At the beginning of Trump’s term as President, there were changes to the international travel rules and regulations. These changes not only impacted traveling abroad for personal reasons, but also impacted exchange student programs and education visas. College students residing in the US may have been deported back to their countries, while others are stuck abroad. In recent news, President Trump has separated young children from their parents as a part of the Zero Tolerance Policy at the US/Mexico border.
This has created another huge uproar in communities internationally, but this is not the first time something so awful has happened in the history of this country’s government. Immigration policy was put into place to keep the borders safe, but instead of keeping US citizens safe, the Zero Tolerance Policy has led to parents being separated from their children when they are seeking asylum, seeking safety. These families are running from violence, so inflicting more trauma on these immigrants is unacceptable. How children were removed from their parents still remains unclear. Some reports state children were removed under false pretenses and authorities told the families they were going to “clean the children up.” Parents are also reporting they have received no details on where their children were going.
President Trump recently signed a policy stating families will no longer be separated, but the policy does not address any efforts to reunite the children that have already been separated nor does it specify how long the detainment will last. Even though President Trump has ended the separation of families, the next move needs to be focused on how to reunite separated families quickly.
This post was written by Cheryl Coleman and originally ran on the K12 DC Education Blog
