Other Voices: Tempting humanitarian crisis by splitting children from parents at border

By Houston Chronicle

Fort Bliss, established at the historic El Paso del Norte in 1854, is among our largest military bases - a place where troops regularly conduct live fire exercises, where drones take off and land at an enormous airfield and where experts monitor missile launches.

And soon, if the Trump administration has its way, the base also could host a daycare center for hundreds of Central American children.

These children need adult supervision because they were forced from their mothers or fathers under a new U.S. government initiative that primarily targets people fleeing from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. The launch of that program late in 2017 was first reported by the Chronicle's Lomi Kriel.

Previously most parents with children weren't prosecuted for illegally crossing the border, a misdemeanor for first offenders. Instead, families were deported, or freed while they pursued asylum or other claims in U.S. civil immigration courts under a practice called "catch and release."

The initiative to prosecute all parents already has forced hundreds of kids into federal foster care. And U.S. officials assigned to house these children have reported their facilities are filling up - hence the consideration of military bases. The process risks a human rights tragedy, and it may already be too late.

An official from the Department of Health and Human Services told members of Congress in April that the agency had lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children placed with U.S. sponsors. Where are they? Maybe in the hands of human traffickers or used as laborers by people posing as relatives.

We don't know. This is appalling and unacceptable. Now some parents who request to be reunited with children find themselves living a nightmare - being told that U.S. agencies have lost their kids.

It's bad enough that so many desperate Central American children arrive here alone. Many are fleeing gang violence - murder, rape, torture - and seek to be reunified with relatives already living here. But the Trump administration is making a humanitarian crisis worse by ripping families apart.

Our laws and court rulings haven't changed. It's impossible for Fort Bliss or other bases to instantly accommodate the needs of so many unaccompanied minors. But neither respect for laws nor compassion for children seem to matter to the Trump administration.

There are obvious, humane alternatives to prosecuting parents and warehousing children. Parents accused of no more than the misdemeanor of crossing the border illegally should not be prosecuted or forced apart from children. If the government really wants to address this problem, it could instead:

Staff up immigration courts and expedite review of cases. If immigration cases are reviewed quickly enough, families entering with children could be legally housed in family detention centers. If not, the government should increase the size of existing alternative community-based programs or use electronic monitoring for mothers or fathers whose cases are pending.

Work with other governments to develop policies and fund programs to stabilize Central American nations and discourage families from leaving home in the first place.

The Trump administration declared that previous catch-and-release policies failed because too many immigrants later skipped court appearances. But prosecuting so many parents for illegal re-entry and taking away children is inhumane. The program also diverts Department of Justice resources away from its true mission: Prosecuting the real criminals.