The Last New Leftist’s Substack
Howie’s Substack Podcast
Separating Families
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Separating Families

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Separating Families

Trump and his acolytes are the dictionary definition of evil. The mother and father of Maikelys Antonella Espinoza Bernal were deported. Antonella is a two-year-old toddler who is in foster care in the US according to the Department of Homeland Security as reported in the New York Times article “A Mother and Father Were Deported. What Happened to Their Toddler” (April 29, 2025). The toddler’s father “was sent to a prison in El Salvador in March.” Last Friday, “U.S. authorities deported the mother to Venezuela.” The child “was removed… from her parents and from the manifest of her mother’s deportation plane for her own “safety and welfare.” The child has lived in four foster homes since her parents were deported.

The Trump administration, without evidence, has stated that the couple is part of a Venezuelan gang. Readers can see the extreme bullshit circulating as truth here, where an innocent toddler is taken from her family and thrown into foster care. Try to picture this happening to someone you know or love, and the feeling of exponential sickening is immediate!

Antonella, “is one of several children who have been swept up in President Trump’s immigration crackdown in recent days” (New York Times). “Authorities,” according to relatives of this family, told the couple “their tattoos looked suspicious.” By that standard, the hair stylist I go to could be taken into custody along with millions of other people.

Antonella has been separated from her family for a year. These actions on the part of the Trump administration are neither part of the far right’s purported dedication to family values nor part of the Judeo-Christian ethic.

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