What about the kids?

I don't know how this one got under my radar. My attention could have been distracted by the fire that swept through a block of Uptown Lexington Tuesday night, destroying both the iconic Candy Factory and Shoto's Japanese Steakhouse. That disaster was pretty devastating for our community.

But yesterday I learned that more than 100,000 American-citizen children could have been separated from their parents by the Trump administration's immigration detention program during the convicted felon president's 18-month second term in office. 

In a report that came out Monday, ProPublica – which describes itself as a "nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power" – cited the research and calculations of The Brookings Institution, a respected Washington, D.C. think tank that has been around for more than 100 years.

According to Brookings, about 400,000 people have been detained by Trump's accelerated "iIlegal immigrant" removal program, an administration action that mirrored his first term in office when family separation was actual policy. To this day, an estimated 1,360 children remain permanently unaccounted for or separated from their parents. Good God.

ProPublica's own calculations indicate that at least 11,000 children have had a parent detained in the first seven months of the current administration. The publication gathered its data through a public information lawsuit by the University of Washington. ProPublica notes its own figures might be undercounts for several reasons: the government depends on detainees self-reporting whether or not they have children, or agents might not even ask if families have children.

The data is important when considering a child's health, or how many are leaving the country or how many are staying with family members.

Here's a kicker: The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) often tells us that it doesn't separate families and that it gives parents the option of being removed with their kids or to have their children placed with a person the parent chooses. Some option. 

Worse yet, ICE guidelines have changed. Under Trump, the guideline known as the Parental Interests Directive has been retitled to the Detained Parents Directive. In its preamble, which instructed agents to handle immigrant parents in a way that was "humane," the word "humane" has been eliminated.

What does that tell you?

We are in the midst of the Memorial Day weekend, where we take a moment to reflect on those who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. Now the question arises, would those who gave their last full measure even recognize their country now? Because of a paranoid government administration, we've created detention centers and deportation centers mostly for the removal of brown-skinned people. It's Project 2025 in full bloom. 

It's our latest Trail of Tears.