Humane, Less Costly Alternatives Already Exist

The Trump administration has backtracked on its policy but offered no immediate plan
for reuniting families. Photograph: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images

It’s been a few days since Mr. Trump signed an executive order which, as he proclaimed, stopped separating immigrant children from parents and imprisoning them in concentration camps.

So what is happening? Nothing.

Yesterday, a federal judge ordered the administration to re-unite the children and parents within the next 30 days. But the administration has no plan for re-uniting the children and reports persist that some desperate parents are agreeing to self-deportation in hope - forced to trust that the Trump administration will return their children.

So, here’s my question:

If you knew that more humane, less costly options existed for America to deal with asylum seekers, than taking kids from their parents or locking them up together, would you use it?

My answer is yes, I would.

Why doesn’t Mr. Trump?

“…there’s an alternative approach that’s cheaper, more humane and incredibly effective. The Trump administration just doesn’t want to use it.”

This Alternative To Detaining Immigrant Families Works. Trump Just Won’t Use It, Elise Foley and Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post, 22 June 2018.

“The way the Trump administration talks about it, you’d think there are only two ways to respond to families crossing into the U.S. illegally: either separate kids from their parents while the adults are tried as criminals or put entire families into indefinite detention.

But there’s an alternative approach that’s cheaper, more humane and incredibly effective. The Trump administration just doesn’t want to use it.

The Family Case Management Program, which President Donald Trump ended several months after taking office, was meant to keep track of immigrant parents and kids in removal proceedings without having to keep them locked up. It was relatively small ? about 950 families in five locations. But it was hugely successful: More than 99 percent of families in the program showed up for their court dates, and 97 percent participated in required check-ins with their case managers, according to a report from Geo Care, the private prison company that operated the program. And it reportedly cost the government just $36 per family each day, versus $319 per bed per day in a family detention center.”

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Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven live Crossroads - 2013