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Showing Original Post only (View all)Martin O'Malley: 'We Can't Send Children Back to Death' - Says 'Get Them Out Of These Kennels' [View all]
Last edited Sat Jul 12, 2014, 12:56 AM - Edit history (1)
Jack Bohrer @JRBoh · 2hMartin O'Malley: We Can't 'Send Children Back to Death' http://ti.me/W4Uyi0
Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley broke publicly with President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday, calling for a more humane policy toward the tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors who have illegally crossed into the United States.
It is contrary to everything we stand for to try to summarily send children back to death, the Democratic lawmaker told reporters. OMalley also criticized the kennels in which those who have been detained are being kept and calling for the children to be placed in the least restrictive locations, including foster homes or with family members in the U.S.
Through all of the great world religions we are told that hospitality to strangers is an essential human dignity, OMalley said. It is a belief that unites all of us. And I have watched the pictures of young kids who have traveled for thousands of miles. I can only imagine, as a father of four, the heartbreak that those parents must have felt in sending their children across a desert where they can be muled and trafficked or used or killed or tortured. But with the hope, the hope, that they would reach the United States and that their children would be protected from what they were facing at home, which was the likelihood of being recruited into gangs and dying a violent death.
OMalley went so far as to call the children refugees, a term with legal weight that would allow most of them to remain in the U.S. He called on Congress and the President to avoid modifying the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. That measure requires that children who are not from Canada or Mexico who have crossed the border to be given an opportunity to see an immigration judge to make their case for amnesty. Lawmakers on both sides, as well as the White House, are reviewing ways to amend that law to ease deportations of the tens of thousands of migrant children, who are largely from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
OMalley said the whole world is watching how the U.S. responds to the humanitarian crisis.
We have to do right not just by these kids but by our kids and protect the children who are here, put them in the least restrictive settings, get them out of these detention centers and these kennels where they are being cooped up, and operate as the good and generous people that we have always been, he added. Thats whats at stake here, as well as the lives of these kids.
read more: http://time.com/2978026/martin-omalley-minors-immigration/
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley speaks during a general session at the California Democrats State Convention, March 8, 2014, in Los Angeles. Jae C. HongAP
Martin O'Malley ?@GovernorOMalley 1h
The greatest power we have is power of our principles. We're not a country that should send children away & send them back to certain death
*listen*: https://soundcloud.com/americarising/martin-omalley-we-are-not-a-country-that-should-turn-children-away
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Martin O'Malley: 'We Can't Send Children Back to Death' - Says 'Get Them Out Of These Kennels' [View all]
bigtree
Jul 2014
OP
O'Malley: "Let's release these children now and then find any excuse to arrest them later."
Vattel
Jul 2014
#9
well, I am glad that he is saying it. I guess I should give him the benefit of the doubt on motives
Vattel
Jul 2014
#19
I've already decided that O'Malley will be my candidate in the primary if he runs.
phleshdef
Jul 2014
#16
I can, too. Would that President Obama and Hillary were so compassionate.
Louisiana1976
Jul 2014
#52
Governor O'Malley is speaking for me and many more who want these children treated as refugees
mountain grammy
Jul 2014
#18
Good, it's really important and Americans need to understand the difference.
mountain grammy
Jul 2014
#61
No, they wouldn't. There have been refugees from heinous situations you sound well short of reasoned
TheKentuckian
Jul 2014
#28
"The greatest power we have is power of our principles." Obviously he's not a Third Wayer.
Scuba
Jul 2014
#36
you should know that the federal govt. is considering sites in Md. to house the children
bigtree
Jul 2014
#41
Regarding the refugees that are placed in Maryland, what's keeping O'Malley from
Louisiana1976
Jul 2014
#53