A recent discussion on CNN highlighted differing opinions over the handling of unaccompanied minors who crossed the U.S. border illegally and the Trump administration’s efforts to reunite those children with their families in their home countries.
The debate occurred during a panel on CNN’s “The Arena with Kasie Hunt,” after a federal judge blocked the transportation of 76 Guatemalan minors back to Guatemala. The ruling was issued by Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a Biden appointee, who ordered that no flights return these children until further legal proceedings are conducted.
Panelist Scott Jennings addressed what he described as inconsistent positions regarding child separation at the border. Jennings stated, “We’re for child separation now from their families now. We used to be against that — now, I guess we’re for it.”
He continued, “These children were abandoned here, somehow. They’ve been sent here for some period of time. They’re trying to reunite them with their families where they’re from, with a government that has asked for their return and wants to facilitate their return.”
Jennings added, “This all happened under the Biden administration. Now, a Biden judge is trying to keep them here and to further this policy of keeping them separated from the families that they have in Guatemala. Again, everybody is upset about this, and I don’t know why. They’re trying to reunite them with their families.”
The court order follows recent actions by immigration officials seeking to send unaccompanied minors back to their parents in Guatemala at the request of that government.
