时代周刊:美国边境的噩梦(1)（在线收听）

A parent’s nightmare at the U.S. border

父母在美国边境的噩梦

By Haley Sweetland Edwards

文/哈利·斯威特兰德·爱德华兹

EARLIER THIS YEAR, A YOUNG HONDURAN woman named Mirian gathered her 18-monthold son into her arms

今年早些时候，来自洪都拉斯的一位名叫米瑞恩的年轻女子怀抱着她18个月大的儿子

and walked across the bridge between Matamoros, Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, where she presented herself to U.S. border agents to ask for asylum.

走过墨西哥马塔莫罗斯和德克萨斯州布朗斯维尔之间的桥，向当地的美国边境官员提出了避难申请。

Mirian and her son spent the night in a detention facility.

当夜米瑞恩和儿子是在拘留中心度过的。

The next day, officials told her to put her son into a car seat in the back of a government vehicle.

次日，官员让她把儿子放在一辆政府用车的后座上。

Her hands shook as she buckled him in.

她颤抖着双手将儿子安顿在了后座上。

The officials wouldn’t tell her where they were taking him,

官员们不肯告诉她他们要将她的儿子带往何处，

she wrote in a personal statement later published by CNN.com—only that she would not be allowed to go with him.

她在随后由CNN.com发布的一份个人声明中写道，只说不允许她随行。

As the car pulled away, she could see her baby looking back at her through the window, screaming.

车开走的时候，她看到她的孩子在从窗户里一边回望一边尖叫。

For the next 2 months, Mirian was detained at an immigration center, unable to speak with or visit her son, according to her lawyer Elissa Steglich.

接下来的两个月，米瑞恩被拘留在了一个移民中心，无法与儿子通话，也无法前往探望，据她的律师艾丽莎·斯德格里希透露。

Mirian wondered if her son would forget the sound of her voice.

米瑞恩不知自己的儿子是否已经忘记她的声音。

“The separation is very harsh,” says Denise Gilman, who heads the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, and who met with Mirian.

“这种分离非常残酷，”德克萨斯大学法学院移民诊所的负责人丹尼斯·吉尔曼评论道。

“It often means not knowing where the other is.”

“因为通常意味着失去对方的下落。”

Mirian and her son were eventually reunited, but a version of her parental nightmare has now become U.S. policy.

最终，米瑞恩和儿子两人得以母子团聚，但她所经历的骨肉分离的噩梦如今已经被写入了美国的政策。

On May 7, the Trump Administration announced a “zero tolerance” agenda on the U.S. border.

5月7日，特朗普政府宣布在美国边境实行“零容忍”政策。

The policy seems simple: anyone who crosses the border without authorization is now subject to prosecution for a federal misdemeanor,

政策内容似乎很简单：从现在起，未经授权跨越边境之人都将受到联邦的轻罪起诉，

which can result in a sentence of 180 days for a first offense.

初犯可能被判180天的监禁。

Because children can’t be jailed alongside adults,

由于儿童不能与成年人一起被监禁，

minors must be separated and kept in juvenile facilities while their moms or dads are incarcerated.

因此，其父母被监禁期间，这些未成年人将被隔离起来，关押入青少年拘禁系统。

The crackdown on prosecutions has triggered an explosion of family separations.

对起诉的打击引发了骨肉分离问题的激增。

While ICE has not released official numbers, Reuters reports that as many as 1,800 families have been separated since late 2016.

尽管ICE尚未公布官方数据，但据路透社报道，自2016年底以来，已被拆散家庭足有1800个。

Regional public defenders report that some 400 children were separated from their families during a two-week stretch in May and June in McAllen, Texas, alone.

地区公设辩护律师报告说，仅今年5月到6月的两周时间里，就有大约400名儿童在德克萨斯州麦卡伦市与家人分离。

“This is definitely new,” says Diane Eikenberry, an associate director at the National Immigrant Justice Center. “It’s something we haven’t seen.”

“这种情况完全是新情况，”美国国家移民司法中心副主任黛安·艾肯伯里评论道。“我们还从未遇到过。”