AOC Is Right: We Need Accountability for the Family Separation Crisis
The freshman lawmaker’s call for a ‘9/11-style commission’ to investigate family separation gives the atrocity the moral weight it deserves
The family separation crisis has been going on in the United States for over a year now. Children have been traumatized, physically endangered, or separated from parents who were then deported without them, and the psychological toll of this cruelty is likely to be generational. Though the process officially ended in June 2018, reports indicate it is still ongoing. We know all this. What we don’t know is what we do to come to terms with this reality afterward, and what — if any — reparations the United States will be making to its many victims.
The clearest call for accountability yet came this week when, at an immigration town hall in her home district, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez proposed a “9/11-style commission” for the family separation crisis.
“The 9/11 commission [was] charged with investigating and making sure they dug out every nook and cranny of what happened and how it happened in our system,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “And I think that kind of study is what’s going to be required in order to reunite as many children with their…
