Number
180486
Version
SUBSTITUTE 1
Reference
Sponsor
COMMON COUNCIL
Title
Substitute resolution urging the President and U.S. Congress to develop a policy to reunite the children and parents who were separated when they were detained while crossing the border between the United States and Mexico.
Analysis
This resolution urges the President of the United States and U.S. Congress to develop a policy to reunite the children and parents who were separated when they were detained while crossing the border between the United States and Mexico. This resolution further opposes both the policy and action of having separated children from their parents.
Body
Whereas, The media has released audio recordings of children, locked in cages, crying and screaming for their parents, from whom they have been separated by the U.S. government; and
Whereas, Some of the children are as young as breastfeeding infants; and
Whereas, Guards have been documented mocking the cries of the children; and
Whereas, Workers at the facilities where the children are kept have been instructed not to comfort the children; and
Whereas, In some instances, the children have been instructed not to hug one another or to offer similar comfort, and some siblings have been separated; and
Whereas, Many people can remember the experience of being temporarily separated from parents while very young children, and feeling the fear and uncertainty of the unknown whether they will be reunited with their parents, and that moment is only temporary until the parents are located just around the corner; and
Whereas, The separation is not as fleeting for these children separated by the U.S. government, as some estimates are that these children may go weeks, months, years, or even permanently without seeing their families; and
Whereas, The numbers of separated children have been estimated as at least 2,000 and rising; and
Whereas, Some of the children have already been lost in the system; and
Whereas, These children were separated from their families as a result of a new “zero tolerance” policy enacted by the Trump administration, dreamed up by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller, and implemented by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions as a signal that the United States is “tough on immigration”; and
Whereas, Prior administrations detained migrant families but did not separate children from their parents unless the adults were deemed unfit, which was a high standard to meet; and
Whereas, The people entering the country and being detained at the border between the United States and Mexico are not illegal immigrants - they are asylum seekers; and
Whereas, Claiming asylum is legal: federal law provides for a political asylum process if the seeker has a “well-founded fear of persecution” in his or her home country that fits within specified categories; and
Whereas, The asylum seeker may present at a point of entry and claim asylum or can claim asylum as a defense to deportation; and
Whereas, Even if some of the people crossing the border were illegally crossing without seeking asylum, doing so is a misdemeanor, on par with a speeding ticket - an offense for which children are not separated from their parents; and
Whereas, President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy has irreparably harmed families; and
Whereas, Psychologists have stated the trauma induced by being separated from a parent is permanent and can last a lifetime; and
Whereas, Poet Warson Shire writes in the poem, “Home,” “no one leaves home unless/ home is the mouth of a shark/ you only run for the border/ when you see the whole city running as well … you have to understand,/ that no one puts their children in a boat/ unless the water is safer than the land”; and
Whereas, All living former First Ladies of the United States have joined in denouncing the border policy; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, By the Common Council of the City of Milwaukee, that the Common Council urges the President of the United States and U.S. Congress to develop a policy to reunite the children and parents who were separated when they were detained while crossing the border between the United States and Mexico; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Common Council opposes both the policy and action of the U.S. government separating children from their families; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the City Clerk shall send a copy of this resolution to each member of Wisconsin’s Congressional delegation and to the National League of Cities.
Requestor
Drafter
LRB171566-1
Tea Norfolk
7/3/2018