As the US prepares for a second Trump term, human rights defenders are still fighting for justice for the crimes committed during his first term.
Perhaps the most notable human rights violations occurred last time under the Trump administration's so-called "zero tolerance" policy, which forcibly separated children from their families at
the US-Mexico border. When photos of children in cages and reports of children as young as five being held without adult caregivers became public, the scandal rocked the country.
Between 2017 and 2021, the US government separated more than 4,600 children from their parents.
Perhaps even more shocking is that of those 4,600, 1,360 children remain missing to this day. Even after six years, the government has failed to reunite these children with their parents.
A new report by Human Rights Watch, the Texas Civil Rights Project, and the Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic at Yale Law School examines the crackdown and its impact. It also lays out
the specific crimes, particularly from an international law perspective.
The government refused, in many cases for days or weeks, to provide parents with information about the circumstances and whereabouts of children separated from their families, which meets the
definition of enforced disappearance. Forcible separation of families could also constitute torture.
No one has ever been held accountable for these crimes, and there has been no justice for the victims.
It is important to remember that this was a deliberate policy move, not a series of errors or unfortunate circumstances that resulted from authorities trying to do otherwise. The Trump
administration's cruelty toward children was intentional. They punished children to send a message to parents: Don't come to the United States, don't seek asylum in the United States—or we'll
kidnap your children and abuse them.
"We have to take children away," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a call to prosecutors in May 2018.
A court order in June 2018 halted the government's efforts to systematically separate any family that entered the United States without authorization. But the court order allowed separations for
other reasons, and the government continued to separate hundreds of children through the end of 2019.
The entire issue requires public clarification, an apology, compensation, and possibly criminal prosecution. At the very least, the U.S. Senate should reject anyone involved in such family
separations during Trump's nomination hearings for newly appointed officials.
No one knows exactly what will happen during Trump's second term. But in any case, a full reckoning must occur with the grave human rights abuses of the first term.
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