Kirstjen Nielsen's Legacy Of Separating Migrant Families Will Stay With Her

President Trump or #45 announced on Twitter, the unexpected resignation of Homeland Security Secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen. Through a resignation letter Nielsen was said to resign because of the possibility Trump wanted to go in a more ‘tougher’ direction. Trump had mentioned that Nielsen needed to be ‘tougher’ and had been public about wanting Nielsen out of the position for months.

A snippet of her resignation letter:

“I can say with confidence our homeland is safer today than when I joined the Administration. We have taken unprecedented action to protect Americans. We have implemented historic efforts to defend our borders, combat illegal immigration, obstruct the inflow of drugs, and uphold our laws and values. We have responded decisively to record-breaking natural disasters and helped Americans rebuild.”

Kirstjen Nielsen systematically destroyed families and lives.

History will remember her for separating families and putting children in cages.https://t.co/GdQQ1qch8h

— Latino Victory (@latinovictoryus) April 7, 2019

While it may be possibly that Trump wanted Nielsen out. A consensus was growing to include Democratic lawmaker, Senator Kamala Harris is among several lawmakers who called for Nielsen’s resignation.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Trump’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ Immigration Policy early 2018 as a response to illegal immigration at the U.S./Mexican Border. The fleeing of Central American families from the ‘Northern Triangle‘ countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras into the United States is a result of home country rampant violence. Unfortunately, the high murder rates and victimization of the most vulnerable of Central Americans – women has forced families to run north crossing the border into Mexico.

During her tenure, Kirstjen Nielsen, as former Homeland Security Secretary, became the default face for Trump’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ Immigration Policy, she followed Trump orders and defended the policy. In the process, Nielsen became a target for political pundits, the Democratic party and Americans across the nation who disagreed with the policy’s harsh inhuman solution. The ‘Zero Tolerance’ Immigration Policy resulted in the separation of thousands of migrant children from their migrant parents at the U.S. border, with no due process and no judicial oversight. All migrant adults who entered the country illegally were prosecuted and any children accompanying them were put into shelters or foster care. Despite the scale back of the policy and the Customs and Border Protection commissioner stopping the policy from more damage, halting all efforts to detain at the border – damage has been done and potentially irreversible. Thousands of migrant children were displaced, mistreated from the separation from their loved ones, sent to detention centers, makeshift shelters or sent to foster homes. The traumatic effects of separation from parents could be long lasting according to child psychologists and child welfare specialists. Today, it may take more than two years to identify and unite children with their families.  

The ACLU had this to say, “The administration refuses to treat the family separation crisis it created with urgency, ” the ACLU said in a statement Saturday. “We strongly oppose any plan that gives the government up to two years to find kids. The government swiftly gathered resources to tear families apart. It must do the same to fix the damage..”

Kevin McAleenan, the head of Customs and Border Protection, will serve as acting Department of Homeland Security secretary. Trump cleaned house of those who could not satisfy his ‘be tougher’ criteria. The question comes as to who will fill the shoes of one of the ‘toughest’ former Homeland Security Secretaries ever in the history of the United States, Nielsen and what awaits those at the border seeking a better life.