“We May Encounter Many Defeats But We Must Not Be Defeated,” Maya Angelou

Taking Children Away from Parents!

President Donald Trump had to take a U-turn on separating migrant children from their parents, only after friends and foes went all out to criticize him when about 2,000 children remained split from their parents. A flawed policy that needed to curbed finally was put to rest. He appeared to be surrounded from all around with his wife Melania Trump leading the charge. The crisis saw Melania Trump foray into politics though she remained short of criticizing her husband, but she didn’t leave any stone unturned when it came to criticizing the policy that see immigrant families separated and quiet forcefully she called for reforms to fix the problem.

The problem stemmed under the “Zero Tolerance” towards illegal migrants. All migrants who are caught crossing the border between ports of entry are charged with crimes and children are taken from them.  Donald Trump’s policy of – brining in a child by illegal migrants and equating it to smuggling a child didn’t find favor with many.  Trump’s message that if you don’t want your child separated then don’t bring them across the border illegally, was not well taken by many migrants and hence about 2,000 children remained split from their parents.  His critics called these separations   “official kidnappings”. Despite pressure from all quarters the Trump administration refused to say whether children were being taken away from their parents at the southern border. However, the officials took a rescue saying they are waiting for the Congress to modify the law limiting how long children can be detained before giving them back to their parents. Initially there seemed to be no plans for reuniting families.

President Trump adopted the same approach that he is known for -blame it on the Democrats. “Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change!” President Donald Trump had tweeted, and created an opportunity to score few brownie points. “This is why we need more Republicans elected in November. Democrats are good at only three things, High, High Crime and Obstruction. Sad!”

However, all such strong stands took a beating when the first lady paid a visit to the detention centres and send a strong message to the administration and for her husband. “Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” her communications director, Stephanie Grisham, told media and added, “She believes we need to be a country that follows all laws, but also a country that governs with heart.”

As the outrage grew, public fury was visible as the new reports depicting torn apart families and weeping children in care faculties. President Trump had to buckle in and stated that he doesn’t want immigrant families to be separated and the intervention of the court not only came as a face saving exercise for President Donald Trump but has also set in a process whereby a ray of hope has come for the suffering and separated immigrants. Families who are fleeing from their countries due to hunger, fear, oppression and separating immigrant parents from the children talks of worst of human impulse. As a nation, it is important to secure the borders and Trump’s concern for the same to a great extent is justified. But taking away children from the lap of their parents?! It’s morally indefensible as it has a long term consequences for the children, that too from those kids for whom the world has been changing with each step their parents take away from their country!