Women’s Refugee Commission Releases Video Highlighting Trump Administration’s Attacks on Asylum-Seeking Families

Washington, D.C. — In the wake of recent White House statements and policies regarding separating families seeking asylum at the U.S. border, the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC) today released a new 30-second video to raise awareness about the issue.

The video release comes amid heightened media and social media attention around the subject and one day ahead of the National Day of Action for Children on Friday, June 1, when advocacy organizations, including WRC, will stage rallies around the country opposing family separation.

WRC is a research and advocacy organization that advocates for the protection and services of displaced women and girls in crisis settings—including at the U.S. border. WRC experts travel regularly to the border and to detention centers around the country to evaluate conditions and  document first-hand accounts from parents and children who have been separated by the Department of Homeland Security.

“These are mothers and fathers who have risked everything to escape danger in their home countries,” said Michelle Brané, director of WRC’s Migrant Rights and Justice Program. “They are doing what any parent would do, and that is everything in their power to keep their children safe. It is simply unconscionable to tear a child from his mother’s arms, even more so when that child and mother are fleeing violence or persecution.”

Over the last month, the Trump administration has ramped up its rhetoric against asylum-seekers, calling parents seeking safety with their children “smugglers” and perpetuating misinformation about their right to pursue asylum claims.

“The administration’s distorted rationale for family separation keeps shifting and crumbles under scrutiny. But one fact has been clear from the start—that this is a policy designed to be cruel and punitive to parents who are pursuing a legal right to asylum under U.S. law,” Brané said. “Moreover, it puts the well-being and lives of children—some as young as 18 months—at risk and undermines our own legal system.”

WRC’s video, titled “Family is Family, No Matter Where You Are: End Family Separation,” is part of a growing drumbeat among advocates to inform the public and media about what is taking place at the U.S. border.