时代周刊:近1500名移民儿童下落不明

Did the Trump¹ Administration lose immigrant children?

特朗普政府是否弄丢了移民子女？

THE OUTRAGE² OVER THE DUAL³ NEWS STORIES was unsurprising.

最近的两则新闻报道会引起愤怒并不令人意外。

Reports spread that migrant children were being separated from their families at the U.S. border

这些报道称，移民子女在美国边境被迫与家人骨肉分离，

and that Donald Trump’s Administration had lost track of nearly 1,500 kids.

而且，特朗普政府已经失去了近1500名儿童的音讯。

That led many on social media to use hashtags like #WhereAreTheChildren and #MissingChildren to demand action.

报道一出，民众纷纷前往各大媒体平台，加入#那些孩子去哪儿了和#丢失的孩子等话题讨论，要求政府有所作为。

But amid the viral news, confusion also spread and led many to conflate the stories.

然而，两条新闻像病毒一样传播时，困惑也随之蔓延开来，以致于许多人将不同的问题混为一谈。

Recent attention to the issue began at a Senate subcommittee hearing in April,

民众最近对这一问题的关注源于4月份参议院小组委员会的一次听证会，

when Steven Wagner, an official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS),

会上，卫生与公众服务部官员史蒂文·瓦格纳证言，

testified that his agency had checked up on 7,635 migrant children who crossed the U.S.- Mexico border on their own

他所在的委员会核对了7635名孩子的情况，这些孩子都是独自穿越美墨边境，

and were then placed with adult sponsors in the U.S.

后被安置在了美国的成人资助者家中的移民儿童。

The agency found that 6,075 children were still living with their sponsor,

该机构发现，有6075名儿童仍与他们的资助者生活在一起，

28 had run away, five had been deported⁴ and 52 were living with someone else.

还有28人逃跑，5人被驱逐出境，52人与其他人生活在一起。

The rest—the 1,475 lost children—were unaccounted for.

其余人——共计1475人——却已经下落不明。

The children in that tally⁵ arrived in the U.S. without their parents,

上述这些儿童抵达美国时均没有父母陪同，

so they were not separated from their families by federal officials.

被联邦官员拆散这一说法也就不成立。

That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns about their safety; abusive homes and human traffickers are just two of the worries.

但这并不代表这些孩子就没有切实的安全问题；家庭暴力和人贩子就是两例。

It’s also possible that sponsors may choose not to answer calls from federal officials to avoid deportation—for the children or themselves.

此外，资助者也有可能选择不听从联邦官员号召，避免被驱逐出境——无论是孩子还是他们自己。

Either way, HHS has argued it is not legally responsible for what happens to the children after they leave its custody⁶.

不管是两种情况中的哪一种情况，美国卫生与公众服务部辩称，只要孩子离开了监护人，他们便不再对其负有法律责任。

But Senators from both parties have called on the agency to improve its monitoring.

但两党参议员都呼吁该委员会提升其追踪水平。

“These kids, regardless of their immigration status, deserve to be treated properly, not abused or trafficked,”

“这些孩子，无论其移民方式是否合法，都应该得到妥善的对待，而不是被虐待或是被贩卖，”

Republican Senator Rob Portman told the subcommittee in April.

共和党参议员罗布·波特曼今年4月对该小组委员会说道。

The issue of children being taken from their parents as they cross the border into the U.S. is also real, but separate.

孩子们在穿越边境进入美国时被从父母身边带走的问题确实存在，但因另当别论。

Attorney General Jef Sessions announced a new “zero tolerance” policy on May 7

5月7日，司法部长杰夫·塞申斯宣布了一项新的“零容忍”政策，

that includes attempting to prosecute⁷ every single person who enters the country illegally.

其中就有起诉每一位非法入境者。

This means children who cross the border with their parents are separated from their families as the adults are charged with a crime.

这就意味着，儿童随同父母越境，成年的父母被控犯罪，他们就要被迫与其分离。

“If you don’t want your child to be separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally,” Sessions said when announcing the policy.

“如果你不想你和孩子被分开，那就不要带他们非法越境，”塞申斯在宣布这项政策时说道。

This is likely where some of the confusion originated, as hundreds of children have been separated from their parents at the border.

或许，这就是数百名儿童在边境被迫与父母分离一事引起民众困惑的起源。

President Trump made things more heated when he tweeted May 26

火上浇油的是，5月26日，特朗普总统在推特上要求他的支持者向民主党人施压，

asking supporters to pressure Democrats⁸ to “end the horrible law that separates children from there parents once they cross the Border into the U.S.”

试图让民主党“这项结束在非法移民家庭跨越边境进入美国时拆散他们的糟糕透顶的法律。”

There is no law requiring separation, and the zero-tolerance policy came from his own Administration.

没有法律要求拆散非法移民家庭，而且，零容忍政策也是他自己的政府推出的。

But if HHS can’t keep track of children it was already responsible for, some fear the new policy will make things worse.

问题是，一些人担心，如果卫生和公众服务部失去了其负责的儿童的下落，新政策出台后，问题势必变得更加严重。

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

3 dual   

adj.双的；二重的，二元的

参考例句：

• The people's Republic of China does not recognize dual nationality for any Chinese national.中华人民共和国不承认中国公民具有双重国籍。
• He has dual role as composer and conductor.他兼作曲家及指挥的双重身分。

4 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 tally   

n.计数器，记分，一致，测量；vt.计算，记录，使一致；vi.计算，记分，一致

参考例句：

• Don't forget to keep a careful tally of what you spend.别忘了仔细记下你的开支账目。
• The facts mentioned in the report tally to every detail.报告中所提到的事实都丝毫不差。

6 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

7 prosecute   

vt.告发；进行；vi.告发，起诉，作检察官

参考例句：

• I am trying my best to prosecute my duties.我正在尽力履行我的职责。
• Is there enough evidence to prosecute?有没有起诉的足够证据？

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》