U.N.: Taking children from parents is illegal
GENEVA — The Trump administration’s practice of separating children from migrant families entering the United States violates their rights and international law, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday, urging an immediate halt to the practice.
The administration angrily rejected what it called an ignorant attack by the U.N. human rights office and accused the global organization of hypocrisy.
The human rights office said it appeared that, as the New York Times revealed in April, U.S. authorities had separated several hundred children, including toddlers, from their parents or others claiming to be their family members, under a policy of criminally prosecuting unauthorized people crossing the border.
That practice “amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child,” Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, based in Geneva, told reporters.
Last month, the Trump administration announced a “zero tolerance” policy for illegal border crossings, saying that it would significantly increase criminal prosecutions of migrants.
“The U.S. should immediately halt this practice of separating families and stop criminalizing what should at most be an administrative offense — that of irregular entry or stay in the U.S.,” Shamdasani said.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, clearly showed American irritation with the accusation in a statement released a few hours later.
“Once again, the United Nations shows its hypocrisy by calling out the United States while it ignores the reprehensible human rights records of several members of its own Human Rights Council,” Haley said.
Without addressing the specifics of the accusation, Haley said: “Neither the United Nations nor anyone else will dictate how the United States upholds its borders.”
Last year, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly raised the idea of separating children from their families when they entered the country as a way to deter movement across the Mexican border.
Homeland Security officials have since denied that they separate families. For the United Nations, it was a matter of great concern that in the United States “migration control appears to have been prioritized over the effective care and protection of migrant children,” Shamdasani said.
The United States is the only country in the world that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, she noted, but the practice of separating and detaining children breached its obligations under other international human rights conventions it has joined.
“Children should never be detained for reasons related to their own or their parents’ migration status. Detention is never in the best interests of the child and always constitutes a child rights violation,” she said, calling on authorities to adopt noncustodial alternatives.
The ACLU has filed a classaction lawsuit in federal court in San Diego, calling for a halt to the practice and for reunification of families.