but the president sets priorities. Just like Obama did with health care reform, which is why we call the new law “Obamacare” and not “Pelosicare” or “Reidcare.”

Once you see through the political fog on the immigration debate, you realize that Republican presidents are a better bet for delivering reform.

https://www.cnn.com/2014/09/08/opinion/navarrette-obama-immigration-reform-republican/index.html

[babylonsister]

15. Seems he had a change of heart, just

possibly inspired by mf45.

[secondwind]

11. I'm tired of saying this on the internet... IT IS NOT ILLEGAL TO SEEK ASYLUM

They just won't hear it...

[dlk]

14. Damages are compensation for a loss, not a reward

Republicans excell at twisting words.