Pressure is mounting on US President Donald Trump to reverse his policy of separating children from refugees and migrants who cross the US-Mexico border.
“Families belong together,” protesters chanted yesterday, as hundreds gathered outside detention centres in the states of Texas and New Jersey, calling for an end to the practice.
In May, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” approach towards migrants and refugees who cross the US southern border without documents, promising to prosecute those who did so.
Part of that approach has been separating children from their parents who are detained.
According to Al Jazeera News, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman told reporters last week that 1,995 minors were separated from 1,940 adults who crossed the US border without documents between April 19 and May 31.
Yesterday’s protests coincided with the celebration of Father’s Day in the US, and drew several legislators from the Democratic Party.
