So in your opinions, a pregnant 13, 14 whatever teen is sufficient justification for a search and seizure of all children within sight? If my neighbor’s 14 year old daughter looks like she has a bun in the oven, the police can kick down the doors in the middle of the night, roust everyone out and take all 4 kids into foster care?
Or is this just another, “It OK because they are Christian Fundies, It’s for the Chiiiiiildren” deal like Waco?
First, I believe it is standard practice to put all the children in a family into foster care or into the custody of an appointed guardian if one child in the family is suspected of being abused. I've read cases like this near me, but it is state law, so I don't know what they do in Texas.
In this case, since people were unwilling and/or unable to tell who belonged to which person and which family (see the
affidavit about the arrest, determining which families were okay and which were not was almost impossible. However, that's not the reason the kids were taken in this case, though it isn't surprising. (see point 3)
Second, the moment an officer observed, and I quote from the affidavit, "a number of young teenaged girls who appeared to be minors and appeared to be pregnant", there was evidence of a crime under Texas law. You don't like it? Take it up with Texas. This is akin to going over to someone's house for a domestic violence call and seeing 10 crack pipes on the floor. Oh look, evidence of a crime. Time to call in CPS or DPS or w/e you call it.
Third, another justification used for taking all the children was the, and again I quote, "that an immediate danger exists to the physical health or safety of the children who are residents of the YFZ Ranch and/or that the children who are residents of the YFZ Ranch are the victims of neglect and/or sexual abuse and that continuing to reside on the YFZ Ranch would be contrary to the children's welfare." In other words, it was determined that since a number of young women bore evidence of sexual abuse (in the form of their own pregnancies and babies), there was reason to fear that others were being abused.
If you are in a crack house and the cops come in, you're probably going to be arrested as well. The cops will sort out the innocent from the guilty afterwards. They won't just leave the innocent-looking guy there and take the nasty ones. Everyone goes. Same deal here.