An Audio On Forced Separation Of Migrant Children And Parents At The US Border

Over the past few days, the Trump administration started implementing a policy of separating children from their parents who seek asylum. Several stories have been collected by the media in what are a series of heart-wrenching testimonies of affected people, while the government comes up with a variety of excuses ranging from justification based on the Bible to trying to toss the culpability to the Democrats.

It is in this context that you should listen – and you really should – to the audio obtained by ProPublica in which you can hear around ten Central American children, separated from their parents, wailing and crying for help. It's an excruciating listen, but it is necessary to understand the gravity of the situation on the ground. 

More than a hundred children who have been separated since the onset of the Trump administration’s "zero tolerance" immigration policy are under the age of four. And more than 2,300 have been separated since then, drawing sharp condemnation from even some of the administration's closest allies.

Here are some of the key things you should know:

- The children are being kept in cages. Yes, cages.

- Some parents are being deported without their children.

- There is no law that requires immigrant families to be separated. The decision to charge everyone crossing the border with illegal entry, and the decision to charge asylum seekers in criminal court rather than waiting to see if they qualify for asylum, are both decisions the Trump administration has made.

Reporters have not been allowed to come close to the facilities and the whole process has been mired in secrecy. But the audio by ProPublica has gone viral in its clear-cut exposé of the cruelty behind the entire policy. As children cry, the voice of a Border Patrol agent can be heard above the crying. “Well, we have an orchestra here. What’s missing is a conductor”, he says.