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Trump to Stop Separating Families under Mounting Pressure


Two days ago, the United States of America (U.S.A.) raised an international storm by declaring that the country was pulling out of the controversial United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

On Tuesday, the U.S. Ambassador to UNHRC Ms. Nikki Haley announced U.S.A’s withdrawal at the Department of State in Washington, close to when it struck midnight in Geneva, Switzerland.

Haley announced that U.S. was withdrawing because it felt that UNHRC was “a hypocritical and self-serving” body that “makes a mockery of human rights”. She also said that the latter was a “cesspool of political bias”.The hegemonic power last year had declared that it felt that UNHRC is biased against Israel, is too anti the country, and was reviewing its membership. The UNHRC, formed in 2006, has often been criticized for allowing controversial countries with questionable human rights policies and records to be respectable members. However, activists have also condemned this move by U.S. and believe it will be even more difficult to monitor human rights abuse activities globally.

Simultaneously, while U.S. has been making headlines for this ill-advised move, their President Donald Trump has finally given in to the pressure by various activists groups, human rights agencies, citizens of his country, and eminent personalities worldwide.

On Wednesday, Trump declared his plans to sign an executive order that will end the inhumane process of separating immigrant children from families crossing the United States–Mexicoborder illegally. Trump has come under fire for separating almost 2,300 kids since May this year and sending them to three “under-age” shelters in Southern Texas. This was a part of his government’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration.

“We’re looking to keep families together. Very important. We’re going to be signing an executive order,” Trump told reporters at a White House meeting with officials and lawmakers.

The Justice Department under Trump’s government has worked on a draft of the order which Trump will sign before leaving for a political rally in Minnesota State. The U.S. President had so far supported the “zero tolerance” policy with the view that, the “country must maintain toughness or they will be overrun by crime, by people, by all of the things that we don’t stand for and that we don’t want.”

He has now been forced to sign a draft cancelling this policy because of mounting pressure including from places like the Microsoft Staff, Natalie Portman, John Legend, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and business lobby groups and roundtables like the one consisting of CEOs of Walmart, JPMorgan Chase, and MasterCard.

Even his Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Neilsen has come under fire for this separation policy. On Tuesday, about a dozen protestors heckled her as she ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Washington.