[It is U.S. Federal Law that any person from any country has the right to petition for asylum at our borders. Your government’s official policy now ignores that law and is literally kidnapping children as some sort of evil, misguided “deterrent” to keep people from even asking. This is your country. These things are being done in your name. Resist in any way you can.]

The number of migrant children locked up by the federal government has surged by more than 20 percent and left designated detention facilities at near-capacity, following a new, barbaric Trump administration policy ripping kids from the arms of their parents at the U.S./Mexico border:

Although the government has not disclosed how many children have been separated from their parents as a result of the new measures, the Department of Health and Human Services said Tuesday that it had 10,773 migrant children in its custody, up from 8,886 on April 29.

Children kidnapped from their parents are placed in “an existing network of approximately 100 shelters in 14 states” run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—and those are now quickly filling up with frightened, confused children who should be with their parents. Those shelters are at 95 percent capacity, an HHS official said Tuesday, and the agency is preparing to add potentially thousands of new bed spaces in the coming weeks. HHS also is exploring the possibility of housing children on military bases but views the measure as a “last option,” according to the HHS official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the agency’s preparations.

An internment camp for brown kids disguised as a military base is still an internment camp for brown kids. “It’s as bad as anything I’ve seen in 25-plus years of doing this work,” said Lee Gelernt, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). “Little kids are begging and screaming not to be taken from parents, and they’re hauled off. Parents are telling their older kids, ‘Be brave, be brave.’”

The safest place for kids is with their families and in supportive communities. Yet this barbaric policy has resulted in 2,000 children as young as 53 weeks being torn from parents and thrust into an abusive system that is wholly unfit to care for them. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, according to a report from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago School of Law, have run over, punched, and sexually abused children:

In one complaint we obtained, a Border Patrol agent grabbed a girl he claimed was running away, handcuffed her to someone else and dragged them together along the ground, causing “two bruises on her neck, scratches to her shoulders and arms, and thorns in her head.” A 16-year-old recounted that a Border Patrol agent threw him down before he used his boot to smash his head into the ground.

Other children allege that agents assaulted them with their feet, fists, flashlights, and Tasers. In one case, an agent ran over a 17-year-old with a patrol vehicle and then got out and punched the child in the head and body. Often, children noted that other agents witnessed the abuse or saw the injuries but refused them medical attention. In one case, agents accused a pregnant minor of lying about the pain — which turned out to be labor contractions preceding a stillbirth.

There are countless more stories of this violence and mayhem being visited on children daily. It has to stop.

–Daily Kos