CaptainExplosion said:
This isn't the same thing. The children were torn away from their parents by force, and grouped together in camps like animals. |
It takes time to either find a foster family or to arrange to send a child back to his or her home country. So the government went a temporary option rather than letting the parents who committed a criminal act off the hook or sending the kids to jail with their parents, where they'd be in much worse conditions. If the parent is a first-time offender he/she will usually be sentenced to time served and released if they plead guilty, and then reunited with their kids after a few weeks. If that doesn't happen the government usually searches for a foster family. Either way the camp is a temporary measure.
Camps are a common feature for migrant issues around the world. Refugees and migrants in many European nations are placed in camps before they are integrated, often in far worse conditions than the places children of illegal immigrants are sent to in the US. The separation issue is the only unique feature in the US system, and that stems entirely from the fact that the parents are being prosecuted for criminal acts.