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Photo by Gage Slidmore
Kellyanne Conway justifies the Muslim ban in much the
same way many on the Left justify child welfare's infrigements on civil liberties. |
Child welfare systems have vast power and little accountability.
Caseworkers usually can take away children entirely on their
own authority; parents often have to go to court after-the-fact to try to get
them back. The poor often are not guaranteed a lawyer, and rarely get a good
one. The standard of proof is far lower than in a criminal case, and in most
states the hearings are secret. NCCPR documents those abuses, and more, in our Due Process Agenda.
Though the system was largely created and is now largely
justified by people who consider themselves liberals, when they seek to justify
running roughshod over due process they sound remarkably like Donald Trump and
his top aides.
Not that many are detained
Liberals justifying a take-the-child-and-run approach to child
welfare often will say something like: “Only a small portion of the children
investigated as possible victims of child abuse actually are removed from their
homes.”
Here’s what Kellyanne Conway said about the Muslim ban – and
make no mistake, that’s
what it is – on
Fox News Sunday today:
And so, you’re talking about 325,000 people from overseas came into this country just yesterday through our airports. So, 325,000, you’re talking about 300 and some who have been detained or are prevented from gaining access to an aircraft in their home country. They must stay for now. That's 1 percent.
And I think in terms of the upside being greater protection of our borders, of our people, it's a small price to pay.
In fact, of course, the consequences often were far more serious. I’m sure that's one reason my fellow liberals found her comments as infuriating as I
did. But consider what happens in child abuse investigations:
The definitions of neglect are so broad that neglect often
is confused with poverty.
And all it takes to “substantiate” an allegation is a caseworker checking a box
on a form stating it is slightly more likely than not that the abuse or neglect
occurred. And yet the percentage of children in “substantiated” cases who are “detained”
in foster care is more like 35 percent. And the detention can last months,
years, or an entire childhood.
It’s only temporary
Many times I’ve heard my fellow liberals in child welfare
say “Foster care is only temporary. If we make a mistake, we can always give
the child back.” They say they’re just erring on the side of safety.
They argue that the harm of foster care is a small price to
pay for making sure children don’t die of child abuse. They argue that if they
are not allowed to run child welfare exactly as they see fit – civil liberties
be damned – children will die.
Or, as Kellyanne Conway put it:
…this is what we do to keep a nation safe. I mean, there are – [the] whole idea that they’re being separated and ripped from their families, it’s temporary … as opposed to the over 3,000 children who will be forevermore separated from the parents who perished on 9/11.
We know stuff that you don't
Over and over, when people in child welfare agencies are confronted with a case of wrongful removal they say "Oh, there's so much more to it, but we can't tell you - it's confidential." And their liberal supporters say: Trust them, they know more than we do and they are just acting in the best interests of the children.
Or, as Kellyanne Conway said:
[Tump] is privy to information that the rest of us aren’t, particularly the media. The political media aren't national security and intelligence experts receiving briefings every single day like our president is.
The Muslim ban and the take-the-child-and-run approach to child welfare have something else in common: They backfire. In the case of child welfare, the infringements on civil liberties overload child welfare systems so they have less time to find children in real danger – and more children die.
I’ve written before about just how much people on the Left
start to sound like Donald Trump when
the topic is child abuse. And, as
noted above, NCCPR has documented
in detail the lack of due process.
So while we on the Left are fighting the horrors the Trump
administration is inflicting on men, women - and children - abroad by denying
them entry into the United States, let’s also take a moment to do something for
children here at home: Stop casting aside everything we claim to believe about
civil liberties as soon as someone whispers the words “child abuse” in our
ears.
