Separating Immigrant Families with Lee Gelernt

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

NBCNews

News, Nbcnews, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Chris Hayes, Politics, Government, Society & Culture, Msnbc, Withpod

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2018

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Trump administration is forcibly separating immigrant children from their parents, something they are hoping will deter immigrants from entering the country. It's sparked widespread outrage, protests and lawsuits, with the White House now attempting to distance itself from its own policy. How did we get here? Lee Gelernt has worked on immigrants right’s issues with the ACLU since 1992 and is now the lead lawyer suing the Trump administration to stop taking kids away from their parents. In this episode, Gelernt explains how immigration and national security became so conflated, how it connects to 9/11, and describes the trauma these families are going through. Read the full transcript at NBCNews.com/WhyIsThisHappening.

Transcript

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0:00.0	To put yourself in the head of a mother or a father or anyone who's undertaking this,
0:04.6	like to consider the scope of what one must be fleeing to do this before you show up
0:10.8	at that border.
0:11.8	Exactly.
0:12.8	And the way these women are being talked about as if they're like gun runners as opposed
0:18.6	to people, it's the most basic instinct in the world for a parent to be protecting their
0:24.7	child.
0:25.7	To run away from danger with your child to try to get them to safety.
0:28.9	Exactly.
0:29.9	Hello and welcome to Why is this happening with me?
0:35.0	Your host Chris Hayes, we've got a really special episode of the podcast today that I've been
0:40.0	looking forward to and that we've rushed to get up and out into the world because of
0:45.0	its timeliness.
0:46.0	Now, that timeliness is somewhat across purposes with the original conception of this
0:50.2	podcast, which was to take a step back from the frenetic pace, the news cycle, have conversations
0:55.7	and interviews about big, thematic arcs that are driving the news.
1:00.6	And that's true of what we're going to talk about today.
1:03.1	But it's also true that this is something that is very much in the news right now.
1:06.8	It's something we've focused on on our show.
1:08.7	It's something that policymakers have been talking about.
1:11.2	It's something that folks in social media have been talking about.
1:14.0	And that is the separation of children from their families when apprehended by immigration
	...

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