Oscar Winner Criticizes Trump’s ‘Cruel’ Treatment of Migrant Children

Film legend Errol Morris has described the separation of thousands of migrant children from their parents by Donald Trump’s US administration as “inhumane and cruel.” His new documentary on the policy, titled “Separated,” premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday.

“Do we need borders? Do we need immigration law? We do,” Morris, the Oscar-winning US director, told AFP prior to the screening. “But the idea is laws should be fair and humane.”

“In 2017, the Trump administration floated the idea of separating children from their parents to deter illegal immigration—a key part of his campaign.”

Officially starting in April 2018, the “zero-tolerance” policy led to criminal proceedings against anyone illegally crossing the US-Mexico border. This resulted in parents being taken into custody without their children.

According to Morris’s documentary, which referenced official government figures, at least 4,227 children were separated from their parents, and more than 1,000 remain apart.

“What horrifies me is that they didn’t keep records. They separated families in such a way that it might be impossible ever to reunite them,” expressed Morris, 76.

Morris, a veteran director, won an Oscar in 2004 for “The Fog of War,” an unvarnished account of the Vietnam War by one of its architects, former US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

Morris’s new film, shown out of competition in Venice, is based on a book by US journalist Jacob Soboroff, who exposed the desperate circumstances of the separated children.

“He had called me and asked me if I knew anybody who might be willing to turn his book into a movie… I volunteered myself,” shared Morris.

The documentary features statements from Jonathan White, who was the deputy director of the US Office for Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at the time. White opposed the policy implemented by his superior, Scott Lloyd, who is also interviewed in the film.

Lawsuits and public outcry, including backlash from within Trump’s Republican Party, forced the administration to halt the separations by mid-2018.

In practice, however, the Trump administration continued to separate families under another regulation that allowed undocumented parents to be arrested and deported if they had committed a serious crime.

Immigration remains a deeply divisive issue for many Americans, especially in light of the upcoming presidential election where Trump is running against Vice President Kamala Harris.

A recent official US report found that the government might have lost track of up to 32,000 unaccompanied migrant children over the past four years.

Source: AFP