Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced an extreme new Trump administration policy to deter illegal immigration: separating migrant children from their parents at the U.S.–Mexico border. Now, the United Nations has come forward to call on the U.S. to “immediately halt this practice.”
The Guardian reports that Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office, told reporters that “the practice of separating families amounts to arbitrary and unlawful interference in family life, and is a serious violation of the rights of the child.” She added that it generally “runs counter to human rights standards and principles.”
“It is therefore of great concern that in the U.S., migration control appears to have been prioritized over the effective care and protection of migrant children.” Shamdasani continued. “Detention is never in the best interests of the child and always constitutes a child-rights violation.”
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has infamously defended the policy in the past, saying “the children will be taken care of — put into foster care or whatever.”
