Mexico calls migrant children separation 'inhumane,' 'racist'

By Lizbeth Diaz

 

Mexico's Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray in Mexico City, Mexico May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Gustavo Graf

 

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico's foreign minister on Tuesday called the separation of children from immigrant parents at the U.S.-Mexico border "cruel and inhumane" while the leftist front-runner ahead of next month's presidential vote called it "racist."

 

Images published this week of children and youths sitting in concrete-floored cages in U.S. shelter facilities have generated outrage. U.S. officials have defended the measures as a way to secure the border and deter illegal entry.

 

"This is a clear violation of human rights and puts children, including those with disabilities, in a vulnerable situation," Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray told a news conference in Mexico City, where he urged the United States to reconsider the practice.

 

Videgaray said the Mexican government had made its position clear to U.S. President Donald Trump's administration and raised the issue with senior United Nations officials, including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

 

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who leads polls ahead of the country's July 1 election, asked Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto to "act urgently" to stop "that arrogant, racist, inhuman attitude of deporting children, putting them in cages and separating them from their parents."

 

"Soon, very soon, when our movement triumphs, we will defend the migrants from Mexico, Central America, all the American continent, and all the migrants of the world," he said at a rally in Culiacan, the capital of the north-western state of Sinaloa.

 

Of some 1,995 cases registered by U.S. authorities, only around one percent of the children affected were Mexican, and most had already been repatriated, Videgaray said.

 

Among the 21 identified cases of Mexicans separated from their parents was a 10 year-old girl with Down Syndrome who was being held in McAllen, Texas, Videgaray said, adding that the girl's mother was sent to another place.

 

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a "zero tolerance" policy in April that all immigrants apprehended while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally should be criminally prosecuted under the country's criminal entry statute.

 

The policy has led to family separations because when border agents refer apprehended migrants to court for prosecution, parents are held in federal jail to await trial by a judge while the children either remain in border patrol custody or are moved to facilities.

 

Most of the children are from Central America, especially Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

 

Honduras on Monday called for the United States to end the separations, and El Salvador said the policy puts children's health at risk and could cause psychological scars.

 

Videgaray said Mexico would be working closely with the Central American governments.

 

Tensions have run high between Mexico and the United States over the shared frontier ever since Trump ran for office vowing to build a border wall to keep out illegal immigrants.

 

(Reporting by Lizbeth Diaz; Editing by Dave Graham, Grant McCool, Toni Reinhold)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-06-20

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Mexico's foreign minister on Tuesday called the separation of children from immigrant parents at the U.S.-Mexico border "cruel and inhumane" while the leftist front-runner ahead of next month's presidential vote called it "racist."

And you have to say, they have absolutely hit the nail on the head. I really cannot understand how any person can defend the practice. Kids have no say in where their parents take them and to treat them so appallingly is nothing short of disgraceful. The whole civilised world is condemning this. America can no longer claim to be the leader of the free world when it practices such an abomination.

This guy has a problem with this but I never have heard a word about parents that abandon their children at the border and have them smuggled across the border so they can become dreamers. How low can you go? Child abandonment is ok  but child detention is not..Hypocrite to the ninth degree. Shows the leadership problem huh.

57 minutes ago, lovelomsak said:

This guy has a problem with this but I never have heard a word about parents that abandon their children at the border and have them smuggled across the border so they can become dreamers. How low can you go? Child abandonment is ok  but child detention is not..Hypocrite to the ninth degree. Shows the leadership problem huh.

That is NOT what this issue is about. But but but but but but .....................

1 hour ago, lovelomsak said:

This guy has a problem with this but I never have heard a word about parents that abandon their children at the border and have them smuggled across the border so they can become dreamers. How low can you go? Child abandonment is ok  but child detention is not..Hypocrite to the ninth degree. Shows the leadership problem huh.

Whataboutary your thing then?

1 hour ago, Andaman Al said:

That is NOT what this issue is about. But but but but but but .....................

It is defintely part of the issue.  They cherry pick what and where they get involved. They care less about human smuggling of abandoned children but dispute how children illegals are dealt with. If they really cared none of this would be happening. Get their house in order before the judge others.

2 hours ago, lovelomsak said:

This guy has a problem with this but I never have heard a word about parents that abandon their children at the border and have them smuggled across the border so they can become dreamers. How low can you go? Child abandonment is ok  but child detention is not..Hypocrite to the ninth degree. Shows the leadership problem huh.

False.

Here's who is elegible for Dreamer status:

Individuals who meet the following criteria can apply for deferred action for childhood arrivals: are under 31 years of age as of June 15, 2012; came to the U.S. while under the age of 16; have continuously resided in the U.S. from June 15, 2007 to the present.

Unless the parents of these children can travel back in time to at least june 15, 2007, their children aren't eligible for dreamer status. Stop making things up.

29 minutes ago, lovelomsak said:

It is defintely part of the issue.  They cherry pick what and where they get involved. They care less about human smuggling of abandoned children but dispute how children illegals are dealt with. If they really cared none of this would be happening. Get their house in order before the judge others.

So how does a the falsehood you wrote become "definitely part of the issue."

Quote

Honduras on Monday called for the United States to end the separations, and El Salvador said the policy puts children's health at risk and could cause psychological scars.

These are the countries which the people seeking asylum have left? They sound more reasonable than the US, which makes a case for asylum that much harder to make.

 

 

1 minute ago, lannarebirth said:

These are the countries which the people seeking asylum have left? They sound more reasonable than the US, which makes a case for asylum that much harder to make.

