By Darlena Cunha and Avi Selk
Nine-month-old Jesus Alberto Lopez with his mother, Perla Murillo, as they wait with other families in Tijuana, Mexico to request political asylum in the United States.
Nine-month-old Jesus Alberto Lopez with his mother, Perla Murillo, as they wait with other families in Tijuana, Mexico to request political asylum in the United States.
It began with the smallest possible quantity of optimism, (click here) which turns out to be $US1500 ($2030).
Charlotte and Dave Willner had seen the pictures of migrant children crying at the border. One in particular reminded them of their own two-year-old daughter.
The San Francisco couple had heard — as much of the United States and beyond had by now — that President Donald Trump's administration has begun jailing migrant parents caught crossing the border and sending their children to shelters. The President's chief of staff has called the new "zero-tolerance" policy a deterrent against illegal immigration.
But the Willners had also learned that a lump of cash might thwart the government's plans.
Just like arrested Americans, detained migrant parents can often post bond and simply walk out of jail....
...Four days later, the Willners have raised more than $US8 million ($10.8 million) and climbing, overflowing all previous optimism....
The Trump Administration is becoming a very dark entity of the USA government. This is not about border security, it is about a child harvest. If people at the southern border have a legitimate reason for asylum IT HAS TO BE RESPECTED!
The Trump Administration is becoming a very dark entity of the USA government. This is not about border security, it is about a child harvest. If people at the southern border have a legitimate reason for asylum IT HAS TO BE RESPECTED!
...It's also a profound change of fortune for a non-profit that just weeks earlier was at a bleak point in its three-decade history.
RAICES provides free or low-cost lawyers to immigrants and refugees in Texas, where nearly 1500 detained children are being held in a converted Walmart while their parents are imprisoned elsewhere.
Three weeks ago, as news of the child detentions was beginning to reach public consciousness, RAICES announced that "the Trump administration is ending funding for representing thousands of released unaccompanied children."
While the US Office of Refugee Resettlement did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Washington Post, employees at non-profits besides RAICES confirmed that the agency ended a grant program last month that paid for some detained migrant children to have lawyers while in government custody....
Rachel Maddow is the heart of the USA regarding these children.
Rachel Maddow is the heart of the USA regarding these children.
