Amid child detention outcry, concentration camp debate rages

(RNN) - Although President Donald Trump bowed to enormous pressure to end the “zero tolerance” policy that separated families at the border, the future of the more than 2,300 migrant children currently held in U.S. camps and detention centers is uncertain. The confusion comes amid growing reports of abuse and neglect at various centers from Brownsville, TX, to Staunton, VA.

In court filings, children as young as 14 said they were handcuffed, beaten, left nude and shivering with bags over their heads in a detention center in Staunton, VA, according to the Associated Press.

A former child development specialist at the center said she witnessed the results of possible abuse: bruises and broken bones.

Another lawsuit alleges children at migrant centers have been dosed with psychotropic drugs to manage their trauma without their parents' consent, according to Newsweek.

Wikipedia, a crowdsourced information site, has listed the forced removal of immigrant children from their families among its list of concentration camps.

The practice ended with an executive action Wednesday by Trump to keep immigrant families together in detention, though there is no clear end point in sight for children already in U.S. custody

The inclusion of children's immigration camps on a concentration camps list is not without controversy, as the listing includes the note, “The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met.”

The list includes camps in the Soviet Union, camps on both sides of the conflict in World War II, camps in Northern Ireland in 1971 and the present-day Gaza Strip. 

A journalist who wrote about the history of concentration camps said the detention centers qualify.

People often think of the Nazi death camps when they think of concentration camps, but the Nazi ones were uniquely horrible, said Andrea Pitzer, author of "One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps."

The detention camps in the U.S. "aren't the unique subset of death camps that were invented by the Nazis for genocide, or even Arctic Gulag camps built for hard labor. But they're camps created to punish a whole class of civilians via mass detention without trial."

The Merriam-Webster definition of concentration camp is "a camp where persons (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained or confined."

There is no law requiring family separation of migrants, despite President Donald Trump saying the "Democrats forced that law upon our nation."

The practice that led to the current crisis began in April, when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a zero tolerance policy on border crossers.

However, the idea of splitting up families has been in the works since 2017, when then-DHS Secretary cited it as a deterrent for migrants: "We turn (the children) over to [The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] and they do a very, very good job of either putting them in foster care or linking them up with relatives in the United States." 

Since April, more than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents, CNN reported..

It is believed that 11,432 migrant children are in the custody of Department of Health and Human Services, including minors who crossed the border by themselves as well as those who were forcibly taken from their parents.

"We are not sending children to jail with their parents. The law requires that children who cannot be with their parents be placed in custody of the Department of Health and Human Services within 72 hours," Sessions said in defense of the policy on June 14.

The U.S. Customs and Border Protection website explained that it will separate children from parents, with the children put in the custody of the DHS Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Children were taken from their parents and their parents jailed, despite crossing the border being a misdemeanor offense.

Parents with children seeking asylum through ports of entry also have been separated, according to an ACLU lawsuit.

A number of federal camps house children, including some tent cities in south Texas and some "tender-age" camps for young children, including infants.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement run about 100 shelters, NPR reported.

Photos have emerged of children housed in large cages - areas enclosed with fences.

No clear provisions have been put in place to reunite parents with their children once they are released or deported, the Associated Press reported.

"This policy is relatively new," said Steven Wagner, an acting assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services. "We're still working through the experience of reunifying kids with their parents after adjudication."

In some cases, parents have been deported without their children, New York Times reported.

A former federal official warned that some children and parents might not ever be reunited.

John Sandweg, who was acting director of the Immigrants and Customs Enforcement from 2013 to 2014, said, "You could be creating thousands of immigrant orphans in the U.S. that one day could become eligible for citizenship when they are adopted," he said, according to The Hill.

Notable people are denouncing the detention centers for immigrant children forcibly separated from their parents, including all five former first ladies, church leaders including Pope Francis, British Prime Minister Theresa May and the United Nations High Commissioner.

The practice "amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child," said Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said the practice of splitting up families causes "toxic stress" that will "potentially will affect them for the rest of their lives." 

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