The husband of a fallen U.S. soldier was deported last week — leaving his 12-year-old daughter with her grandparents — and then quickly readmitted to the country on Monday without explanation.
To take a migrant child from her parents at a U.S. point of entry, place her in a just-erected government tent city, and keep her separated from family costs the federal government a whopping $775 per child per night, according to the Department of Health and Human Services — more than twice what it would cost to house the children in detention with their families, and nearly six times more than a brigadier general's or rear admiral's housing allowance for New York City.
Editor's note: Before publication, Task & Purpose reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection for a comment on the experiences Dennis White recounts below. A representative of the agency responded that White and his wife were "detected illegally crossing the border," but declined to comment further on their temporary detention. CBP's full statement to T&P; is reprinted below, following this essay.
David is sore most days. It’s his back and his hands, mostly, but to be honest, it’s all the joints. He’s deaf in one ear, blind in one eye, and walks with a cane. He’s 64 and has arthritis most everywhere you can have it. But there’s some pain that age doesn’t inflict. Terrible thoughts, the stuff of bad dreams. For him they’re memories, and all too real.
