評論
打印
Did the Trump Administration lose immigrant children?
特朗普政府是否弄丟了移民子女？
THE OUTRAGE OVER THE DUAL NEWS STORIES was unsurprising.
最近的兩則新聞報道會引起憤怒并不令人意外。
Reports spread that migrant children were being separated from their families at the U.S. border
這些報道稱，移民子女在美國邊境被迫與家人骨肉分離，
and that Donald Trump’s Administration had lost track of nearly 1,500 kids.
而且，特朗普政府已經失去了近1500名兒童的音訊。
That led many on social media to use hashtags like #WhereAreTheChildren and #MissingChildren to demand action.
報道一出，民眾紛紛前往各大媒體平臺，加入#那些孩子去哪兒了和#丟失的孩子等話題討論，要求政府有所作為。
But amid the viral news, confusion also spread and led many to conflate the stories.
然而，兩條新聞像病毒一樣傳播時，困惑也隨之蔓延開來，以致于許多人將不同的問題混為一談。
Recent attention to the issue began at a Senate subcommittee hearing in April,
民眾最近對這一問題的關注源于4月份參議院小組委員會的一次聽證會，
when Steven Wagner, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),
會上，衛生與公眾服務部官員史蒂文·瓦格納證言，
testified that his agency had checked up on 7,635 migrant children who crossed the U.S.- Mexico border on their own
他所在的委員會核對了7635名孩子的情況，這些孩子都是獨自穿越美墨邊境，
and were then placed with adult sponsors in the U.S.
后被安置在了美國的成人資助者家中的移民兒童。
The agency found that 6,075 children were still living with their sponsor,
該機構發現，有6075名兒童仍與他們的資助者生活在一起，
28 had run away, five had been deported and 52 were living with someone else.
還有28人逃跑，5人被驅逐出境，52人與其他人生活在一起。
The rest—the 1,475 lost children—were unaccounted for.
其余人——共計1475人——卻已經下落不明。
The children in that tally arrived in the U.S. without their parents,
上述這些兒童抵達美國時均沒有父母陪同，
so they were not separated from their families by federal officials.
被聯邦官員拆散這一說法也就不成立。
That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns about their safety; abusive homes and human traffickers are just two of the worries.
但這并不代表這些孩子就沒有切實的安全問題；家庭暴力和人販子就是兩例。
It’s also possible that sponsors may choose not to answer calls from federal officials to avoid deportation—for the children or themselves.
此外，資助者也有可能選擇不聽從聯邦官員號召，避免被驅逐出境——無論是孩子還是他們自己。
Either way, HHS has argued it is not legally responsible for what happens to the children after they leave its custody.
不管是兩種情況中的哪一種情況，美國衛生與公眾服務部辯稱，只要孩子離開了監護人，他們便不再對其負有法律責任。
But Senators from both parties have called on the agency to improve its monitoring.
但兩黨參議員都呼吁該委員會提升其追蹤水平。
“These kids, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be treated properly, not abused or trafficked,”
“這些孩子，無論其移民方式是否合法，都應該得到妥善的對待，而不是被虐待或是被販賣，”
Republican Senator Rob Portman told the subcommittee in April.
共和黨參議員羅布·波特曼今年4月對該小組委員會說道。
The issue of children being taken from their parents as they cross the border into the U.S. is also real, but separate.
孩子們在穿越邊境進入美國時被從父母身邊帶走的問題確實存在，但因另當別論。
Attorney General Jef Sessions announced a new “zero tolerance” policy on May 7
5月7日，司法部長杰夫·塞申斯宣布了一項新的“零容忍”政策，
that includes attempting to prosecute every single person who enters the country illegally.
其中就有起訴每一位非法入境者。
This means children who cross the border with their parents are separated from their families as the adults are charged with a crime.
這就意味著，兒童隨同父母越境，成年的父母被控犯罪，他們就要被迫與其分離。
“If you don’t want your child to be separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally,” Sessions said when announcing the policy.
“如果你不想你和孩子被分開，那就不要帶他們非法越境，”塞申斯在宣布這項政策時說道。
This is likely where some of the confusion originated, as hundreds of children have been separated from their parents at the border.
或許，這就是數百名兒童在邊境被迫與父母分離一事引起民眾困惑的起源。
President Trump made things more heated when he tweeted May 26
火上澆油的是，5月26日，特朗普總統在推特上要求他的支持者向民主黨人施壓，
asking supporters to pressure Democrats to “end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.”
試圖讓民主黨“這項結束在非法移民家庭跨越邊境進入美國時拆散他們的糟糕透頂的法律。”
There is no law requiring separation, and the zero-tolerance policy came from his own Administration.
沒有法律要求拆散非法移民家庭，而且，零容忍政策也是他自己的政府推出的。
But if HHS can’t keep track of children it was already responsible for, some fear the new policy will make things worse.
問題是，一些人擔心，如果衛生和公眾服務部失去了其負責的兒童的下落，新政策出臺后，問題勢必變得更加嚴重。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
