Andrea González-Ramírez
GEN
Published in
Oct 21, 2020

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The government can’t find the parents of 545 migrant children who were forcefully separated from their families more than two years ago. The Trump administration knew this would happen. Officials were warned ahead of time that reunification would be nearly impossible under the current immigration system, and therefore the separation policy shouldn’t be implemented, NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff reported in his book Separated: Inside an American Tragedy.

The administration also knew separation would traumatize these children for life. Still, they forged ahead in an attempt to shock Congress into limiting immigration into the United States. “They put politics ahead of humanity,” Soboroff told me in an interview in July. “This was a show of force.” And migrant families continue to pay the price.

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Andrea González-Ramírez
GEN
Writer for

Award-winning Puerto Rican journalist. Senior Writer at New York Magazine’s The Cut. Formerly GEN, Refinery29, and more. Read my work: https://www.thecut.com/