Children and parents seeking asylum in the United States are divided at the border

Фото: Depositphotos

The US Immigration Service in 2017 significantly increased the practice of separating children and parents seeking asylum in the United States along the US-Mexico border.

This not only hurts the families of immigrants, but also goes against US law and international law, the newspaper notes. Immigration impact.

In this regard, the American Immigration Board, the Commission on Women's Affairs and several other immigration organizations filed a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights and Freedoms of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), demanding investigations into the increase in the number of such cases.

The complaint contains data on cases of separation of children and their parents seeking asylum at the border, in some cases, after separation, parents were sent to court to consider the case of their repeated illegal entry into the United States after deportation.

There are several cases on the list where babies were taken away from fathers and placed in immigration shelters for children, which jeopardizes the process of raising and caring for a child, because the parent cannot take care of him in these institutions, moreover, parents are often delayed, which also impossible for them to care for a child.

There are also cases of separation of spouses, one of whom suffers from an incurable disease. A healthy spouse was arrested and released only after his spouse died.

The Department of Homeland Security has previously described the practice of persecution by immigration authorities of asylum seekers in the United States, illegal and contrary to the country's international obligations.

Harassment that occurs before an asylum-seeker has completed, or even had the opportunity to begin the process of applying for asylum in the United States, may result in those who need asylum being afraid to seek humanitarian assistance in the United States, which is a violation of international law.

The increase in the number of forcibly separated families in 2017 also contradicts statements made by former Homeland Security chief John Kelly, who argued in March 2017 that DHS would not separate immigrant families unless the child was in danger.

The US immigration authorities have guidelines governing the practice of how and when members of an asylum-seeking family should be separated, as well as mechanisms to assist members of this family after they are separated. The US Border Guard requires families to be kept together as long as it does not threaten the safety of their members.

Family unity has long been recognized as one of the fundamental human rights enshrined in both national and international law. The separation of family members at the border of the United States and Mexico and within the United States, which is not based on good reasons for the need to protect children, is contrary to international and domestic legislation on the well-being of children, human rights and refugees.

Separation of the family also leads to long-term injury to its members. Many individuals do not receive any information about how to find, contact or reunite with their relatives, who were separated at the border; prosecution for violation of immigration law only further aggravates this problem.

Separated family members whose cases if they jointly filed an application for asylum would be connected may, after separation, have no access to critical testimony confirming the validity of the application for asylum. The increased use of this practice ultimately leads to the fact that more families will not receive asylum and will be deported, which may put their lives and health at risk.

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