"Tender age shelters" and other terms from the family-separation crisis - Insurance News | InsuranceNewsNet

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June 20, 2018 Newswires
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“Tender age shelters” and other terms from the family-separation crisis

San Jose Mercury News (CA)

June 20--The Trump Administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, and the subsequent crisis it created in Texas where more than 2,300 children have been taken from their parents, has Americans riled up all over the place.

Take Seattle, for example: Mayor Jenny Durkan announced this week that she'll travel to the Mexican border to join protests against family separations. At the same time, Redmond-based Microsoft is dealing with a backlash by angry employees calling on the company to cancel its contract with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

As President Trump issued an executive order Wednesday afternoon halting the separations and promised to work with Congress to address the growing problem, images and audio clips of kids in cages at U.S. Border Patrol processing stations continue to raise the controversy to a fevered pitch.

Along the way, a new set of code words, expressions, acronyms and cultural catch-phrases have made their way into the America lexicon.

Tender age shelters: the AP is reporting that Trump administration officials have been sending babies and other young children forcibly separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border to at least three of these holding areas. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, called it "a chilling phrase we will not soon forget."

Zero-tolerance policy: Introduced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in April, this policy dictates that anyone, including asylum-seekers, crossing the border illegally will be prosecuted, whereas previous administrations took different approaches. The Obama Administration, for example, did not have any kind of widespread practice of separating children from their parents.

A Pinocchio rating: A rating system employed by the Washington Post to describe the accuracy of claims by the Trump Administration and other political figures, starting with a "One Pinocchio," which means "some shading of the facts. Selective telling of the truth. Some omissions and exaggerations, but no outright falsehoods," and going all the way up to a Four Pinocchio rating, which the Post describes as "Whoppers."

The Flores settlement: In 1985, two organizations filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of immigrant children who had been detained by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) challenging procedures regarding the detention, treatment, and release of children, according to the advocacy group Human Rights First. After years of litigation, all the way up to the US Supreme Court, the parties reached a settlement in 1997. It imposed several obligations on the immigration authorities, which fall into three broad categories, says the group: "The government is required to release children from immigration detention without unnecessary delay to, in order of preference, parents, other adult relatives, or licensed programs willing to accept custody. If a suitable placement is not immediately available, the government is obligated to place children in the 'least restrictive' setting appropriate to their age and any special needs. And the government must implement standards relating to the care and treatment of children in immigration detention."

Rachel Maddow: The MSNBC host who choked up on air Tuesday evening as she tried to recite the lede of an AP story that began: "Trump Administration officials have been sending babies and other young children to at least three . . ." Unable to continue, Maddow asked her producers to put up graphics from the story so she could regain her composure off-camera.

H.R. 6136: While the crisis grinds on, so does the larger immigration debate overshadowing what's happening along the border. This leadership-supported immigration bill that Trump now says he will support includes a path to citizenship for so-called "Dreamers," a position that will anger conservative Republicans. But it also includes $25 billion for Trump's border wall with Mexico which is a priority for the White House before the midterm elections.

ORR: The Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR, is responsible for the border shelter facilities where the separated children are being held while their parents are detained in federal jails.

Unaccompanied Alien Children's Services: Part of the ORR, this office is responsible for the unaccompanied alien children apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). According to its website, "the age of these individuals, their separation from parents and relatives, and the hazardous journey they take make unaccompanied alien children especially vulnerable to human trafficking, exploitation and abuse. Unaccompanied alien children have multiple, inter-related reasons for undertaking the difficult journey of traveling to the United States, which may include rejoining family already in the United States, escaping violent communities or abusive family relationships in their home country, or finding work to support their families in the home country."

HHS: Short for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, this agency's mandate is "to enhance and protect the health and well-being of all Americans. We fulfill that mission by providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services."

Womp womp: The mocking "sad trombone" sound that former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski made on TV about a 10-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was separated from her family during the current crisis. He refused to apologize for the remark after he was criticized on air by Zac Petkanas, a former rapid response director for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's campaign, who at the time was discussing a news report about the child: "Did you say 'womp womp' to a 10-year-old with Down syndrome?" Petkanas asked Lewandowski. "How dare you!"

ICE: Short for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE serves as the principal investigative agency of the US Department of Homeland Security (see "DHS").

KIND: The acronym for the advocacy group Kids In Need of Defense, which says of the 40 case referrals involving family separation they have received since July 2017 through their child migrant return and reintegration project, 32 involved parents deported before their children and 15 of those cases involved children who were five years old or younger.

"Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war:" A quote by President Trump, in Spanish alongside the English, on a mural of presidents inside the former Walmart superstore where thousands of children are being held after being separated from their parents.

MS-13: A violent transnational street gang of about 30,000 members, most of them in Central America, that the Trump Administration says are threatening national security and the President claimed in a tweet were "potential voters" in the Democrats' eyes.

"Get out of jail free:" US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, defending the zero-tolerance policy, criticized the way the Obama Administration dealt with some immigrants who were referred for civil deportation proceedings and released, never to show up in court again. This week, she derided this practice as "the historic 'get out of jail free' practice of the previous administration."

Casa Padre: The nickname of a former Walmart superstore in Brownsville, Texas, where more than 1,500 children have been temporarily housed, despite the building's official capacity of 999, according to state records.

Southwest Key: The organization that operates Casa Padre and told CBS News that "we provide round-the-clock services including: food, shelter, medical and mental health care, clothing, educational support, supervision, and reunification support."

___

(c)2018 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)

Visit the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.) at www.mercurynews.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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