There are a lot of people writing about how separating children from parents is “not the law.” In fact, what’s happening is unconstitutional under two leading Supreme Court cases. Here you go everyone: Twitter Law 101
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that parents have a Constitutional right to the care and custody of their children under the Fourteenth Amendment and the right to due process if children are removed from their care. Fourteenth Amendment protections also apply to non-citizens.
What this means is that before children can removed from their parents, the government has to prove the parents were abusing or neglecting their children. Temporary removals (detentions) are permitted while social workers investigate.
One of the leading Supreme Court cases is Stanley v. Illinois (1971) 405 U.S. 645, a child custody case in which a man’s children were permanently removed from him because he was an unwed father, so the custody court didn’t think he was “fit” to be a parent.
He appealed. The Supreme Court held that his Fourteenth Amendment right to Due Process was violated when he was stripped of his rights as a parent without a hearing (and of, course, evidence that he was negligent, abusive, or unfit.) Here’s a summary: https://www.oyez.org/cases/1971/70-5014 …
