Maria Woltjen on the Trump Administration Using Immigrant Children "To Unwittingly Turn in Their Own Parents"

The Trump Administration Is Using Immigrant Children as Bait to Deport Their Parents

Immigration advocates worry the crackdown will discourage sponsors from coming forward to claim their children at the border, leaving kids stuck in federal custody. Others fear it will make children more vulnerable to human traffickers.

“Punishing parents for providing assistance to their children…will not stop these children from fleeing violence,” Michelle Brané, director of migrant rights at the Women’s Refugee Commission, told reporters on Friday. 

Then there are the psychological effects. The Trump administration “is essentially using these children to unwittingly turn in their own parents, and this is going to haunt these kids for a very long time, especially if their parents are deported, especially if their parents are jailed or sentenced,” said Maria Woltjen, executive director of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights at the University of Chicago.

Read more at Mother Jones