 

 

Because they "sound more reasonable"? Really, Asylum seeking is about the conditions in the country, not whether a government makes reasonable sounds.

I agree treatment is reprehensible in the extreme. Maybe you guys can help me, but how many refugees has Mexico taken in? Seems it would be a better fit regarding language and more similar culture. Why is it just accepted that they have to go to USA?

...all the while....

 

...countries being invaded...and obliterated...in the name of democracy and human rights....

1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

So how does a the falsehood you wrote become "definitely part of the issue."

You appear to be quite good at finding things to post to reply. Could you show me a post where this guy has came forward and said anything about children abandoned at the border and smuggled across? Or is that just not discussed?

  I apologize for making a mistake about the dreamers if it was mistake. But children are still being smuggled across the borders with out their parents. So you and others condone this but attack how they are treated in the country they were smuggled into.

 So other countries can smuggle their problems into the USA and then criticize how they are treated .They send the problem to America and then say America is not handling it right. Do I have it right now?

  Guys like you are not interested in the childrens welfare they are just pawns in  poliltical banter

1 hour ago, bristolboy said:

Because they "sound more reasonable"? Really, Asylum seeking is about the conditions in the country, not whether a government makes reasonable sounds.

 

I don't think "hoping for a better economic chance, better social conditions and free handouts" are valid reasons for asylum.

 

The issue is many people in poor corruptly run countries with huge crime issues think that the answer is to pick a better country and then illegally enter that country.  They are not genuine refugees and spoil the safe haven's for those who genuinely seek asylum from persecution.

1 minute ago, Baerboxer said:

 

I don't think "hoping for a better economic chance, better social conditions and free handouts" are valid reasons for asylum.

 

The issue is many people in poor corruptly run countries with huge crime issues think that the answer is to pick a better country and then illegally enter that country.  They are not genuine refugees and spoil the safe haven's for those who genuinely seek asylum from persecution.

"I don't think "hoping for a better economic chance, better social conditions and free handouts" are valid reasons for asylum."

Please don't impute quotes to me that I never wrote.

In fact, there are horrific conditions in some central American Countries, where the vast majority of asylum seekrs come from, that could justify their claims

Creating a whole generation of traumatized people. Way to go, America!

38 minutes ago, wump said:

Creating a whole generation of traumatized people. Way to go, America!

 America is having growing pains. Don't blame America for other countries lack of taking care of their citizens.We are trying to take care of our own .We take care of the millions that came here illegally. There is more concern for non citizens by the left ,then actual American citizens. 

17 minutes ago, riclag said:

 America is having growing pains. Don't blame America for other countries lack of taking care of their citizens. We are trying to take care of our own.

 

It's not my concern if my neighbor beats and sodomizes his children.  I'm busy taking care of my own kids.  Right?

 

I don't understand how somebody can switch off their empathy for suffering children just because they're on the other side of an imaginary line.  Heartless.

22 minutes ago, riclag said:

 America is having growing pains. Don't blame America for other countries lack of taking care of their citizens.We are trying to take care of our own .We take care of the millions that came here illegally. There is more concern for non citizens by the left ,then actual American citizens. 

The House GOP in its latest budget proposed slashing Medicare and Medicaid. Way to go, deeply concerned conservatives!

2 minutes ago, attrayant said:

 

It's not my concern if my neighbor beats and sodomizes his children.  I'm busy taking care of my own kids.  Right?

 

I don't understand how somebody can switch off their empathy for suffering children just because they're on the other side of an imaginary line.  Heartless.

So imagine a country as a single family with children.Who does the country feed first! Another country!

1 minute ago, riclag said:

So imagine a country as a single family with children. Who does the country feed first! Another country!

 

It's not a binary choice.  It doesn't need to be one or the other.  We are the richest country in the world.  We can take care of our own and show concern for others at the same time.

4 minutes ago, riclag said:

So imagine a country as a single family with children.Who does the country feed first! Another country!

 

1 minute ago, attrayant said:

 

It's not a binary choice.  It doesn't need to be one or the other.  We are the richest country in the world.  We can take care of our own and show concern for others at the same time.

Seems extremely socialistic to be calling a country a family. That would mean all citizens are responsible for each other.

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted a warning about “illegal immigrants” infesting the nation. It was a jarring, dehumanizing phrase that echoed the remarks he made last month calling immigrants who are alleged criminals “animals.” He continued to claim that immigrants automatically cause crime, lying about German crime statistics to bolster his case.  https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/06/20/trump-turns-to-europes-far-right-as-he-detains-latin-american-children/?utm_term=.01be9a233ccd

As an American, I can say don't come here. 

Working in San Francisco, our dishwasher/prep guys if got deported, they would be back in 2/3 days ready for work. 

The Mexican and Black gangs are scared to death of the El Salvador gangs.... RUTHLESS €¥¢_%%=)) 

The parents are the bad ones. They use kids as bargaining chips.

1 hour ago, attrayant said:

 

It's not a binary choice.  It doesn't need to be one or the other.  We are the richest country in the world.  We can take care of our own and show concern for others at the same time.

The US is deeply in debt. Not even close to being the richest per capita.

5 minutes ago, Justfine said:

The parents are the bad ones. They use kids as bargaining chips.

Parents DO NOT use their children as bargaining chips. Governments do.

6 minutes ago, Justfine said:

The US is deeply in debt. Not even close to being the richest per capita.

Statistics seem to say the opposite.

46 minutes ago, mikebike said:

Statistics seem to say the opposite.

Wrong. US not in top 10.

49 minutes ago, mikebike said:

Parents DO NOT use their children as bargaining chips. Governments do.

Parents do. Disgraceful.