Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on Tuesday in Washington DC detained and separated a Venezuelan family with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and pending asylum applications and charged with illegal entry to the United States.
This is the first time that the United States has used 8 U.S.C. 1325, the provision of immigration law that was the basis for the Trump administration’s family separation policy in its first term, to target a family that has been in the United States for years, rather than recent arrivals at the U.S./Mexico border.
The family, including three children under the age of 12, entered the U.S. in 2022 through Texas and have pending asylum applications along with valid and active TPS for Venezuela.
“This is a blatant and outrageous subversion of the law being used to target our immigrant neighbors and separate families that have already built lives in the United States,” said Amy Fischer, Director of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Program at Amnesty International USA.
In recent weeks, President Trump has unleashed a series of actions that dehumanize, criminalize, and cause real suffering to people who have fled human rights crises to seek safety.
Across the country, the Trump administration continues to implement increasingly cruel and shocking tactics to strike fear in communities, separate and detain families, and target activists and beloved community members.
The federal judge overseeing the case stated in court on Tuesday that the legal foundation used by the Trump administration in relation to its actions targeting this family are unknown, making this particular case precedent-setting.
“Young children watched their parents being taken away from their home in handcuffs and thrust into a system that prolongs and profits off their suffering,” added Fischer. “Family separation causes long lasting trauma, particularly in children, and is a practice that should never, ever happen. The Trump Administration must immediately change course and release these parents back to their young children.”
Amnesty International will work to build global pressure to reunite this family and to stop family detention and separation in the U.S.
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