No English classes, no lawyers, no soccer, no nuttin’
By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams
By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams
Human rights advocates
responded with outrage Wednesday to the Trump administration's decision to
start canceling education, recreation, and legal services for unaccompanied
migrant children in federal shelters across the country, purportedly because of
high detention rates and low funds.
"It's bad enough
that the Trump administration is trying to normalize the warehousing of
children. It's unconscionable that they would so blatantly try to strip them of
their rights," Denise Bell, a researcher for refugee and migrant rights at
Amnesty International USA, said in a statement.
"Locking up
children and then denying them legal aid, education, and even playtime is all
part of this administration's cruel efforts to dehumanize people who have come
to the U.S. seeking safety," she added. "Children's human rights must
be protected by ensuring they receive proper care while in government custody
and are released as soon as possible."
Bell's comments came
after U.S. Health and Human Services spokesman Mark Weber confirmed to The Washington Post that
the Office of Refugee Resettlement had begun discontinuing the funding for
activities deemed "not directly necessary for the protection of life and
safety, including education services, legal services, and recreation."
The Post reported
Wednesday morning:
Federal officials have warned Congress that they are facing "a dramatic spike" in unaccompanied minors at the southern border and have asked Congress for $2.9 billion in emergency funding to expand shelters and care. The program could run out of money in late June, and the agency is legally obligated to direct funding to essential services, Weber said.
The move—revealed in
an email an HHS official sent to licensed shelters last week, a message that
has been obtained by The Washington Post—could run afoul of a
federal court settlement and state licensing requirements that mandate
education and recreation for minors in federal custody.
Carlos Holguin, a lawyer who represents minors in a long-running lawsuit that spurred a 1997 federal court settlement that sets basic standards of care for children in custody, immediately slammed the cuts as illegal.
Carlos Holguin, a lawyer who represents minors in a long-running lawsuit that spurred a 1997 federal court settlement that sets basic standards of care for children in custody, immediately slammed the cuts as illegal.
"We'll see them
in court if they go through with it," Holguin said. "What's next?
Drinking water? Food? ...Where are they going to stop?"
Linking to the Post report
in a tweet, the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) denounced the administration's decision
as "likely illegal, immoral, and straight-up CRUEL."
According to the coalition of immigrant and refugee rights groups, "Even the Trump administration has outdone itself on this one."
According to the coalition of immigrant and refugee rights groups, "Even the Trump administration has outdone itself on this one."
American Federation of
Teachers president Randi Weingarten, in a statement, called the move
"cruel, craven, and illegal." She explained that "it violates
the settlement in Flores v. Reno, which ruled explicitly that
detained children are required to have access to things like education
services, English language training, recreation time, and social work
staff."
Weingarten also linked
the move to broader critiques of the Trump administration's detention of children and various
anti-immigrant policies—such as the forced separation of
families—that have been decried by human rights advocates and experts the world
over.
"How you treat
children says a lot about your character and your values," Weingarten
said, "and with at least six migrant children having died in federal custody in the last year
and countless more having suffered, Donald Trump has failed them and a
generation of kids looking to this country for a better life, opportunity, and
an education."
Rep. Debbie
Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.), who immigrated to the United States from Ecuador when
she was a young child, spoke out against the administration's
decision on Twitter.
"These are
children that are going through tremendous suffering," said
Mucarsel-Powell. "If the Trump administration does cancel these basic
necessities like education, exercise, and legal services, they are robbing them
of their humanity."