IRC: President Trump’s Executive Order on Family Separation; One form of cruelty replaced by another

New York, NY, June 20, 2018 —  IRC responds to today’s U.S. executive order on family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Said Hans Van de Weerd, Vice President, U.S. Programs –

“The Executive Order signed today is not a solution for families seeking much-needed asylum and does nothing to reunite the thousands of children who have already been separated from their parents at the border. The administration is replacing one form of cruelty with another.

“The executive order continues the disturbing criminalization of asylum, in a break with the very treaty obligations the United States helped craft after WWII. It proposes detaining children and their families for the length of their proceedings—which can often take many months or over a year—despite obligations to release children promptly.

“IRC continues to urge the Administration and Congress to reverse course on numerous, troubling erosions to long-standing, bi-partisan protections. Central American children, and their families, have suffered enough.”

For more information or to schedule media interviews in New York or San Salvador, please contact [email protected].